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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,
[1]
son of William was born abt. 1166 in Hooton, Cheshire, England.
05. Sir Adam Stanley,
[1]
son of William was born abt. 1208 in Hooton, Cheshire,
England.
06. Sir William Stanley,
[1]
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,
[1]
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,
[1]
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.
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09. Sir John Stanley,
[1]
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.
10. Sir John Stanley,
[1]
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,
[1]
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.
12.
Catherine Stanley,
[1]
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 Margaret Savage who married John Honford.
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