Stanley

My Stanley ancestors

The following Stanley line is from the books "Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith" 
and "Medieval English Ancestors of Robert Abell"

The House Of Stanley - In the County of Stafford, in the heart of England, there was in very ancient times an old Saxon Manor called Stoneley or Stonleigh, a name compounded of Stone and Leigh or Ley or later Lea, meaning a stony meadow or field. There is still in that county a considerable town named Stone, which, like the former, may bear a remembrance of the rugged surface of what is now one of the chief mining districts of the island. At the time of the Conquest, 1066, this estate belonged to Saxon Sir Henry Stanleigh, the place of his residence in that day supplying the surname of the owner.

01. Adam de Auditheley came to England with Duke William, had large possessions from the conquered lands as his reward for his services.  Among the Norman knights who accompanied William the "Conqueror" into England in 1066, were Adam de Alditheley and his two sons, Lydulph and Adam. These received, as did others of William's associates, large possessions from the conquered lands as a result for their services.  Lydulph, the elder son, had a son Adam, and Adam, the younger, had a son William. These two young Normans, Adam and William both married wives of the Saxon family de Stoneley.  Adam de Alditheley married Mabella de Stoneley, daughter of Sir Henry de Stoneley, and received with her as her marriage portion the two adjacent estates of Stoneley and Balterley. They were ancestors of the noble family of Audley, so called by a shortening of their name from Alditheley to Aldethley and Audley.

02. Adam de Auditheley, son of Adam and Mabella who with his father received lands from William I.

03. William de Auditheley, son of Adam was born abt. 1124 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.  He married Joan de Stoneley, daughter and sole heir of Thomas de Stonleigh or Stoneley, a kinsman of Sir Henry de Stonley, whose daughter married William's cousin Adam. As her dowry she received the Manor of Thalck, better known as Talk or Talk-of-the-Hill, in the same county. This William seems to have conceived a liking for Stonleigh, before referred to, for he gave his Manor of Talk to his cousin Adam for Stoneley and half of Balterly and made Stoneley his family residence and seat, and as the old chroniclers tell us, in honor of his wife and the great antiquity of her family--of noble Saxon descent who flourished many years before the Conquest--he assumed the surname of Stoneley or Stanley. He became the immediate founder of the Stanleys, a race associated with the most stirring events in English history and which at the present day comprehends, in addition to the baronetcy enjoyed by the elder line of Stanley, many offshoots.

04. Sir William Stanley, son of William was born abt. 1166 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.

05. Sir Adam Stanley, son of William was born abt. 1208 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.  

06. Sir William Stanley, son of Adam was born in 1250 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.  He gave an impetus to the family fortunes by one of those matrimonial alliances to which the House of Stanley owes much of its prosperity. He took unto himself a wife in the person of Joan Bamville, the youthful daughter and co-heir of Sir Philip Bamville and his wife Agnes, daughter and co-heiress of Alexander Sylvester, Lord of Stourton in Cheshire. And thereby hangs a romance, for associated with this match is a love story that, in its romantic incidents, is scarcely less interesting than the one related of the fair heiress of Haddon Hall, Dorothy Vernon. The daughter of the House of Stourton had given her heart to young William Stanley, and to escape the forced marriage with her stepmother's son, she determined to elope. While a banquet was being given by her father, she stole away unobserved and, being joined by William Stanley, rode swiftly across the country to Astbury, where, in the presence of Adam Hooton and Daues Coupland, the anxious lovers plighted their troth, Sept. 27, 1282. This story is no mere legend, for the facts are to be found in the musty and unromantic records--the Cheshire inquisitions which have been unearthed and their contents made accessible to the world by the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records. By this marriage William Stanley became owner of one-third of the Manor of Stourton (the remaining two-thirds he subsequently acquired) and also the hereditary Bailiwick or Chief Rangership of the Forest of Wirral, which overspread the peninsula lying between the estuaries of the Mersey and the Dee.  After this marriage the Stanleys migrated from the Stonylea in Staffordshire to their newly acquired home in Cheshire, and at the same time Sir William Stanley, in allusion to his office of heriditary Forester of Wirral, assumed the arms that have ever since been borne by his descendants in the first quarter of their shield as the paternal coat of Stanley, instead of those used by his ancestors, viz.: Argent on a bend azure, three bucks' heads caboshed or; in other words, over a shield of silver a belt of blue crossed diagonally, with three bucks' heads displayed thereon with a stag's head and neck for a crest.  William died in August of 1311.

07. John Stanley Esquire, son of William and Joan was born abt. 1292 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.  He married Mabella Hausket, daughter of Sir James Hausket of Stourton Parva.

