Stanley family

The Stanley family (or Audley-Stanley family) is an English family with many notable members, including the Earls of Derby and the Barons Audley who descended from the early holders of Audley and Stanley, Staffordshire. The two branches of the Audley family were made Barons Audley but both ended in the male line in the 14th century, after which their considerable estates were passed to a number of female heiresses, while the Stanleys would be elevated in the 15th century first to Barons Stanley and then Earls of Derby, a title they continue to hold.

The use of "Stanley" as a first name began with political followers of the family.

Origins

The earliest documented members of the related Audley and Stanley families are two apparent brothers, Ligulf de Aldelegha and Adam de Standlega, who during the reigns of kings Stephen and Henry II appear to have divided the Audley, Staffordshire, lands that at the time of the 1086 Domesday survey had been the holdings of a man named Gamel, though no familial relationship with their predecessor is known.

The parentage of Ligulf and Adam is unknown, though the English name of the former suggests they had Anglo-Saxon roots. Later descendants, during a period when it came to be socially prestigious, would fabricate a Norman origin for their family, pushing Ligulf and Adam back in time and presenting them as sons of a fictitious Adam, follower of William the Conqueror and lord of an equally fictitious 'Aldithley in Normandy', despite Ligulf's non-Norman name and the English etymology of 'Aldithley'.

Later, as pre-Norman ancestry came into vogue, the Stanleys would invent a maternal descent from a fantastical Anglo-Saxon living a half-century before the conquest, yet improbably bearing the Norman name of 'William' de Stanley. It is uncertain how Stanley, Staffordshire, about 9 miles from Audley and not part of Gamel's Domesday holdings, came to be in the possession of Ligulf's son Adam de Aldelegha, ancestor of the Audleys, before he granted it to his cousin William, son of Adam's uncle Adam de Standlegha, the Stanley ancestor.

Audley

The extended Audley family, originally of Audley Castle but who later built (or re-built) Heighley Castle, Madeley, Staffordshire in 1226, had several additional households including Red Castle at Hawkstone in Shropshire, Buglawton Manor in Congleton, Newhall Tower at Newhall, Cheshire and a home in Nantwich. In the early 12th century Adam's grandson William married Joan de Stanley heiress of Stoneleigh, Staffordshire thereby becoming William de Stanley of Stoneleigh.