STANLEY (FAMILY), derived its name from Stanley in Leek (in the Staffordshire "moorlands"). Its first known ancestor is Adam de Stanley, brother of Liulf de Audley, who lived in the time of King Stephen. His descendant, William de Stanley, ac quired the forestership of Wirral, with an heiress, in 1284, and was ancestor of two brothers, Sir William and Sir John Stanley. The former married the heiress of Hooton in Wirral and was an cestor of the Stanleys of Hooton, whose baronetcy, created in 1661, became extinct in 1893. The younger brother, lieutenant of Ireland under Richard II. and Henry IV., obtained from the latter the Isle of Man in fee. His grandson Thomas was father of the first earl of Derby and of Sir William Stanley of Holt, whose great wealth led to his execution for treason in 1495, and also of Sir John Stanley, ancestor of the Stanleys of Alderley, who ob tained a baronetcy in 1660 and a barony in 1839. The earls of Derby are noticed under DERBY.
The barony of STANLEY OF ALDERLEY was created in 1839 for Sir John Thomas Stanley, Bart. (1766-185o), of Alderley Park. EDWARD JOHN STANLEY, 2ND BARON (1802-1869), entered the House of Commons in 1831 and became under-secretary to the home department in 1841, patronage secretary to the treasury from 1835 to 1841, paymaster-general in 1841, and under-secre tary for foreign affairs from 1846 to 1852. In 1848, two
years before he succeeded to the barony of Stanley, he was created Baron Eddisbury of Winnington. He was president of the board of trade from 1855 to 1858, and postmaster-general from 186o to 1866. His wife, Henrietta Maria (1807-1895), a daughter of Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon, was a remarkable woman. Before her marriage in 1826 she had lived in Florence, and had attended the receptions of the countess of Albany, the widow of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender; and in London she had great influence in social and political circles. When he was patronage secretary her husband was de scribed by Lord Palmerston as "joint-whip with Mrs. Stanley." Later in life Lady Stanley of Alderley helped to found the Women's Liberal Unionist Association, and she was a strenuous worker for the higher education of women, helping to establish Girton College, Cambridge, the Girls' Public Day School Corn pany, and the Medical College for Women. She died in 1895.