[From Draper The House of Stanley]

THE STANLEYS OF BICKERSTAFFE.

EDWARD, ELEVENTH EARL OF DERBY.

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 Oross 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 ; 8, 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,

Sir’ George Stanley, Knight of Cross Hall, marshal of Ireland (commonly designated the Black Knight Marshal of Tr~il~m,-l\ oyul flo-r~fo;y, r~f flisa Tulti ciÇ Mu-. Q,’ i.~r.~’iw~

represented as having been a most martial and valiant man in the field, and a wise counsellor : his boldness and resolution in action were not to be withstood ; and he was an utter enemy to the rebellious Irish, insomuch that his name was a terror to them, and where he engaged them their cry was Fagh U/irish saave me cramochree, by which they meant, " O Christ, save me for the love of my heart." Having fully reduced the rebellion in Ireland, he was greatly honoured and esteemed by the King ; and, for his bravery and important services, the King conferred upon him the office of knight-marshal of Ireland. Sir George married Isabel, daughter of Sir John Duckinfield, of Duckinfield, Cheshire, by whom he had issue, two sons and two daughters, namely :— Edward and Henry, both of whom died before their father, and without issue ; Mary, who became the wife of Robert, son and heir of Sir Thomas Hesketh of Rufford, and sheriff of Lancashire in 1 600 and 1 608 ; and Agnes—The sons of Sir George ‘dying sine prole, he was succeeded by his youngest, and only surviving brother,

Henry Stanley, Esq., of Aughton, and, jure uxoris, of Bickerstaffe, born in 1515, to whom the Cross Hall estate also now passed. This gentleman married, on the 26th of September, 1563, Margaret, only child and heiress of Peter Stanley, Esq.,f of Aughton (who bore the great standard in the funeral procession of Earl Edward, and was third son of Sir William Stanley, of Hooton), by his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of James Scarisbrick, Esq., by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Atherton, Esq., of Bickerstaffe, through whom the manor of Bickerstaffe passed to the Stanley family. This Mr. Henry Stanley (the elder) was comptroller of the household to Edward the third Earl of Derby, and he rode in the funeral procession of that nobleman, bearing his staff of office. According to the Sloane MS. 874, he was muster master for the county, purchased arms for the trained soldiers, and had the charge of the beacons in Lancashire ; and Sir Richard must have been the grandson of Peter Stanley, Esq., of Moor Hall, Aughton. As Seacombe’s statement has been adopted in a previous notice of Peter Stanley, this caution is neeessary.—See page 11.

Sherburne and Sir John Byron disbursed his official accounts by warrant from Henry Earl of Derby. Amongst the family portraits at Knowsley are two sombre and inartistic portraits, on panel, of this Mr. Stanley, the elder, and his wife. The venerable gentleman wears a velvet cap and ruff is habited in a plain dark dress, and has a prominent patriarchal beard. On the background is inscribed, " A° 1582, æt. suæ. 67," but apparently more aged, looking, indeed, as Canon Raines remarks, ‘~ like Wordsworth’s old Thorn—so old that you could hardly believe he had ever been young." His wife is also habited in a dark dress, and wears an enormous ruff and three chains of gold round her neck, the inscription being " A° 1582, æt. suæ. 57." Henry Stanley, Esq., died in 1591, aged 83, and had a most magnificent and imposing funeral, which was solemnized at Ormskirk (the Bickerstaffe Chapel at the north side of the Church being the family burial place of the Stanleys of Bickerstaffe and Aughton) with all the gloomy pomp and pageantry of woe, almost rivalling in grandeur and solemnity the funeral of Earl Edward, the Bountiful, in 1572, in the same venerable edifice. He left issue, Edward, James, and Jane, the latter of whom became the wife of Gabriel Hesketh, Esq., of Aughton, upon whom’ was settled in remainder by will, dated 1595, a moiety of the large estates of his grandfather, Sir John Southworth, of Southworth and Salmesbury, knight, whose daughter Margaret married Bartholomew Hesketh, Esq., of Aughton (a cadet of the Rufford House). This Bartholomew Hesketh, whose son Gabriel (called after his grandfather) married Jane Stanley, of Aughton, was the son and heir of Gabriel Hesketh, of Aughton, whose second son was Sir Thomas Heskett or Hesketh, of Whitehill, in Lancashire, and of Haslington, near York. This Sir Thomas Hesketh was bencher and reader of Gray’s Inn, London, in 1588, and was recorder of Lancaster and M.P. for that borough in 1597, attorney of the Court of Wards of Liveries to Queen Elizabeth and James I., and was knighted in 1603. In Westminster Abbey, against the screen of the choir, there is a fine old monument to his memory, whereon lies the effigy of a gentleman at full length in a tufted gown, and underneath, upon the base, was a lady kneeling, which figures represent Sir Thomas and Julien, his wife, the latter of whom caused the monument to be erected. Sir Thomas died October 1 5th, 1605, sine prole, and devised his property to his brother Cuthbert.—Henry Stanley, Esq., was succeeded by his eldest son,