08. Sir William Stanley son of John and Mabella, Lord of Stanley and Stourton was born abt. 1319 in Storeton, Cheshire, England.  He married Alice Massey, daughter of Hugh Massey of Timperley in Cheshire, and his wife Agnes, daughter of John Leigh of Bouthes.  William died in 1398.  I descend from 2 of their children:  Sir John Stanley and Sir William Stanley.

09. Sir John Stanley, son of William and Alice, Knight of the Garter was born in 1350 in Wirrel, Forest, Stafford, England. He married Isabella Lathom, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Lathom, Knight, of Lathom and Knowsley in County Lancaster, descended from Robert FitzHenry, whose son Robert took the name of Lathom from his place of residence.  This brave and valiant gentleman was one of the Captains under the command of his Relation James, Lord Audley, at the famous Battle of Poicters in France, which was fought on Sept. 19, 1357, by Edward, the Black Prince, son of Edward Third, wherein King John of France was taken prisoner and brought captive to England. Soon after this memorable victory a Truce was agreed on for two years, during which interval of publick act on Mr. Stanley being a Martial Genius, and intent on improving himself in the Art of War, visited most of the courts of Europe, even as far as Constantinople; wherein he made such advances in the School of Mars that his superior Skill in Armes was generally applauded in every country he passed through; insomuch that the fame thereof gave him the Character of the most noted Champion in single Combat at that age; so that on his return back through France the reputation for his bravery did raise the Pride and Envy of a haughty French Combatant, that he followed Mr. Stanley to England, and there Challenged the whole Nation to produce a Person to engage him in Arms. Which being made known to Mr. Stanley, he accepted the Challenge; and the Time and Place of Action (by the King's direction) was to be at Winchester, under the walls of which city he fought and killed the Frenchman in the presence of his majesty and a numerous Crowd of Spectators.

This Publick and Gallant Action gave King Edward III notice of him and as a reward for his bravery Honoured him with Knighthood; both which raised his reputation with all the Sons of Mars, and no daubt gained him the secret good wishes of all the fair sex present; amongst whom was the Heiress of Lathom, beautiful, young and rich; which rendered her the envy of her own Sex and the desire and delight of all Admirers of Beauty and Virtue. Sir John Stanley, for we must now honour him with that title, declared himself her Champion and Humble Servant and after some Time of Address, gained an entire Conquest of her and all her favours, by an honourable marriage.

In the tenth year of Richard II he was made Constable of Windsor Castle and Knight of the Most Order of the Garter, and continued in Royal Esteem and Favour during the remainder of his life. (The above is copied from Seacome's House of Stanley, which was published in 1767; hence the peculiarities.)

Sir John Stanley was Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1385 and had a grant of the Manor of Blake Castle in that Kingdom. In 1405 he had a Commission with Roger Leke, to seize on the city of York and its liberties, and also upon the Isle of Man on the forfeitures of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and in the 7th of Henry IV, being then Treasurer of the Household of the King, obtained license to fortify his house at Liverpool, which he had newly built, with embattled walls. In the same year, having taken possession of the Isle of Man, he obtained a grant of fee of the said isle, castle and pile, anciently called Holm Town, and all the isles adjacent. On accession of Henry V he was made a Knight of the Garter, and constituted Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for six years, in which government he died in 1414. Sir John Stanley was the younger of Sir William Stanley who married the heiress of Hooton, but this offshoot in power and splendor has overshadowed the parent stock. Sir John was a cool, shrewd man, and efficient in the literal sense of the word, who flourished in the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and V, and whose personal qualities raised him to distinction, while the properties he acquired in right of his marriage gave him great territorial influence in Lancashire and elsewhere. In the War of the Roses he kept in favor with both sides, and when Harry of Monmouth, Shakespeare's "nimble-footed madcap Harry," succeeded as Henry V, he was made Knight of the Garter. By the marriage of Sir William Stanley (Gen. 6) the Stanleys acquired the three bucks' heads which they have ever since continued to be the distinguishing charge on their heraldic coat, and in like manner by the heiress of Lathom in this generation they obtained the second coat in the first grand quarter of their achievement: Or, on a chief indented azure three besants--as well as the crest which to this day continues to surmount their arms: the well-known eagle and child, described in heraldic language as on a chapeau gules turned up ermine, an eagle with wings elevated or, preying on an infant swaddled of the first, banded argent.  I descend from 2 of John's children (see generation 10 below).

10a. Isabel Stanley, daughter of John and Isabella was born abt. 1407 in Lathom, Cheshire, England.  She married John Warren, son of Lawrence Warren and Margery Bulkeley.  See the Warren line for the continuation of their descendants.

