The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

LATHOM HOUSE AND THE STANLEY FAMILY

(Concluded from our last.)

The prince, enchanted with the defence of Lathom,
gave orders, in the name of the king, for bastions and
counterscarps to be added to its fortifications. But, alas !
I grieve to state the result. The king did not follow out
this plan : ungraciously, if not ungratefully (but I think
both), he ordered it to be surrendered to the Parliament-
ary army. This was in December, 1645. I need not say
that the work of demolition was very soon begun, very
soon completed ; and a heavy fine, of course,. laid upon
the mansion. The heroic countess repaired to the Isle of
Man, where she rejoined her lord. For several years
they lived there. in their wonted princely grandeur ; but
the storm lowered, and the brave earl was its next ex-
emplary victim. Long might his widow mourn one who
united to valour and disinterestedness—rare accomplish-
ments !—learning and prudence. From her castle in the
Isle of Man she watched his brief but glorious career,
rejoiced over his noble defence of Wigan, and wept when
she heard that in the fatal fight of Worcester he had
fallen into the enemy's hands. For well she knew that
there would be no mercy shewn to him. Two years pre-
viously he had irritated Cromwell, w

o had offered him
terms to surrender the Isle of Man, by a noble reply.
One extract from that touching and fearless letter let me

give, by way of pendant to the epistles of the defender of
Ragland :

" I scorn your proffers, I disdain yonr favours, I abhor your
treasons ; and am so far from surrendering this island to your
advantage, that I will keep it to the utmost of my power to

your destruction

"Take this final answer, and forbear any further solicita-
[ins : for if you trouble me with any more messages on this

iccasion, I will burn the papers aim . wearers.
His fate was, therefore sealed ; and it was to be ac-
complished not far from his home—at Bolton, in Lanca-

-hang the

He died gallantly, piously, like a Cavalier. Can
one say more ? When flattered with hopes of life he
listened patiently, but said,— .

of this fleeting world."

When desired, according to the custom of the day, to
find a " friend" to do the last office of the law, he re-
plied,—
" Nay, sir, if those men that would have my head will
not find one to cut it off, let it stand where it is. I
thank God that my life has not been so bad that I should
be instrumental to deprive myself of it, though He haS
been so merciful to me as to deprive me of the worst
terrors of death."
He had the consolation of seeing around him three of
of his children ; but his wife, and one loved daughter,
the Lady Mary, were in the Isle of Man. Well was it
for that noble, tender heart, that it prognosticated not
their future destiny.
- - - - - - -

Yet there is something ominous in the words which he
addressed to a faithful attendant on the morning of his
execution :

" Here, Bagaley, deliver these (his letters) to my dear
wife and sweet children. 1 have instructed you in all
things for your journey. But as to that sad part of it
(as to them) I can say nothing : silence, and your own
looks will best tell your message. The great God of
Heaven strengthen you, and prosper and comfort them
in this their great affliction."
Perhaps the most affecting incident of Lord Derby's
last hours was the appearance of four condemned gentle-
men, who, at his request, were permitted to come forth
from their dungeons to bid him farewell, and they did so ;
—with what emotions, it requires no pen of a poor chro-
nicler to describe.
Lord Derby went to the scaffold amid the tears of the
people. His daughters accompanied him half the way :
then the earl, alighting from his horse, knelt down bythe
coach in which Lady Catherine and Lady Amelia formed
a part of the procession, and took a solemn leave of them.
His voice, ere he bade them farewell, was lifted up in
prayer. " This," says the narrator, " was the saddest
hour I ever saw," and well might it be so.
Like other brave men, the soldier who had faced death
in the field had feared lest on the scaffold he might
shrink from it. At the last hour this apprehension was
removed. _

" I bless God for it, who has put this comfort and
courage into my soul, that I can as willingly now lay
down my head on the block, as ever I did upon my pil-
low.

