The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-02 00:00:00

DEATH of the EARL of DERBY, KG., F.L.S.
We regret to announce the decease of the Right Hon.
the venerable Earl of Derby, which took place at his
seat, Knowsley Hall, Lancashire, en Monday last, in
the 77th year of his age, surrounded by his noble and
celebrated family.
The Right Hon. Edward Smith Stanley, K.G., F.L.S
Earl of Derby, Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe, and a
Baronet, Lord-Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the
county of Lancaster, was born 21st April, 1775; mar-
ried, June 30, 1798, his cousin, .Charlotte Margaret,
second daughter of the Rev. Geoffrey llornby, by whom,
who died ;June 16, 1817, he had the following issue:—
Edward Geoffrey, Lord Stanley, born March 29, 1799,
summoned to the House of Peers in his father's barony,
as Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe, in September, 1844;
Henry Thomas, born 1803; Charles James Fox, Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Grenadier Guards; Charlotte Elizabeth,
Louisa Emily, and Eleanor Mary.
The late noble deceased was the thirteenth Earl of
Derby, having succeeded to the title at the death of his
father, Oct. 21, 1834; he had been previously created
(Oct. 1832) Baron Stanley, of Bickerstaffe. He was
Colonel of the Lancashire militia, Vice-Admiral of the
coast of Lancashire, and President of the Linnean and
Zoological Societies.
The family of Stanley, it is scarcely necessary to re-
mark, is one of the most illustrious as it is one of the
greatest antiquity in the peerage. Adam de Aldithley
and his two sons attended Duke William of Normandy
in his expedition to England, and had large possessions
conferred upon him by the Conqueror. Sydulph, his
eldest son, was father of Adam de Aldithley, which
Adam was possessed, by right of his wife Mabella,
daughter and heir of Henry Stanley de Stoneley, of the
manor of Stoneley and Balterley, county Stafford, and
was ancestor of the Barons Audley of Healey Castle,
county Stafford. Adam de Aldithley, second son, was
father of Wm. de Aldithiey, to whom Thos. Stanley, of
Stafford, Kinsman of Henry Stanley, of Stoneley,
gave his only daughter and heir Joan, and with her,
as a marriage portion, the manor of Thalk, county Staf-
ford, he having exchanged Thalk for Stoneley, and half
the manor of Balterley, with his cousin Adam, made
choice of Stoneley for his scat; and in honour of his
lady and of the great antiquity of her family (of noble
Saxon descent), who flourished in England many years
before the Conquest, assumed the surname of Stanley,
and became the immediate founder of the Stanleys.
The first Baron Stanley Was summoned as such ip
1456 by Henry VL He was Comptroller of the House-
hold and Chamberlain to that King, and from his third
son, Sir John Stanley, descends the present Lord Stan-
ley, of Alderley.
The second Lord Stanley it was who married the
mother of Henry, Earl of Richmond, and played so
conspicuous a part in the battle of Bosworth Field,
having placed the crown of Richard upon the head of
his victorious step-son, Henry VII. For his services on
this occasion, he was created Earl of Derby. It was the
second son of the second Lord Stanley and first Earl of
Derby, namely, Sir Edward Stanley, Bart., of Hornby
Castle, Lancashire, who commanded the rear of the
English army at Flodden Field, immortalised in Secret's

" Diarmion.'F
Edward, third earl, great grandson of the first Earl of
Derby, was so celebrated for magnificence and liberality,
that Camden remarked " that with Edward Earl of
Derby's death the glory of hospitality seemed to fall
asleep." Henry, fourth earl, was one of the peers who
sat upon the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. The fifth
earl was poisoned by conspirators, in consequence of in-
dignantly rejecting a proposition to assume the title of
King, in right of his grandmother, who was coheir of
Mary Dowager Queen of France, the sister of Henry the
Eighth.
James, seventh earl, was distinguished for his devoted
attachment to the Royal cause during the civil war.
Having been made prisoner after the battle of Worces-
ter, he was beheaded at Bolton, October 15th, 1651. It
was his noble Countess who became so famous for her
gallant defence of Latham House, when it was besieged
by 2,000 Parliamentarians.
As we have before stated, the deceased was thirteenth
Earl of Derby; his mother was Elizabeth, only daughter
of James sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. The
present Countess of Wilton was his Lordship's half
si.tsr. The Noble Earl, although neither a soldier nor
a statesman, was a most worthy representative of his
illustrious house. His political career was noiseless and
unobtrusive, but his'predilections were consistently in
favour of the measures of what was called the Liberal
party of the State. His chief characteristics were hos-
pitality and benevolence, and throughout a long life he
ever maintained most scrupulously in his own good
acts and deeds the homily motto, sans changer ."
The Lord Stanley i 3 now fourteenth Earl of Derby:
and again we have in the House of Commons, in the
Noble Earl's eldest son, a Lord Stanley, who has already
added no small distinction to the time-honoured name.
—Morning Paper.