Sir Edward Stanley, Bart., created first Baronet of Bickerstaffe, June 26th, 1627. Sir Edward married, first, Katherine, second daughter of Sir Randal Mainwaring, Knight of Over-Peover, Cheshire, by whom he had three daughters, Anne, Elizabeth, and Frances ; and he espoused, secondly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Peter Warburton, Knight of Arley, by whom he had six sons, namely :—l , Thomas, his heir, christened at Ormskirk, 22nd October, 1616. 2, Henry, christened at Ormskirk, 3rd September, 1617, married to Mary, daughter of Hamlet Cooper, Esq., of Bickerstaffe, and was father of Edward Stanley, Esq., of Preston, Lancashire, who died in 1755, aged 103 years, having had six sons, of whom the youngest, Charles Stanley (registered at Preston, 16th September,1702) was possessed, jure uxoris, of Balla Caigan, &c., Isle of Man, and had four sons, the three youngest of whom died unmarried, but the eldest, Charles, born 3rd April, 1745, heir at length to the Manx property, which he afterwards parted with, left one son, the Rev. James Stanley, born 30th October, 1768, and was brought up by Edward, twelfth Earl of Derby, and was vicar of Ormskirk from 1800 to 1812, and became, in the course of events, the representative of Henry Stanley, Esq., his progenitor, second son of Sir Edward, first Baronet of Bickerstaffe. The Rev. James Stanley married, July 1 ith, .1797, Sarah, daughter of John Edleston, Esq., and was buried at Orrnskirk, June 17th, 1812, leaving issue, 1, Edward, captain R.N., born 10th May, 1798, who, in 1839, was presented with a splendid sword by the mercantile community of Singapore, as a acknowledgment for his services in the suppression of piracy in the Straits of Malacca ; 2, Frederick, lieutenant RN., born 10th May, 1799, who was lost in H.M. sloop Drake, at St. Shalts, Newfoundland, in June, 1822; 3, Henry, born September 11th, 1800 ; 4, Charles, born 28th September, 1806 ; 5, Jane, married 19th December, 1825, to Richard Bayly Bowden, Esq., lieutenant R.N. ; 6, Caroline, married July 28th, 1827, to Henry Robert Crozier, Esq.—The other four sons of Sir Edward, the first Baronet, by his second wife, Isabel, were, James, the third son, christened at Ormskirk, 3rd March, and buried at Ormskirk, 28th May, 1618; Robert, the fourth son, christened 6th September, 1620, at Ormskirk ; John, the 5th son, christened at Ormskirk, 19th December, 1 621 ; and Francis, the sixth son, christened the 5th December, 1 622, at Ormskirk..—Sir Edward (first Baronet) died in 1640, and was buried at Ormskirk, on the 4th May, and was succeeded by his eldest son,

Sir Thomas Stanley, second Baronet of Bickerstaffe. Sir Thomas* married Mary, daughter of Peter Egerton, Esq., of Shaw, Lancashire, and widow of Henry Houghton, Esq., of Brimscolls, by whom he had two sons and two daughters :— 1, Edward, his successor, born 1 643 ; 2, Elizabeth, died unmarried ; 3, Mary, married to John Bradshaw, Esq., of Pennington ; 4, Peter, progenitor of the present proprietor of Cross Hall, Edward Stanley, Esq., head of the first collateral branch of the house of Derby, which remains to be noticed.—.

Sir Thomas Stanley died in May, 1653, and was buried at Ormskirk, being succeeded by his eldest son,

Sir Edward Stanley, third Baronet, who married, at Ormskirk, December 25th, 1664, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bosville, Esq., of Warmsworth, Yorkshire, by whom he had a son and four daughters :— 1, Thomas, his heir, christened at Ormskirk, 27th September, 1670 ; 2, Mary, born 1665, and buried at Ormskirk, I 2th June, 1719, unmarried ; 3, Elizabeth, born in 1666, and buried at Ormskirk, 3rd June, 1669; 4, Barbara, christened at Ormskirk, 24th March, 1667, and became the wife of the Rev. Zachary Taylor ; 5, Elizabeth, born in 1671, and died unmarried, at Knowsley, aged sixty-seven, and buried at Ormskirk, 28th April, 1738.—Sir Edward died of fever, and was buried at Ormskirk, 14th October, 1671, being survived by his lady till 1695, who was also buried at Ormskirk, on the 1st June. It was to witness the funeral of this Sir Edward Stanley, that Nathaniel Heywood, the ejected vicar of Ormskirk, whilst indisposed by sickness, was helped to the window, to see the funeral pass by to the church ; and it was this Lady Stanley who personally opposed the seizing of Nathaniel Heywood in the Bickerstaffe Chapel, adjoining the Hall, and afterwards mediated for him at Wigan ; and it was also this Lady Stanley who succoured many of the Presbyterians and Quakers, and not the Countess Charlotte de la Tremouille, who is sometimes taken for Lady Stanley of Bickerstaffe. Sir Edward was succeeded by his son,

