STANLEY, Thomas, a very learned writer, was the son of Sir Thomas Stanley of Laytonstone in Essex, and Cumberlow in Hertfordshire, by his second wife Mary, the daughter of Sir William Hammond of St. Alban’s-court. He was descended from a natural son of Edward earl of Derby. He was born in the year 1625, and received a domestic education under the tuition of William the son of Edward Fairfax, the well-known translator of Tasso. In 1639, he became a fellow-commoner of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself by his progress in classical learning. After having travelled on the conti nent, he resided for some time in the Middle Temple. Here he lived on terms of particular intimacy with his cou sin Edward, afterwards Sir Edward Sherburne, who cultivated similar studies, and who dedicated a volume of Poems to this learned kinsman. Stanley published Poems and Translations in 1649, 8vo. They were reprinted, with additions, in 1651. But his principal work was his “History of Philosophy, containing the Lives, Opinions, Actions, and Discourses of the Philosophers of every Sect.” Of the original edition, printed in folio, the first part appeared in 1655, and the third in 1660. The work is dedicated to his uncle-in-law, Sir John Marsham, author of the Canon Chronicus, who first suggested the undertaking. There are four editions of the History, the last and best being that of 1743, 4to. The author has displayed solid as well as extensive erudition, but his valuable materials are not disposed to the best advantage. The reputation of his work extended to the continent; and a Latin translation of it by Olearius was published at Leipzig, in quarto, in the year 1711. The part relating to the history of oriental philosophy had been translated into the same language by Le Clerc, and published at Amsterdam in 1690, with a dedication to Bishop Bumet. This version he afterwards inserted in the second volume of his “Opera Philosophica.” Stanley next prepared his elaborate and valuable edition of Aeschylus. Lond. 1663, fol. Some copies of the same impression bear the date of 1664. This edition, which includes the fragments and the Greek scholia, and is accompanied with a commentary and a Latin version, was of great importance when it first appeared; but since the death of the learned editor, so much has been effected by Schiitz, Wellauer, and other scholars, that it has lost a great portion of its original value. The best of all possible editions of Aeschylus has for many years been expected from Hermann; but those who have sufficient means of ascertaining his present views and occupations, have at length begun to despair of its ever making its appearance. It was thought expedient to reprint Stanley’s edition, with the commentary, corrected and enlarged from his papers preserved in the university library at Cam bridge. The charge of this edition was committed to a very competent scholar, Samuel Butler, afterwards promoted to the bishopric of Lichfield; who, with the addition of his own annotations, published it at Cambridge in the year1809, in 4 vols. 4to., and in 8 vols. 8vo. Some notes on Demosthenes, ascribed to Stanley, have recently been published in the ninth volume of Dobson’s Oratores Attici. He died at his lodgings in Suflblkstreet,in the parish of St. Martin’s-in-the Fields, on the 12th of April 1678. He had married Dorothy, the daughter and coheiress of Sir James Enyon of Flower in Northamptonshire, Bart. He had a son, who bore his own name, and, like himself, was educated at Pern[7:20:563] broke Hall. At a very early age, he published “Aelian’s Various Histories, translated into English.” Lond. 1665, 8vo.