10b. Sir John Stanley, son of John and Isabella was born in 1368.   He was Knight of the Shire, 2nd of Henry V.  He was Constable of Carnarvon, Justice of Chester and Sheriff of Anglesey in Cheshire. He married Isabel Harrington of Hornby, County Lancaster, daughter of Sir Nicholas Harrington and Isabel English, sister and heir to her brother of Hornby Castle and all its appurtenances. For his services as Constable in Wales, a position of great trust as well as hazard in those times, King Henry honored him with knighthood.  John died on November 27, 1437.

11. Sir Thomas Stanley, son of John and Isabel was born in 1406.  He married Jane Goushill, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Robert Goushill, Knight, of Heveringham, County Nottingham, and his wife Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, daughter of Sir Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, and consequently in her person a representative not only of the family of de Albini as well as the Earls of Warren, but the blood royal of England, her father being descended from Henry III and her mother from Edward I. This marriage brought another quartering to the Stanley shield, that of Warren: Chequy or and azure was borne in the 3rd coat of the first grand quarter. Thomas was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for six years 1432; Comptroller of the Household to Henry VI; Knight of the Garter 1456; Knight of the Shire, summoned as Baron Stanley, Jan. 20, 1456. He died Jan. 12, 1458/9.

12a. Catherine Stanley, daughter of Thomas and Jane was born abt. 1430.  She married John Savage abt. 1447.  Catherine died in 1498 in Clifford, Cheshire, England.  I descend from 2 of their daughters: Margaret Savage who married John Honford, and Ellen Savage who married Piers Legh.

12b. Sir William Stanley, son of Thomas and Jane was born in 1437.  He married Joyce Cherleton.  William died in 1494.

13. Jane Stanley, daughter of William and Joyce was born in 1463.  She married Sir John Warburton, son of Peter Warburton and Ellen Savage.  I descend from their daughter Blanch Warburton who married Jane Davenport.

09. Sir William Stanley, son of William was born in 1337 and died about June 18, 1398.  He was Lord of Stourton in Wirrall, in Cheshire, and Stanlegh in Staffordshire.  He was knighted abt 1352.  He probably built Storeton Hall in 1360.  Wirrall was disafforested in 1376.  He was aged 50 or more when he gave evidence in the Scrope-Grosvenor trial in Chester on September 3, 1386.  His wife's name is unknown.

10. Sir William de Stanley, son of William was Lord of Stanley and Storeton in Wirral, Cheshire.  He was aged 30 on June 16, 1398 and died on February 2, 1428.  He marred Margaret de Hooton.  He succeeded to Hooton by right of his wife in 1398, and in 1397 received a grant of a life annuity of 100/- upon being retained for service for life.  In 1399 he was commissioned to raise eighty archers and take them to Ireland in the king's train, but by May 15, 1399 he was the subject of an arrest warrant, probably as a suspected sympathizer to Henry of Lancaster.  King Richard II surrendered at Flint Castle on August 19, 1399, and on September 30 the reign of Henry IV began.  By Jan 28, 1400 William was of record as conservator of the peace in the Cheshire hundred of Wirral.  By September 22, 1401 he was recorded as a knight who had rendered homage.  He was in Ireland serving his brother as Lord Deputy in 1401, and helped bild defences against the Welsh rebels of Owain Glyndwr, and then in the summer of 1402 was engaged in a naval expedition at a wage of 2/- per day.  However, he received a parden for Percy's Rebellion in 1403 having already been appointed a commissioner in Wirral on October 11.  His inquisition post mortem was dated 6 Hen. VI (1427-1428).  He held the manor of Hooten in the Hundred of Wirral, as well as the manors of Great and Little Storeton, the bailiwick of the forest of Wirral and lands in Poulton-Lancelyn, Upton and Brumbrough.

11. Sir William de Stanley, son of William and Margaret was born abt. 1386.  He married Blanch Arderne, daughter of Sir John Arderne of Aldford.  He was Lord of Stanley, Stourton and Hooton.  He received a pardon for the Percy Rebellion on 3 Nov. 5 Hen. IV (1403), was a hero at the battle of Agincourt and knighted in 1415.  He died in 1427 or 1428.

12. Isabel Stanley, daughter of William and Blanch married Robert Legh, son of Robert and Matilda.  I descend from their daughter Isabel Legh who married Lawrence Warren.

Sources used in this book on the Stanley line :

- Stanley Family of America (Warren), pp. 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13. 
- House of Stanley (Seacome), Pub. 1767, pp. 1-28. 
- Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. 3, p. 306. 
- Crosten's Co. Families of Lancashire and Cheshire, pp. 1-14. 
- Foster's Charts of Fam. of Lancashire and Cheshire
- Edmondson's Baronagium Genealogicum, Vol. 2, p. 87. 
- Weis Ancestral Roots, 7th edition, 1992