Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield (1584 – 12 September 1656), son of Sir John Stanhope and his wife Cordell Allington, was an English aristocrat. Stanhope was knighted in 1605 by James I. In 1616 he was created Baron Stanhope of Shelford, and was further elevated as Earl of Chesterfield in 1628.

The Civil War

Leading up to the English Civil War, Chesterfield, was summoned to Parliament in 1640 and took the side of King Charles I in the threatening conflict. When the conflict broke out he and his sons took up arms. Shelford Manor, his home in Nottinghamshire, was garrisoned under the command of his son Philip. The house was attacked and his son lost his life on 27 October 1645 in its defence. The Parliamentarian army took the house and burnt it to the ground.

Chesterfield, with an army of some 300 gentlemen and supporters sometime earlier had taken Lichfield for the King. They were attacked by a force led by Sir John Gell and Lord Brooke with 200 men and cannon. Lord Brooke was killed in the encounter on 2 March 1643. Chesterfield's forces were forced to surrender and were made prisoner. Chesterfield himself was imprisoned and died still in captivity on 12 September 1656, some three and a half years before the Restoration in 1660.

Marriage and family

In 1604 Stanhope married Catherine (d. 1636), daughter of Francis Hastings, Lord Hastings. According to Sir Egerton Brydges pp. 23, Catherine and Philip had eleven sons and two daughters:

• John Stanhope (bur. 27 July 1623)
• Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope (d. 29 November 1634), the husband of Katherine Wotton, together the parents of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield
• Charles Stanhope born 1607- 1645
• Edward Stanhope (1607–1614)
• William Stanhope (1608–1614)
• Thomas Stanhope (died young)
• George Stanhope, (1610–1616)
• Ferdinando Stanhope (d. 1643), married Lettice Ferrers and had issue he was an M.P. he had three children
• Philip Stanhope (killed 27 October 1645)
• Sarah Stanhope (d. May 1698), married Sir Richard Hoghton, 3rd Baronet
• Michael Stanhope (1624–1648)
• Elizabeth Stanhope, married Edward Darcy
• Arthur Stanhope (1627–1677) M.P. for Nottingham from whom the fifth Earl and succeeding earls of Chesterfield descend

After the death of his first wife, he married Anne Packington, by whom he one son -

• Alexander Stanhope (1638–1707), diplomat, who married Catherine Burghill and had issue:
  • Mary (c. 1686- 1762), who in turn married Viscount Fane
  • James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope (1673–1721), soldier-statesman

References

Peerage of England
New title	Earl of Chesterfield 1628–1656	Succeeded by Philip Stanhope
	Baron Stanhope of Shelford 1616–1656