STANLEY, Edward II (1521/22-?1609), of Ewloe and Cilcain, Flints.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553

Family and Education

b. 1521/22, 1st s. of Peter Stanley of Flint by Jane Parker. m. by 1553, Margaret, da. of Sir James Stanley of Cross Hall, Lancs., 7s. 3da. suc. fa. 1539.1

Offices Held

Subsidy collector, Flints. temp. Edw. VI; j.p. 1555, q. 1558/59; escheator 1562-3.2

Biography

Edward Stanley belonged to the Hooton branch of an old Cheshire family, and his forbears had long been prominent in Flint. His father died when Stanley was rising 17, but with the aid of his uncle and namesake he was able to buy his own wardship and marriage, and on reaching his majority he sued out livery of his inheritance in June 1543. He had to defend it against encroachments by kinsmen and others, among them Thomas Salusbury who infringed his monopoly of grinding corn at Flint by erecting another mill nearby. His Membership of three Parliaments in quick succession may have been connected with these disputes; it is unlikely that he sat in April 1554 as Robert Massey’s replacement at Flint Boroughs, since Massey was related by marriage to his opponent Salusbury. All that is known about Stanley’s part in the Commons is that he did not join the opposition to the Marian regime in 1553 or 1555.3

Stanley was named to the local bench shortly before his last appearance in the House and he was placed on the quorum at Elizabeth’s accession. Doubts as to his fitness were first raised by his detractors and then conceded by his friends, and he was not reappointed to the bench on completing his term as escheator. In May 1569 he suffered a mental breakdown from which he never recovered although he enjoyed lucid spells until his death 40 years later. An inquisition held in 1574 found that during his madness he had sold land worth £16 a year and recommended that his remaining property should be transferred to his son Robert. During one of his last spells of lucidity five years later Stanley set up a trust to provide for his daughters. He continued to engage in litigation, and in 1585 he made a fine in the Exchequer for his sloth in collecting the subsidy under Edward VI. He was buried at Hawarden near Ewloe in January 1609.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., E150/1223/11. H. Taylor, Flint, 122; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 316.
  • 2. Exchequer (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xv), 191; SP11/5/6.
  • 3. Taylor, 101, 106-7; CPR, 1485-94, p. 196; 1494-1509, p. 486; 1549-51, p. 76; LP Hen. VIII, iv, viii, xviii; Wards 9/149, f. 161; Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 95, 99, 104; E159/334, Easter 74.
  • 4. C1/1474/44-46; Cat. Mss Wales (Cymmrod. rec. ser. iv), 603; Wards 7/14/79; Harl. rolls E15; Exchequer, 191; Taylor, 122; Ches. 3/77/26, 90/21.