Portrait of, 1st Lord Stanley of Alderley, three-quarter-length, seated

The Stanley's of Alderley have a history in common with the elder and second branches of the ancient family of Stanley down to Thomas, first Baron Stanley, who, had four sons, one of whom was Thomas, created first Earl of Derby after the Battle of Bosworth, 1485, and the third was Sir John Stanley, Knight of Weever and Alderley, in the time of Edward IV., who married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Weever, Knight of Weever, in the county of Chester, in whose right he succeeded to that estate and had issue.

His descendant Sir John-Thomas Stanley, Bart., F.R.S. and F.S.A., the seventh Baronet, was born 26 November 1766, and was elevated to the peerage, as Baron Stanley of Alderley, in May 1839. He married, October 11, 1796, the Lady Maria, Josepha Hoiroyd, daughter of John, 1st Earl of Sheffield and had nine children.