William STANLEY

(6th E. Derby)

Children:

1. James STANLEY (7° E. Derby)

2. Elizabeth STANLEY (d. young)

3. Robert STANLEY

4. Anne STANLEY

5. Elizabeth STANLEY (d. young)

Second surviving of four sons, to Sir Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby, and Lady Margaret Clifford, the Countess of Derby. Born ABT 1561, this Earl married the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to Edward, Earl of Oxford, by whom he had two sons, James and Robert; and three daughters: first, Elizabeth, who died young; second, Anne, who married Sir Henry Portman of Orchard in the county of Somerset, and after his death Sir Robert Carr, Knight and Earl of Ancram, in Scotland ; the third daughter, another Elizabeth, who died young. Robert, his second son, married a daughter of Lord Witherington, by whom he had issue, which are all long since extinct; as hereafter appears.

On the death of his brother, Ferdinando, fifth Earl of Derby, a serious difficulty arose in reference to the succession, in consequence of a default of male issue, and the absence of his brother William, who had not been heard of for years. During the lifetime of his father, William displayed an ungovernable love for travel, and the Earl consented to his going abroad.

He remained three years in France, where he took laurels in many of the chief tournaments, and subsequently proceeded to Spain, where he was challenged by a Spanish nobleman to single combat. In the first encounter the Spaniard succeeded in wounding Sir William on his right arm, and causing him to fall to the ground, but he was soon upon his feet again. In the second round the Spaniard aimed three deadly blows at the wounded Englishman, but they were all skillfully averted, and Sir William gave his adversary a thrust on the right breast, inflicting a severe wound, and causing him to reel to the ground. Blood flowed freely, and the friends of the Spanish nobleman counselled his withdrawal from the contest, but he was too enraged to heed their advice, and in the third encounter rushed at Sir William with the force of desperation, but the blows were successfully parried, and the representative of the house of Stanley once more secured the crown of victory by inflicting a second wound on the breast of the Spaniard, and thus effectually disabling him.

Sir William next visited Italy, where he assumed the garb of a mendicant friar for the purpose of gaining information and the more readily getting through the country. Afterwards he proceeded to Egypt, and with the assistance of a native guide, went to reconnoitre the River Nile. Whilst on their journey, a large male tiger suddenly appeared from behind a thicket, and with a hideous howl came rushing towards them. Sir William had two pistols, and discharged one as the tiger was making a spring at them. Unfortunately he missed his aim, and it was only by dexterously stepping aside that he eluded the grasp of the ferocious brute. BEF the animal had time to take another spring, Sir William drew a second pistol, discharged the contents into the tiger's breast, and as it reeled drew his sword and killed it. After paying a visit to Palestine, he journeyed to Turkey, and had a narrow escape of becoming a victim to the bigotry of the followers of Mahommed. In a discussion with one of the Paschas he defended Christianity and the Bible, and denounced the religion propounded in the Koran as false and deceptive. He was arrested for "blasphemy against the religion of Mahommed", and after being kept a long time in a filthy and dismal prison, a date was fixed for his execution, but a lady interceded on his behalf, and three days before the appointed time he was liberated. Having remained some time at Constantinople, he visited Russia, and it is said that whilst at Moscow he was informed by an English physician of the death of his father and brother, and that he thereupon returned to his native land with all speed.

On Sir William reaching England, he found that all the estates of the earldom had been settled upon his brother's daughters, under the guardianship of four bishops and four temporal lords, who possessed every branch of it to their ward's uses, and refused to admit his right to any share of it. Having few friends and less money, and having powerful adversaries to contend against, his case was somewhat distressing; but some of the old tenants in and about Latham, Dalton, Newburgh, etc., who knew him from a child to be their natural and rightful lord, supplied him with money to recover his title and so much of the estates as properly belonged to him. A law suit, therefore followed, in reference to all the late Earl's estates in England and also in the Isle of Man. During the dispute the real title of the Stanley family to the Isle of Man was called in question, on the ground that when Henry IV granted it for life to Sir John Stanley, the Earl of Northumberland (the former possessor) had not been attainted by Parliament nor his possessions adjudged to be confiscated, and that the subsequent gift of it to Sir John, being founded upon the grant for life, was invalidated. Ultimately it was decided by the law lords that the right to the Isle of Man belonged solely to Queen Elizabeth; but Her Majesty, in consideration of the "many eminent services performed to herself and to her royal predecessors by the honourable and noble House of Stanley", withdrew her right and referred the contending claimants to the decision of the courts. The law proceedings were continued with vigour on both sides for six or seven years, and would have extended over a still longer period, but the Queen proposed a reference, and this being accepted, the whole matter was considered by Lord Burghley, Lord Buckhurst, the Earl of Cumberland, Lord Hunsdon, and Robert Cecil, who appointed and yielded to the Right Honourable William, Earl of Derby, the ancient seats of Lathom and Knowsley, with all the houses, lands, castles, and appurtenances in Lancashire, Cumberland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and many in Wales ; also the manor of Meriden, in the County of Warwick, with the old seat in Cannon Row, Westminster (afterwards called Derby Court), and also the advowson of the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity, in the city of Chester. To the daughters of Ferdinando, the arbitrators granted the Baronies of Strange of Knokyn, Mohun, Barnwell, Basset and Lacy; with all the houses, castles, manors, and lands thereto belonging, with several other manors and large estates lying in most counties of England, and many in Wales. With regard to the Isle of Man, Ferdinando's daughters claimed possession of it as heirs general to their father, and the judges in the law courts decided in their favour; whereupon Earl William agreed to purchase their several shares and interests, and afterwards got a new grant of the island from James 1st.

The Stanley house is a very beautiful specimen of English City Architecture, and was the Town residence of the Stanley family, at one time. There are, both in Shrewsbury and Chester, a number of family residences that seem strangely at variance with what the present requirements of their descendants might be ; but the journey from Chester to London, in those times, would occupy some days, and be accompanied with more inconvenience, and probably greater danger, than a voyage at present is to New York.

Stanley House

Near this old residence were the Town houses of the Warburtons of Arley, the Brookes of Norton, the Booths, the Mainwarings, and many others. Chester had its seasons of gaiety and its county assemblies, more exclusive than anything in our day in London; and the honour of the Mayoralty of the city seems to have been sought by the representatives of such families as the Grosvenors, the Stanleys, the Alderseys, the Winnes, the Breretons, and many others. It is difficult to reproduce even in fancy an approximate picture of Chester as it actually was a couple of centuries ago. On the south side of Watergate street, between the "God’s Providence house" and the Stanley mansion are the remains of five residences of consideration: and yet this distance is not more than about two hundred yards.

The tastes and requirements of those days were much more simple than our own, and indeed the representatives of many county families were butts for the jests of metropolitan wit on the score of their rusticity, whenever they ventured to the metropolis.

Stanley house, though its details may have an Italian character, is in all respects English in its composition; and no city more forcibly than Chester shews us what our own architecture at its best has been. The cruel exigencies of Pseudo-Italian art that required all apartments to fit themselves to a formal row of windows was not felt, and no one with the slightest knowledge of English architecture can contemplate Hollar’s old map of Chester, of 1653, without being struck by the former picturesqueness of the city.

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