Susan Szkilnyk

Eleanor was born about 1536 in Cross Hall, Aughton, Lancashire, England. Eleanor's father was Sir James Stanley (of Crosshall ) and her mother was Anne Hart. Her paternal grandparents were Sir George Stanley (Lord Strange of Knokyn) and Joan Lestrange (Baroness Strange). She had four brothers and four sisters, named George, Henry, Edward, Thomas, Margaret, Jane, Anne and Alice. She died in 1579 THE STANLEY'S OF BICKERSTAFFE . Sir Edward Stanley, Bart., of Bickerstaffe Hall, Bickerstaffe, near Ormskirk, the fifth Baronet of the Stanleys of Bickerstaffe, and the eleventh Earl of Derby, like the previous Earls of Derby of the Stanley family, was paternally descended from Sir John Stanley, who married Isabel of Lathom, and from his descendant, Thomas Stanley, the first Earl of Derby; and also, like them, was maternally descended from the Princess Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward IV who married for her second husband Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, by whom she had three sons and two daughters, the third son being William, Earl of North-ampton, whose daughter Elizabeth married Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, and was mother of Elizabeth Fitzalan, who married William de Montecute, first Earl of Salisbury of his family, and was grandmother of John, the unfortunate third Earl of Salisbury, whose son was Thomas de Montecute, the fourth Earl of Salisbury, who left by his first wife, the Lady Eleanor Plantagenet, daughter of Thomas, and sister and co-heir of Edmund, Earl. of Kent, an oniy daughter and heiress, Alice de Montecuto, who became the wife of Richard Neville, first Earl of Salisbury of his family, and whose daughter, Eleanor, sister of Richard Neville (the King-maker), the renowned Earl of Warwick, was the first wife of Thomas, the second Baron Stanley of Lathom, and the first Earl of Derby of the Stanley family.. The eldest son of Thomas, the first Earl of Derby, by his first wife, Eleanor, as previously noticed, was George, Lord Strange, who was retained by Richard III. as a pledge for the fidelity of his father in the battle of Bosworth. George, Lord Strange, it will be remembered, married Jane, daughter and heiress of John, eighth tord Strange, of Knockyn, by whom he had three sons, Thomas, John, and James. George, ninth Lord Strange, died before his father, the first Earl of Derby, on the 5th December, 1497, consequently his eldest son, Thomas, succeeded to the earldom as second Earl, whose male heir descendants also succeeded to the earldom of Derby until the male heirs of this (the first) branch of the Derby family became extinct on the death of James the tenth Earl.. John, the second son of Lord Strange, died young and unmarried ; and therefore. Sir James, the third son, Knight of Cross Hall, and marshal of Ireland, who was seated at Cross Hall, Lathom, near Ormskirk, became the progenitor of the second branch of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby. Sir James married Anne, the widow of Sir Edmund "Talbot, of Bashall, sister of Sir Percival Hart, Knight of Lullingstone, and daughter of John Hart, Esq., of Lullingstone Castle, in the county of Kent, by his wife Elizabeth, sister and heiress of Sir John Peche, and daughter of Sir William Peche, Knight of Lullingstone, descended from Gilbert de Peche, who was summoned to Parliament as a peer of the realm, 13 King Edward II. Sir James by his lady had issue,. eight children, namely :.—. l, Thomas, juris-condultus ; . 2, Edward, slain at Musselburgh, Scotland ;. 3, George ;. 4, Anne, married to Ralph Rushton, Esq., of Duckinhalgh ;. 5, Margaret, who became the wife of Edward Stanley, Esq., of Flint ;. 6, Jane ;. 7, Eleanor, married to Gilbert Langtree, Esq., of Langtree ;. 8, Henry.. —Thomas and Edward dying sine prole, Sir James was succeeded by his third son,