Derby calls him "his cousin," but his name does not occur in the family pedigree. He is said to have been an illegitimate son of Sir Edward Stanley, the first Lord Monteagle, of Hornby Castle.[1] in which case he will have been a brother, or half brother, of Dame Elizabeth the wife of Sir Thomas Langton, knight, the patron of Wigan church.
Bishop Stanley was the writer of the "Rhyming Chronicle," a kind of history in verse of the Stanley family, continued to the year 1562, and his verses have been received by genealogists as the most authentic account of the family.[2] He is described by Bishop Tanner as "Poeta haud cotemnendus."[3] He is said to have had in his possession a very ancient painting of the face of our Blessed Lord, which was taken by him to Douglas, in the Isle of Man, where it is still preserved.[4] Mr. Beamont informs us that he was a bad steward to the rectory of Winwick, one of his preferments, for in 3 Eliz., 1563, he granted to Sir Thomas Stanley,
- ↑ Piccope's MSS. in Ghetham Lib. vol. numbered 7 and corrected to 10, p. 90; being taken from Dodsworth's MSS. in Bodleian Lib.
- ↑ Stanley Papers, part i. (Chetham Tract xxix.) p. 16.
- ↑ Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, p. 689.
- ↑ Journal of the Archæological Institute, vol. xxvii. p. 190.
In his bishoprick of Sodor and Man he was succeeded by John Salisbury, Dean of Norwich. There is some discrepancy as to the date of Salisbury's appointment. Rev. J. G. Gumming, editor of "A Short Treatise on the Isle of Man" (vol. x. of the Manx Society's publications, p. 77) gives it as 1569. Willis (Survey of Cathedrals, vol. i. p. 367) says that Thomas Stanley died in 1568 (i.e. 1568-9) and gives the date of Salisbury's nomination as 27th March, 1569, but Le Neve gives it as 27th March, 1570, which is probably the correct date. It appears that some question arose as to the right of nomination, and Queen Elizabeth, writing from Gorhambury, on the 29th September, 1570, to the archbishop of York, mentions the fact that the bishoprick had been for some time vacant by the natural death of Thomas Stanley, and destitute of the episcopal consolation; she informs him that the right of nomination notoriously belonged to the Earl of Derby, who had lawfully nominated, and presented to her, John Salisbury, late suffragan of Thelford, who had already been consecrated [as suffragan], and desired her to send her letters mandatory to the archbishop of York, to confirm the appointment, which she does accordingly. (Pat. 12 Eliz. given in Monumenta de insulâ Manniæ, Manx Society's publication, vol. ix. pp. 53-7.)