The night before he had eaten a competent meal, say-
ing he would imitate his Saviour—his supper should be
his last act in this world. Then he bestowed on his son,
Lord Strange, his Order, bidding him return it to his

sovereign, King Charles 11., saying that he sent it, in all
humility and gratitude, as he received it,—spotless, and
free from any stain from his ancestors. For what an
unworthy object was this pure blood shed ! Such was
the love entertained for him, that the true-hearted com-
mon people refused to strike even a nail into his scaffold,
saying, " that since the wars they had had many mad great
losses, but none like this, it being the greatest that had
ever befallen them."
Amidst the fears of a rescue the Earl of Derby was
conveyed to his doom. His parting address shews the
estimation in which he was held in the place of his execu-
tion : . _

" I come, and am content to uie lit up's WWU, wilvre.
endeavoured to come the last time I was in Lancashire,
as to a place where I persuaded myself to be welcome, in
regard that the people thereof have reason to be satisfied
in my love and affection to them, and now they under-
stand that sufficiently." _

y.
When all was ready, and he was about to lay his head
upon the block, he looked towards the church, and,
causing the block to be turned that way. said,—
" I will look towards the sanctuary which is above for
ever."
Then bowing himself down, he said,—

" The Lord bless my wife and children : the Lord bles

the block, yet the executioner forbore to strike ; so the
doomed man rose up, and in an agony of tortured feeling

exclaimed

" What have I done that I die not ? Why do you not
finish your work

The appeal was answered by the fatal blow, given amid
a deep silence, broken only by sighs and sobs ; thus fell
one of the many brave spirits of that age. His death
has been justly styled one of the worst acts of the Par-
liament, a " murder in cold blood." To quote from
Clarendon once more :

" The king's army was no sooner defeated at Worcester, but
the Parliament renewed their old method of murdering in cold
blood, and sent a commission to erect a high court of justice

Derby foi his

and put him to death In a town of theiiown."
After the execution of the earl, a slip of paper was
thrown into his coffin, containing these lines :
" Wit, bounty, courage, three in one, lie dead;
A Stanley's hand, Vere's heart, and Cecil's head."
Such was the tribute, at once to the valour of the race
and the individual virtues of the man.

Meantime, where was his countess ? How bore she
her complicated sorrows ? Did her spirits sink beneath
these manifold misfortunes, or was Charlotte de la Tre- '
mouille still undaunted ?—still a worthy descendant of
the great house of Nassau ?
She was still quartered in the Isle of Man. When the
earl returned into Lancashire, he left his wife in charge
of his Manx territory, appointing Sir Thomas Armstrong
governor under her. On the very night of the Earl of
Derby's death, such was the remorseless cruelty of his
foes, a summons was despatched to Charlotte de la Tre-
mouille to surrender the island. It must have reached
her at the same time that a letter from her husband, full
of pathos, and of the sublimity which comes of strong
feeling, had been delivered into her hands. In the nar-
rative which ensues, we touch upon the ground over
which Scott has passed, embellishing as he went by his
flights of fancy the details of history, yet not departing
widely, as is often stated, from that foundation. The
character of Christian, for instance, so ably described in
Peveril of the Peak, is marvellously like its original.
Christian was a creature of the Earl of Derby s bounty,
educated at his cost, known to him from his infancy.
Lord Derby, above all suspicion himself, had trusted this
man ; he had given him the the charge of his lady and
children—a sacred trust in a dying man ; he had ap-

pointed him captain over the foot-guards in
So great was his supposed fidelity, such claims were there
on his gratitude, that when Sir Thomas Armstrong re-
ceived the summons to surrender, be refused, trusting in
the " lovaltv"--such was the• word used by the Manx

•
characteristics of these islanders, (originally a migration

tion of their smoky neighbour, Liverpool, reached their
unfrequented shores, greatly to have resembled those of
the Highlanders of Scotland. Perfidy was unknown

amongst them, until—why is it, that in this life, there is
always an until ?—until parliamentarian bribes corrupted
them ; and demons, in the forms of Rigby, Birch, and,

place to tamper with Christian

Upon hearing of the summons to surrender, the countess
gathering her children around her, retreated to Peele, or
Pile, castle, a fort defended by a strong tower, and by a

platform, on which cannon were mounted. Hither Sir
Thomas Armstrong accompanied her. Secure they be-
lieved themselves to be, for they believed that Christian,
who ruled over their forces, was true. But could it be
credited ? he to whom the earl had given the charge of

Such was the fate of this true heroine. Whilst the
duties of home alone required her care, she shone in
privacy, pure, yet glistening, like the dew-drop on the
violet's leaf. When extremity changed her path, she
came forth, bracing up her energies to action, and resolved
that the honour of her house, that tenacious bond to
generous deeds, should not be lost so long as a woman's
head could contrive "means to preserve it, or a woman's
influence sway the hands of others. .

