the title of Lord Strange, which the eldest sons of the preceding Earls always bore; not being apprized that the Barony of Strange being a Barony in fee, was the right of the heir general, the Duke of Atholl; and it being a considerable time before this was thoroughly ascertained to him, he had borne and signed the name so long, that he thought it less inconvenient to continue than to quit it; declaring however, if he survived his father, that his eldest son should be called Lord Stanley; as indeed after his death, the present Earl was, during his grandfather's life.

When his father resigned the offices of lord lieutenant and custos rotulorum of Lancashire, he was appointed his successor therein; and on December 16th, 1762, was sworn a member of his Majesty's most honourable privy-council, being at the same time constituted chancellor of the duchy and county palatinate of Lancaster; his Lordship was also colonel of the militia of that county.

On March 17th, 1746-7, his Lordship married Lucy, the second of the two daughters and coheirs of Hugh Smith, Esq. of Weald Hall in Essex, by Dorothy his wife, daughter of Dacre Barret Lennard, of Belhouse, Esq. aunt to the late Lord Dacre. Which Hugh was son of Erasmus Smith, of Weald Hall aforesaid, by Mary, daughter of Hugh Hare, Lord Coleraine, and of the Lady Lucy, daughter of Henry Earl of Manchester; the said Erasmus being second son of Sir Roger Smith, alias Herriz, (which was the original name) of Edmondthorpe in Leicestershire, one of the principal and most ancient families in that county; and upon this marriage, his Lordship added to his own the surname of Smith, and quartered their arms with his. And by the said Lucy, who brought him a great fortune, and departed this life on Feb. 5th, 1759, at Preston in Lancashire, he had three sons and as many daughters, viz.

First, Edward, who succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Derby. Second, Thomas, died in Jamaica in 1779. He was major of the Liverpool regiment of dragoons, and elected member of parliament for Lancaster on his brother's accession to the peerage, 1776.

Third, James.-The daughters were,

First, Elizabeth, born 1748, married, July 28th, 1779, the Rev. Thomas Horton, vicar of Badsworth in Yorkshire, and brother to Sir Watts Horton, Bart.: she died April 13th, 1796.

• Morant's History of Essex. Gwillim's Heraldry. Burton's History Leicestershire.

Second, Lucy, married at Knowesley by special licence, on May 25th, 1772, to the Rev. Jeffery Hornby, rector of Winwick in Lancashire, Esq. and has issue.

Third, Harriot, married, in June 1778, to Sir Watts Horton, of Chaderton in Lancashire, Bart.

Fourth, Louisa, born 1759, died 1769.

His Lordship died at Bath suddenly, June 1st, 1771, of an apoplexy.

The fore-mentioned Edward, the eleventh Earl of Derby, died at Knowesley in Lancashire, February 23d, 1776, æt. eightyseven; his Lady survived him but two days, and they were interred together on March 11th, in the family vault at Ormskirk : whereupon the titles descended to his grandson,

EDWARD SMITH STANLEY, THE TWELFTH AND PRESENT EARL OF DERBY. His Lordship was at the general election in 1774, chosen one of the knights to serve in parliament for the county of Lancaster; succeeded to the peerage upon the death of his grandfather as above mentioned, and was sworn lord lieutenant of the county of Lancaster, March 15th, 1776. 'In Feb. 1806 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but removed in 1807.

On June 12th, 1774, his Lordship was married to Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, only daughter of James late Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, by whom he has had issue,

First, Edward Lord Stanley, born April 21st, 1775, married, June 30th, 1798, his cousin, Charlotte Margaret Hornby, second daughter of the Reverend Geoffrey Hornby, and has issue, first, Edward Geoffrey, born March 29th, 1799; second, Henry Thomas, born March 9th, 1803; third, Charlotte Elizabeth, born July 11th, 1801; fourth, Emily Lucy, died November 1804; fifth, Louisa Emily, born June 1st, 1805. His Lordship is member of parliament for Preston, Lancashire.

Second, Lady Charlotte, born October 17th, 1776, and died November 25th, 1805, having married, August 22d, 1796, her cousin Edmund Hornby, Esq. son of the Reverend Geoffrey Hornby.

Third, Lady Elizabeth Henrietta, married, January 15th, 1795, Thomas Cole, Esq. son of Major Thomas Rea Cole, of Twickenham, Middlesex, by Isabella, daughter of Sir Henry Ibbetson, Bart.

His Lordship, upon the death of his first Countess, (who deceased, March 14th, 1797) married, secondly, on May 1st, 1797, Miss Elizabeth Farren, by whom he has issue,

Fourth, Lady Lucy Elizabeth, born March 1st, 1799.
Fifth, Henry James, born March 9th, 1800.

Sixth, Mary Margaret, born March 23d, 1801.

Titles. Edward Smith Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord Stanley, and Baronet.

Creations. Earl of Derby, October 27th, 1485, 1 Hen. VII. and Baronet, June 26th, 1627, 3 Car. I.

Arms. Argent, on a bend Azure, three bucks heads, cabossed, Or.

Crest. On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, an eagle with wings expanded, Or, preying upon an infant in its cradle, proper. Supporters. On the dexter side, a griphon, on the sinister, a buck, both Or, ducally collared and chained, Azure.

