John Stanley

John Stanley came into the manor of Weever and lands in Over and Nether Alderley through his marriage to Elizabeth Weever. (Earwaker 2:597). He is often referred to as “Sir John Stanley,” but he was probably never knighted (Ormerod 1st ed. 3:304; 2nd ed. 3:574).

John Stanley, as “Sir John Stanley,” appears as a character in Shakespeare’s Henry VI part 2 (Act 3, scene 4). He conveys the Duchess of Gloucester to her banishment in the Isle of Man. John’s brother, Thomas, appears in Richard III (naturally, given his pivotal role in the events of that reign), and his brother, William, appears in Henry VI part 3. Shakespeare was probably connected financially to the Stanley family when he wrote the plays.

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Living: 1461, 1476.

Ormerod (1st ed. 3:304; 2nd ed. 3:574) cites deeds mentioning John, in an enfeoffment in 1 Edw. IV, and an inquisition in 16 Edw. IV.

Date of Death: by 1485.

Place of Death: unknown.

The 1485 inquisition post mortem of Elizabeth Ewlowe (Elizabeth Weever’s mother) shows that by that date John’s widow had already remarried (Earwaker 2:596-597).

Relationships

Father: Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley (died 11 February 1458/59).

Ormerod (1st ed. 3:304) cites Williamson’s Villare Cestriense and contemporary documents that make it clear that John was the son of Thomas Stanley, both directly and through the fact that he was the brother of the earl of Derby. The relationship is given by Jones (p. 3)

Mother: Joan Goushill (about 1401 - after 1460).

Joan is given as the wife of Thomas by many secondary sources, including the Complete Peerage (4:205), Ormerod (2nd ed. 3:577), Earwaker (2:602), Brydges/Collins (3:56), Baines (5:81), and the Victoria History of the County of Sussex (7:1-7). Documents describing the devolution of the property of Joan’s mother, Elizabeth Arundel, cited by the Victoria History of Sussex (7:1-7) and Sussex Archaeological Collections (56:54-91), refer to John Stanley’s brother, Thomas, as Elizabeth Arundel’s grandson. A 1512-3 petition, however, gives Joan’s name as “Katherine”, which Bridgeman in SAC (56:77) notes is in error.

Spouse: Elizabeth Weever (died 4 March 1511/12).

When Elizabeth’s father died, she became the ward of king Henry VI, who awarded her wardship and marriage to Sir Thomas Stanley in 24 Hen. VI (1445 or 1446). Sir Thomas then married her to his son, John Stanley (Ormerod 1st ed., 3:304). When, exactly, they were married is unknown. After John’s death, Elizabeth married Sir John Done, Knight, of Utkinton.

Children (by Elizabeth Weever):

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Cecily Stanley married Thomas Venables.

Margery Stanley married Sir William Torbok, Knight (marriage settlement January 1489/90).

Anne Stanley married Ralph Ravenscroft.

Jane Stanley married Thomas Hawarden.

John Stanley possibly married Elizabeth Harrington. (It is uncertain whether this identification is correct.)

Thomas Stanley (died 10 April 1526) married firstly Douce Leversedge, and married secondly an Elizabeth. Ancestor of the Stanleys of Alderley.

George Stanley.

Child (outside of marriage):

John Stanley (of Lathom).

References:

Baines, Edward, and James Croston. The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster (revised). (Manchester, England: John Heywood, 1888-1893), 5:81.

Bridgeman, Charles G. O. “The Devolution of the Sussex Manors Formerly Belonging to the Earls of Warenne and Surrey.” in Sussex Archaeological Collections relating to the Antiquities of the County, (56:54-91).

Brydges, Egerton. Collins's peerage of England, genealogical, biographical, and historical, greatly augmented, and continued to the present time. (London: [T. Bensley], 1812).

Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59).

Earwaker, J. P. (John Parsons). East Cheshire, past and present, or, A history of the hundred of Macclesfield in the county Palatine of Chester - from original records. (London: Printed for the Author, 1878-1880), 2:597.

This John Stanley in right of his wife became the owner of the manor of Weever and the lands in Over and Nether Alderley, &c. He is mentioned in 1461 and 1476, in which he is called "John Stanley, Esquire, brother of Thomas, Lord Stanley," but was certainly dead before 1485, when his widow had remarried. He is called a knight in the old pedigrees, but this is incorrect, and the confusion has probably arisen between him and his contemporary, Sir John Stanley, Knt., of Elford.

French, George Russell. Shakspeareana genealogica. (London: Macmillan, 1869), Vol. 1 pp. 166-7.

Jones, Michael K. "Sir William Stanley of Holt" in Welsh History Review Vol. 14, no. 1 (June 1988), pp. 1-22.

Ormerod, George; The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale royal and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. ( London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, and Jones, 1819) 3:304

This Elizabeth was issue of her mother by a first husband, Thomas de Weever (found heir by the Inq. 13 Hen. VI. above-mentioned), and married successively sir John Stanley and sir John Done. Her wardship and marriage were given by king Henry VI. in the 24th year of his reign, “in consideration of the good services done him, to s’r Thom. Stanley, controuler of his house, who married her to his son John Stanley, who in her right was lord of Weever and (Over) Alderley,” and who is commonly called sir John Stanley, kt. in the Cheshire pedigrees, but on what authority may be doubted. 1 Edw. IV. Nicholas Latham of Congleton enfeoffs lands in Knutsford to Thomas lord Stanley, sir William Stanley, kt., and John Stanley, his brothers. 16 Edw. IV. he is noticed in an Inq. respecting lands in Halton, along with his son John, as “Johannes Stanley, arm. frater Thomæ domini Stanley;” and 13 Hen. VII he is described by his widow as simply “John Stanley, her late husband, brother to the earl of Darbie.

Ormerod cites Williamson’s Vill. Cest.; deeds of the Lathams of Congleton. Harl. MSS 1535, et alibi, Sir John Stanley’s MSS. quoting Aston deeds, 32, 6; and Harl. MSS. 2077, 43, b.

Ormerod, George; Peter Leycester; William Smith; William Webb; and Thomas Helsby. The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale royal and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. (London: G. Routledge, 1882).

'The rape and honour of Lewes', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 7: The rape of Lewes (1940), pp. 1-7. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=56907 Date accessed: 16 March 2014.