Her son Charles, eight Earl of Derby, succeeding to
a sad inheritance of sorrow, found everything in confu-
sion. Lathom, my first theme, was demolished, and its
owner, the young earl, suffered imprisonment for the
royal cause. For in 1659, on Sir George Booth's rising
in Cheshire, he appeared at the head of a band of Lan-
cashire gentlemen, but, being defeated, was taken in the
garb of a serving man. He found half his estates se-
questered and sold, Lathom House destroyed, and his
affairs in the utmost confusion ; scarcely enough, in
short% remained to support the dignity of his rank; so
that he possessed no estate in Lancashire, Cheshire,
Westmoreland, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire, but that
near it he beheld some lands which once were his own,
now passed away to others. He petitioned parliament
for redress, and a bill, restoring to him his property, was
prepared; but, according to some accounts, it was rejected
by the king : according to others, it never went into a
third reading. In either case Charles was to blame, for
his known wishes would have insured justice. On the
front of Knowsley House an inscription to this effect was
placed in a subsequent reign :
"James, earl of Derby, lord of Man and the Isles, grandson
of James earl of Derby, by Charlottee de la Tremouille, who
was beheaded at Bolton, the 15th October, 1651, for strenuously
adhering to King Charles 11., who refused a bill, unanimously
passed by both houses of parliament, for restoring to the
family the estates which he had lost by his loyalty to him."
Mr. Pennant has thought proper to call this a " ca-
lumniating inscription," but the historian of the Stan-
leys corroborates the fact ; and one can only regret that
the monarch was beyond the power of public opinion,
beyond the influence of shame (if he ever owned it),
when this reproach was inscribed.
Of the other branches of the family, some brief notice
is required. The Lady Amelia Sophia was married to
John Murray, marquis of Atholl; she was the ancestress
of Lord George Murray, who, of all that family, the
most resembled the Stanleys, being impetuous, brave,
haughty, faithful, and sagacious. The Isle of Man was
the portion of Lady Amelia, and passed, therefore, into
the Atholl family, by whom it was sohl—l suppose one
ought not regret that measure—to the Government.
One word to the theme with which I set out; one
brief, affectionate farewell to Lathom. William, ninth
earl of Derby, sought to restore it after the delapidation
of time and avarice. He erected a stately front, intend-
ing to rebuild the house in the same style, but did not
live to finish his design. After his death it became the
portion of his daughter, Lady Henrietta Ashburnham,
who sold it Henry Furness, Esq. In 1724, it was pur-
cased by Sir Thomas Bootle, and is now in the possession
of Edward Wilbraham Bootle, Esq.
Sir Thomas Bootle built the present house, from a
design of Leoni's, of the views of which the scientific
may judge by consulting the fourth volume of the Vitru-
vious Britannicus. It is a fine house, doubtless, but it is
not our Lathom House of the benevolent Sir Thomas,
from whom its name was originally. It is not the Lathom
House of his lovely daughter, the pride of her county,
Isabel. It is not the Lathom House of the foundling
Oskately. It is subservient no longer to the bird and.
bantling. The motto, " Sans changer," is entirely con-
tradicted by its modern splendours. It is not even the
Lathom House rife with the dark recollection of the mur-
dered Ferdinando, or glorious with the memory of the
now sainted, and never to-be-forgotten Charlotte. In the
park, however, is a chapel, founded in thefifteenth century,
with some alms-houses adjoining, still maintained with
its almoner ; and hither Isabel may have sauntered, or
Oskately have heard there from gossiping talk the tale of
his origin ; and the fate of Ferdinando have been the
winter evening's theme over a log fire.