James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby
Died	Bolton
Buried at	Ormskirk church
Allegiance	Royalist
Battles/wars	Bolton Massacre, Battle of Marston Moor, Battle of Wigan Lane, Battle of Worcester

James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby KG (31 January 1607 – 15 October 1651) was a supporter of the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Born at Knowsley, he is sometimes styled the Great Earl of Derby, eldest son of William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and Lady Elizabeth de Vere. During his father's life he was known as Lord Strange. Through his paternal grandmother, Lady Margaret Clifford, he descended from Henry VII of England.

Early career

After travelling abroad he was chosen Member of Parliament for Liverpool in 1625. On 2 February 1626, James was created a Knight of the Bath on occasion of the coronation of Charles I of England. He was joined with his father the same year as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and chamberlain of Chester. He assisted in the administration of the Isle of Man and was appointed in 1627 as Lord of Mann. Subsequently he was appointed lord-lieutenant of North Wales and on 7 March 1628 he was called up to the House of Lords as Baron Strange.

English Civil War

He took no part in the political disputes between king and parliament and preferred country pursuits and the care of his estates to court or public life. Nevertheless when the English Civil War broke out in 1642, Lord Strange devoted himself to the king's cause. By the death of his father on 29 September 1642 he had succeeded to the earldom.

His plan of securing Lancashire at the beginning and raising troops there, which promised success, was however discouraged by Charles, who was said to be jealous of his power and royal lineage and who commanded his presence at Nottingham.

His subsequent attempts to recover the county were unsuccessful. He was unable to get possession of Manchester, was defeated at Chowbent and Lowton Moor, and in 1643 after gaining Preston failed to take Bolton and Lancaster castles. Finally, after successfully beating off Sir William Brereton's attack on Warrington, he was defeated at Whalley and withdrew to York, Warrington in consequence surrendering to the enemy's forces.

Portrait of James Stanley by Anthony van Dyck, circa 1631–1641

In June 1643 he left for the Isle of Man to attend to affairs there, and in the summer of 1644 he took part in Prince Rupert of the Rhine's successful campaign in the north, when Lathom House, where his wife Charlotte de la Tremoille (Lady Derby) had successfully resisted the Siege of Lathom House, was relieved, and Bolton le Moors (now just known as Bolton) taken in what became known as the Bolton Massacre.

He followed Rupert to the Battle of Marston Moor, and after the complete defeat of Charles's cause in the north withdrew to the Isle of Man, where he held out for the king and offered an asylum to royalist fugitives. His administration of the island imitated that of Strafford in Ireland. It was strong rather than just. He maintained order, encouraged trade, remedied some abuses, and defended the people from the exactions of the church; but he crushed opposition by imprisoning his antagonists, and aroused a prolonged agitation by abolishing the tenant-right and introducing leaseholds.

In July 1649 he scornfully refused terms offered to him by Henry Ireton. On 12 January 1650 he obtained the Garter. He was chosen by Charles II to command the troops of Lancashire and Cheshire, and on 15 August 1651 he landed at Wyre Water in Lancashire in support of Charles's invasion, and met the king on 17 August. Proceeding to Warrington he failed to obtain the support of the Presbyterians through his refusal to take the Covenant, and on 25 August was totally defeated at the Battle of Wigan Lane, being severely wounded and escaping with difficulty.

He joined Charles at Worcester; after the battle on 3 September he accompanied him to Boscobel House, and while on his way north alone was captured near Nantwich and given quarter. He was tried by court-martial at Chester on 29 September, and on the grounds he was a traitor and not a prisoner of war under the act of parliament passed in the preceding month, which declared those who corresponded with Charles guilty of treason, his quarter was disallowed and he was condemned to death. When his appeal for pardon to parliament was rejected, though supported by Oliver Cromwell, he endeavoured to escape; but was recaptured by Captain Hector Schofield and executed at Bolton on 15 October 1651 because of his part in the Bolton Massacre. The execution took place outside the Man and Scythe Inn (owned at the time by the Earl of Derby's family). Outside, there is a cross on the site that bears a plaque which relates the stories of Bolton through the ages. However, within the pub itself, there is a chair that the Earl of Derby supposedly sat in before being taken outside to be beheaded, the inscription of which reads "15th  October 1651 In this chair James 7th Earl of Derby sat at the Man and Scythe Inn, Churchgate, Bolton immediately prior to his execution". He was buried in Ormskirk church.

Lord Derby was a man of deep religious feeling and of great nobility of character, who though unsuccessful in the field served the king's cause with single-minded purpose and without expectation of reward. His political usefulness was handicapped in the later stages of the struggle by his dislike of the Scots, whom he regarded as guilty of the king's death and as unfit instruments of the restoration. According to Clarendon he was "a man of great honour and clear courage," and his defects the result of too little knowledge of the world.

Literary works

Lord Derby left in MS. A Discourse concerning the Government of the Isle of Man (printed in the Stanley Papers and in Francis Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, vol. ii.) and several volumes of historical collections, observations, devotions (Stanley Papers) and a commonplace book.

Marriage and children

He married on 26 June 1626 Charlotte de la Tremoille (1599–1664), daughter of Claude, duc de Thouars and Charlotte Brabantina of Nassau. Her maternal grandparents were William the Silent and Charlotte de Bourbon. They were parents of four daughters and five sons:

• Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby (1628–1672)
• Lady Charlotte Stanley (died young)
• two sons (died young)
• Lady Henriette Mary Stanley (17 November 1630 – 27 December 1685), married William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, died without issue
• Lady Amelia Ann Sophia Stanley (1633 – 22 February 1702/3), married John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl.
• Hon. Edward Stanley (7 January 1639 – October 1664), unmarried
• Hon. William Stanley (18 October 1640 – 25 October 1670), unmarried
• Lady Catherine Stanley, married Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, died without issue

Charles' two sons, William, the 9th Earl (c. 1655–1702), and James, the 10th Earl (1664–1736), both died without sons, and consequently, when James died in February 1736, his titles and estates passed to Sir Edward Stanley (1689–1776), a descendant of the 1st earl. The Earls of Derby are his descendants. Meanwhile, the Barony of Strange passed in 1736 to the 2nd Duke of Atholl, grandson of James's daughter Amelia (see above).

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Book 2 chap 2 – History of Isle of Man, 1900
• Note 21 – ManxSoc Vol 12 Parr's Abstracts
• A genealogy of the Stanley family
• Stanley's patronage of theatre and/or music: Patrons and Performances Web Site

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Derby	Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire and Lancashire 1607–1642 With: The Earl of Derby	English Interregnum
	Vice-Admiral of Cheshire and Lancashire 1638
Head of State of the Isle of Man
Preceded by Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby	Lord of Mann 1627–1651	Succeeded by Thomas Fairfax
Peerage of England
Preceded by William Stanley	Earl of Derby 1642–1651	Succeeded by Charles Stanley
New creation	Baron Strange 1628–1651