Sir William de Stanley
Lord of Storeton and Stanlegh
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: April 1360.
Place of Death: unknown.
The date is given by Irvine.
Relationships
Father: John de Stanley of Storeton.
This relationship is given by the Complete Peerage (12/1:247). It is supported by a pedigree recorded in 1361 contained within Chester Plea Roll No. 67. 35 E.3. m. 98, recording a suit of quo warranto to show William de Stanley’s claim to the hereditary forestership of Wirral (Wrottesley p. 149). (Ormerod (2:415) inserts an extra generation,named William, between the William of this page and John).
(probable) Mother: Emma.
This relationship is given by Irvine, citing a marriage settlement.
Spouse: Alice, daughter of Hugh Mascy.
This relationship is given by Bennett (ODNB) and by Coward (p. 3). The Complete Peerage (12/1:247 fn m) suggests that the marriage to a Mascy may have actually taken place in an earlier generation. Irvine states that there is no satisfactory evidence for this marriage.
Spouse: Agnes, widow of John de Lascelles.
See the Commentary section.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
Alice de Stanley (born about 1330) married Ranulph le Roter of Kingsley.
William de Stanley (died 18 June 1398).
Sir John de Stanley (died 6 January 1413/14) married Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Lathom.
Ellen de Stanley married John de Merton in 1359.
Evidence
from the Lancashire VCH (3: sub Aughton):
Henry's wife was Joan, and probably his son was the Henry de Litherland who in 1361 gave a yearly rent of £20 from his lands in Aughton to William de Stanley and Agnes his wife, the widow of John de Lascelles. Eight years later William de Stanley gave to Agnes de Beckington, formerly wife of Henry de Litherland, lands in Wallasey, while Agnes gave to William lands she had in Storeton in Wirral. Henry—apparently the same—was living in 1371, when a re-feoffment of his lands in Liscard was made to him; and a little later a settlement of his Cheshire lands was made upon John his son, with remainders to his other children, Matthew and Katherine.
from the Rylands Charters:
http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb133-rych/rych/1845
GB 133 RYCH/1845
?7] Jan 1368
Quitclaim by William de Tranemul to John Lassels and Agnes, his mother, wife of Henry de Lithurlond.
http://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb133-rych/rych/1491
GB 133 RYCH/1491
18 Oct 1369
Deed of exchange between William de Stanley and Agnes de Bechynton, widow of Henry de Bykirstaht.
Commentary
The evidence above suggests that an Agnes married firstly John Lascelles, secondly William de Stanley, thirdly Henry de Litherland, and fourthly a de Bechington. The only problem is the 1361 date in the VCH account, while William de Stanley died in 1360. I assume that either the date is in error, or that Agnes was the widow rather than the wife of William at the time. The William de Stanley eight years later must have been the son and heir.
References
Bennett, Michael J. “Sir John Stanley (c. 1350-1414) in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography v. 52.
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).
Coward, Barry. The Stanleys, Lords Stanley and Earls of Derby 1385-1672. Volume 30 of Remains Historical and Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester, Third Series. (Manchester: Chetham Society, 1983).
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).
A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3 (William Farrer ed.) (1907)
Irvine, W. Fergusson. “The Early Stanleys” in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Vol. 105, 1953.
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).
Wrottesley, George. Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls:collected from the pleadings in the various courts of law A.D. 1200 to 1500, from the original rolls in the Public Records Office (1905).