Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley

Arms of Sir Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley, KG

Sir Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley, titular King of Mann, KG (c. 1405 – 11 or 20 February 1459), of Lathom and Knowsley, Lancashire, was a Privy Councillor, Comptroller of the Royal Household, Lieutenant-Governor of Ireland (1431–36), Chief Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, Knight of the Shire for Lancashire, Constable & Justice of Chester, Chamberlain of North Wales, Lord Chamberlain (1455), and from 15 January 1456 was summoned by Writ to Parliament as Lord Stanley.^[1]

Life

Stanley was the son of Sir John Stanley and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Harington of Farleton, Lancashire, and Isabel English.^[2] He represented Lancashire in the House of Commons between 1447 and 1451 and 1453 and 1454.

In 1424 he was attacked in his father's tower at Liverpool by Sir Richard Molyneaux, who was arrested. His family had long associations with the governance of Ireland, his grandfather Sir John Stanley, K.G., having been both Justiciar and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (and who died there), and in 1429 he was sent to Ireland and called a Parliament in that Kingdom in 1432. During the Parliament at Westminster in 1450-1 the House of Commons demanded his removal from the Royal presence with others of the Duke of Suffolk's party.^[3]

Marriage and issue

Stanley married Joan, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert Goushill, Knt., of Hoveringham, Nottinghamshire, by Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel. She was born in 1401. They had six children, three sons, Thomas, William, and John and three daughters. He died on 11 February 1459 and his wife shortly before 27 April 1466. Both were interred in Burscough Priory.^[3] He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who was created Earl of Derby in 1485; his senior line died out in 1736. His second son William Stanley was executed for treason by King Henry VII in 1495.

The children were:

• Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, who married (1) Eleanor de Neville, (2)Margaret Beaufort.
• Sir William Stanley, invested as Knight of the Garter in 1487. He was beheaded for his alleged part in the Perkin Warbeck conspiracy in 1495.
• Sir John Stanley, ancestor of the Barons Stanley of Alderley
• Elizabeth Stanley, who married Thomas le Stange, and Sir Richard Molyneux.
• Margaret Stanley, who married (1) Sir William Troutbeck, who was killed in the Battle of Blore Heath on 23 September 1459; (2) John le Boteler (Butler), and (3) Henry Grey, 4th (7th) Baron Grey of Codnor.
• Katherine Stanley married Sir John Savage, K.B., of Clifton, Cheshire. Of their many sons, the eldest, also named Sir John Savage, KG was the commander of the left wing of Henry Tudor's army at Bosworth; another, Sir Christopher Savage of Aston-sub-Edge, Glos., fell at the Battle of Flodden, and another, Thomas, was Archbishop of York.

References

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.