The Stanley family (or Audley-Stanley family) is an English family with many notable members, including the Earls of Derby and the Barons Audley who descended from the early holders of Audley and Stanley, Staffordshire. The two branches of the Audley family were made Barons Audley but both ended in the male line in the 14th century, after which their considerable estates were passed to a number of female heiresses, while the Stanleys would be elevated in the 15th century first to Barons Stanley and then Earls of Derby, a title they continue to hold.
The use of "Stanley" as a first name began with political followers of the family.
Origins
The earliest documented members of the related Audley and Stanley families are two apparent brothers, Ligulf de Aldelegha and Adam de Standlega, who during the reigns of kings Stephen and Henry II appear to have divided the Audley, Staffordshire, lands that at the time of the 1086 Domesday survey had been the holdings of a man named Gamel, though no familial relationship with their predecessor is known.
The parentage of Ligulf and Adam is unknown, though the English name of the former suggests they had Anglo-Saxon roots. Later descendants, during a period when it came to be socially prestigious, would fabricate a Norman origin for their family, pushing Ligulf and Adam back in time and presenting them as sons of a fictitious Adam, follower of William the Conqueror and lord of an equally fictitious 'Aldithley in Normandy', despite Ligulf's non-Norman name and the English etymology of 'Aldithley'.
Later, as pre-Norman ancestry came into vogue, the Stanleys would invent a maternal descent from a fantastical Anglo-Saxon living a half-century before the conquest, yet improbably bearing the Norman name of 'William' de Stanley. It is uncertain how Stanley, Staffordshire, about 9 miles from Audley and not part of Gamel's Domesday holdings, came to be in the possession of Ligulf's son Adam de Aldelegha, ancestor of the Audleys, before he granted it to his cousin William, son of Adam's uncle Adam de Standlegha, the Stanley ancestor.[1]
The extended Audley family, originally of Audley Castle but who later built (or re-built) Heighley Castle, Madeley, Staffordshire in 1226, had several additional households including Red Castle at Hawkstone in Shropshire, Buglawton Manor in Congleton, Newhall Tower at Newhall, Cheshire[2] and a home in Nantwich.[3] In the early 12th century Adam's grandson William married Joan de Stanley heiress of Stoneleigh, Staffordshire thereby becoming William de Stanley of Stoneleigh. This branch of the Audley thus took the name Stanley and Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby was a direct descendant.
Hooton Hall, estate of the Stanley family of Flintshire, Storeton, Eastham, Burton and others
The younger branch of the family elevated their status through several beneficial marriages. In the late 13th century, William de Stanleye married one of the coheiresses of Philip de Baumvill.[1] A century later, the family split into two branches, with the elder son William inheriting the Baumvill-derived family seat at Stourton, Cheshire and by marriage acquiring near-by Hooton, from whom derived the senior branch of the family that came to be referred to as the Stanelys of Hooton.
The younger son, Sir John Stanley, in 1385 married rich heiress Isabella de Lathom, daughter of Thomas Lathom of Lathom, Lancashire.[4] He subsequently became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and King of Mann, a title reflecting the special status of the Isle of Man, which with its successor title Lord of Mann the family would hold with some gaps from 1405 to 1736, when it was sold back to the Crown.
Sir John's grandson, Thomas Stanley, would become Baron Stanley in 1456, while the latter's son became Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby in 1485. The senior branch of the Stanley Earls failed with the death of James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby in 1735, having been predeceased by his only son, and the earldom was inherited by a remote kinsman, his patrilineal sixth-cousin Edward Stanley, 5th Baronet Stanley, whose line, descended from a younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Derby, had been made Baronets Stanley of Bickerstaffe in 1623. This line still holds the Derby earldom, with the incumbent, Edward Stanley, being the 19th Earl. The branch of the Stanleys leading to the peers would also spawn numerous junior branches.
Conservative Party
Several successive generations of the Stanley Earls, along with other members of the family, have been prominent members of the Conservative Party, and at least one historian has suggested that this family rivals the Cecils (Marquesses of Salisbury) as the single most important family in the party's history.
Coats of arms
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Audley arms.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stanley arms.
Arms of Audley: Gules, fretty or
Arms of Stanley: Argent, on a bend azure three buck's heads cabossed or
Audley Family Arms:
Armorial Bearings of the AUDLEY family of Much Marcle, Herefordshire
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