Motto. Sans changer.

Chief Seats. At Knowesley and Bickerstaff, both in the county of Lancaster,

I

THINK it the safer way to begin the history of this family with the words of Dugdale; and throw the more doubtful part of its earlier pedigree, as it has been given by Collins, into a note.

"The first of this family," says Dugdale, " that had the title of Earl, was William Herbert, Lord of Ragland, in Monmouthshire, (which William enjoyed that Lordship from Maud, his grandmother, daughter and heir to Sir John Morley, Knight, the hereditary owner thereof.) As to his parentage, it is by some derived from Henry, the son of Herbert, chamberlain to King Henry I. but by others from Henry Fitzroy, one of the natural sons of that King." a

b

a The British genealogists, and a pedigree drawn by Thomas Jones of Tregaron, ann. 1582, deduce this family from Herbert, a natural son of King Henry I. but I think it more evident, that Henry Fitz-Herbert, chamberlain to the said King, was ancestor to all of the name of Herbert; it being certain from our records, that Henry Fitz-Herbert married Julian, concubine to King Henry I. and daughter of Sir Robert Corbet of Alencester (now called Alcester) in Warwickshire; whereby he became possessed of the lordship of Alcester, bestowed on the said Sir Robert Corbet by that King. His son HERBERT Fitz-Herbert was also lord chamberlain to King Stephen in the fifth year of his reign, when he gave cccliii 1. for livery of his father's lands: and having married to his first wife Lucy, third daughter to Milo Earl of Hereford, had with her the forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and other possessions; but for some transgressions he is said to surrender the forest of

C

b Descent of Nobility, MS. Not. B 20, in Bibl. Joh. Anstis, Arm. c Dugdale's Warwickshire. p. 568, 569, and Vincent's Discovery of Brooke's Errors, p. 130

Rot. Pip. 5 Steph. Hants e Mon. Ang. vol. ii. 66, b. n. 40.
f Ibid. vol. i. p. 556, n. 5o.

Sir WILLIAM ap Thomas, resided at Ragland castle in Monmouthshire, in the reign of King Henry V. who knighted

Dean to Henry II. Nevertheless he obtained from that King a confirmation of all the lands which his father held; as also of his office of chamberlain. In 12 Hen. II. on the assessment of that aid then levied for marrying the King's daughter, he certified," that he held one knight's fee in com. Wilts, and three in com. Berks. In 6 Ric. I. he was sheriff of Gloucestershire, for one half of that year; and afterwards during the whole reign of that King. Also in 8 Ric. I. for Shropshire.

With the consent of Lucy his wife, and Reginald his son, he bestowed on the monks of Waverley (in com Surry) all his lands at Boviete; Peter and Matthew, two other of his sons, being witnesses to that grant. Herbert had a second wife Maud, by whom he had Matthew, father of Peter, who died without issue.

Of Reginald, his son, I find no farther mention. Matthew, the youngest son, is said to have been ancestor of Vincent Fitz-Herbert, of Netherfield in Sussex, the founder of the noble family of the Finches, Peter succeeding in the inheritance. Which PETER in 6 Joh. 9 had seisin of the moiety of the lordship of Alcester in Warwickshire, the record thus expressing it, viz." Medietatis Manerii de Alencester, quam Pater suus tenuit." The year before, he had in marriage Alice the daughter of Robert Fitz-Roger, a great Baron in com Northumb. and was so obsequious to King John, at the time of his difference with his Barons, that in the fourteenth year of his reign he was, reputed one of his evil counsellors; and in 15 Joh. made governor of Pickering castle in com. Ebor. being also the same year joined among " those Barons who made oath, and undertook that the King should be obedient to the Pope in all matters for which he stood excommunicated, and no ways disquiet Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other prelates, clergy, and laity, who had opposed him; or hinder the said archbishop or bishops in doing their office; with divers other articles, which they likewise undertook to be observed. And the said Peter Fitz-Herbert was also one of those twelve Barons, who, being parties to the said treaty, gave notice of it to the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of London, Ely, Hereford, Bath, and Lincoln, and to the prior and monks of Canterbury. Likewise on October 3d that year, 1213, when the King, at St. Paul's, London, by deed then dated and sealed with a golden seal, resigned to God and his holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, to his holy mother the church of Rome, to his Lord Pope Innocent III. and his Catholic successors, the kingdoms of England and Ireland,

X

e Cart. Antiq. R. 1, n. 33,

h Lib rub. in Scaccario, tit. Wilts and Berks.

Rot. Pip. de iisd. ann. Glouc.

k Ibid.

Rot. Pip. 8 R I. Salop. m Ex Autog. penes T. Herbert, Bart.

Ibid.

• Ibid.

• Claus. 6 Joh. m. 20.

P See however Gent. Mag. vol. lvii. p. 648.

• M. Paris, 231, n. 20.

Rymer's Foed. vol. i. p. 171.

Pot. Pip. 5 Joh tit. Bristow.

Pat. 15 Joh. m. 1.

x Ibid. p. 177.

y Ibid. p. 177.

Ex Stemmate.