1458, prebendary of Driffield on 11 Nov. 1460, archdeacon of Chester in 1478, prebendary of Dunham in Southwell Cathedral, warden of the collegiate church of Manchester in 1481, and died in 1485 or 1486. The nephew's first preferment was the deanery of St. Martin-le-Grand, London, which he was given on 20 Sept. 1485, probably through the influence of his father's second wife, Margaret Beaufort, countess of Richmond and Derby [q. v.], the mother of Henry VII (Campbell, Materials, i. 19, 125–6). In the same year he succeeded his uncle as warden of the collegiate church of Manchester, the buildings of which were considerably extended during his tenure of office (Hibbert-Ware, Hist. Collegiate Church Manchester, i. 48–55). In June 1492 he received a dispensation from the pope to study at Oxford, although he held a benefice with cure of souls. In 1496 he was at Paris, and is stated to have been the rich young priest who had declined a bishopric and was living in Erasmus's house at Paris. He made tempting offers to Erasmus to induce him to become his tutor, but Erasmus refused (Knight, Erasmus, p. 19; Budinzsky, Die Universität Paris, p. 85). On 19 Nov. 1500 he became archdeacon of Richmond, and on 10 Sept. 1505 he was collated to a prebend in Salisbury Cathedral (Le Neve, ii. 643). Early in the following year he was appointed by papal bull to the bishopric of Ely, and the temporalities were restored to him on 5 Nov. following. On 18 June in the same year the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.Can.L. During his tenure of the see he took part in his stepmother's foundation of St. John's and Christ's colleges, Cambridge (Baker, Hist. St. John's College, i. 66, 68, 71; Willis and Clark, Architectural Hist. of Cambridge, ii. 194, iii. 301, 516). He also compiled statutes for Jesus College, Cambridge, to which he appropriated the rectory of Great Shelford, and improved his episcopal residence at Somersham. He resigned the wardenship of Manchester in 1509, and died on 22 March 1514–15. He was buried in the collegiate church at Manchester, where there is an inscription to his memory. His will, dated 20 March and proved 23 May 1515, is printed in Nicolas's ‘Testamenta Vetusta,’ ii. 535–6. Stanley's loose morals afforded an easy mark for protestant invective (cf. Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson, p. 271). By a lady who shared his episcopal residence at Somersham he had at least two sons, John and Thomas, and a daughter, Margaret, who married Sir Henry Halsall of Halsall. The elder son, John, fought at Flodden Field on 9 Sept. 1513, was knighted, and founded the family of Stanleys of Hanford, Cheshire.
[Authorities quoted; Campbell's Materials for the Reign of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Andreas's Historia, pp. 108, 125 (Rolls Ser.); Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, vols. i. and ii.; Rymer's Fœdera; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, passim; Collins's Peerage, iii. 48; Fuller's Worthies; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 704–5; Dodd's Church Hist.; Hibbert-Ware's Collegiate Church of Manchester, i. 48–64; Warden and Fellows of the Collegiate Church of Manchester (Chetham Soc. new ser.); Hollingworth's Mancuniensis; Churton's Lives of W. Smyth, &c., pp. 13, 548–9; Seacome's Memoirs of the House of Stanley, edit. 1840, pp. 70–1; Ormerod's Cheshire; Bentham's Ely; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 16, 525; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Chambers's Book of Days.]
STANLEY, JAMES, seventh Earl of Derby (1607–1651), born at Knowsley on 31 Jan. 1606–7, was the eldest son of William, sixth earl of Derby, by his wife, Elizabeth (1575–1627), daughter of Edward de Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford [q. v.] The father, younger son of Henry Stanley, fourth earl of Derby [q. v.], passed much of the early part of his life abroad (Stanley Papers, III. i. 47), succeeded as sixth earl on the death of his brother Ferdinando, fifth earl of Derby [q. v.], on 16 April 1594, was elected K.G. on 23 April 1601, and served as privy councillor extraordinary from March to May 1603. For many years he was involved in ruinous litigation over his estates with his nieces, the coheiresses of his brother. On 22 Dec. 1607 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Lancashire and Cheshire, and died on 29 Sept. 1642. His portrait, engraved from a drawing in the Sutherland collection, is given by Doyle; another, also anonymous, belongs to the present Earl of Derby (Cat. First Loan Exhib. No. 497).
His son, who was styled Lord Strange during his father's lifetime, is erroneously said to have been educated at Bolton grammar school and at Oxford. After some private education he was sent abroad, visiting France and Italy, and learning the languages of those countries. In 1625 he was returned to parliament as member for Liverpool, where the Stanley interest had completely superseded that of the earls of Sefton. He was created K.B. at the coronation of Charles I on 1 Feb. 1625–6, and on 26 June following married, at The Hague, Charlotte de la Trémoille, daughter of Claude, duc de Thouars [see Stanley, Charlotte, Countess of Derby]. On 27 Dec. following he was associated with his father in the lieutenancy of Lancashire and Cheshire, and on 23 Oct. in the chamberlainship of Chester. He also