Sir Thomas Stanley, Bart. (the fourth Baronet), who married, 16th August, 1688, Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Patten, Esq., of Preston, M.P., by whom he had issue :—1, Sir Edward, his heir ; 2, Thomas, born 1690-1, and died 1693 ; 3, John, born 1692, in holy orders, D.D., rector of Liverpool, Bury, and Winwick, and married, first, Alice, daughter of Edward Warren, Esq., and secondly, Miss Sarah Earle, of Liverpool, but died s.p. in 1781, at the age of eighty-one ; 4, William, died an infant in 1694.—Sir Thomas was M.P. for Preston, in 1695, and died on the 7th May, and was buried at Ormskirk, on the I 7th May, 1713, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

Sir Edward Stanley, as fifth Baronet, who on the death ,of James, the tenth Earl, in I 735-6, became the ELEVENTH Earl of Derby, as the next male heir. Earl Edward was born on the 11th September, 1689, and married in March, 1714, Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Robert Hesketh, Esq., of Rufford, by Elizabeth, daughter of the Honourable William Spencer, of Ashton Hall, Lancashire, born 29th August, 1 694i. The Earl, previously to his succession to the earidom, was, in I 73 1, mayor of Preston, and M.P. for the county of Lancaster, and was afterwards appointed lord-lieutenant of the county, which latter office be resigned, on account of his age, to Lord Stanley ; but, on his son’s death, in 1771, he was reappointed lord-lieutenant. The Earl by his Countess had issue :—1, James, Lord Stanley, born 17th and baptised 29th January, 1717, at Preston, commonly styled (though improperly, as that barony belonged to the Duke of Athol) Lord Strange, who married, 17th March, 1747, Lucy, daughter and co-heir of Hugh Smith, Esq., of Weald Hall, Essex, of the ancient family of Smith, or Herriz, of Edrnundthorpe, Leicestershire, and assumed, in consequence, the additional surname of Smith. Lord Stanley was a very able speaker and an active member of Parliament, and on the 1 6th Decernber, 1762, on the resignation of the honours by the Earl, his father, he was constituted chancellor of the duchy and lord-lieutenant of the county palatine of Lancaster. Lord and Lady Stanley had issue :.—Edward, who became the twelfth Earl of Derby ; Thomas, a major in the army, born in 1753, died 1779, at Jamaica, and buried at Ormskirk, 20th April, 1780 ; Elizabeth, married, in 1779, to the Rev. Thomas Horton, Bart., of Chadderton, and died in 1796 ; Lucy, married to the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby, rector of Winwick, and died his widow in 1833, leaving a numerous family ; and Harriet, married to Sir Watts Horton, Bart., and died in 1830, leaving an only child Harriet, married to Charles Rhys, Esq., of Bath.—2, Elizabeth, married, in 1746, to Sir Peter Warburton, Bart., of Arley Hall, and died 2nd September, 1780.—3, Mary, died unmarried, in 1795.—4, a son died unbaptised, March, 1718—5, Thomas, born at Preston in 1720, and buried there December 12th, 1722.—6, Isabella Dorothy, born in 1721, and died at Bath, 15th July, 1787, unmarried.—7, Margaret, born April 22nd, 1723, died 1st March, at Knutsford, and buried at Ormskirk, on the 9th March, 1776.—8, Jane, born and buried at Preston, in April, 1726.—9, Jane, died at Knutsford, and buried at Budworth, Oheshire.—1 0, Barbara, died an infant and buried at Preston, 1 2th~ March, 1730.—11, Charlotte, married to Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne, and died 7th June, 1776.—12, Edward, registered at Preston, 8th July, 1732, died in London on the 20th of April, and buried at Ormskirk, 4th May, 1745.

The Earl of Derby died on the 22nd of February, 1776, aged eighty-seven ; and, what is remarkable, his Countess only survived him- two, days, she dying on the 24th February, 1776. Lady Stanley died before her husband, Lord Stanley, on the 7th February, in the thirtieth year of her age, and was buried at Ormskirk, on the 17th February, 1759 ; and Lord Stanley, the eldest son of the Earl, died before his father, at Bath, on the 1st of June, and was buried at Ormskirk, on the 14th June, 1771 ; consequently the eldest son of Lord and Lady Stanley succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Derby.

Footnotes

* The Duke and Duchess of Athol were cousins, the Duchess, Charlotte, Baroness Strange, being the only child of James, second Duke of Athol, who married her cousin, John Murray, third Duke of Athol, who, by the decision of the House of Lords, succeeded his uncle in the dukedom of Athol, and jure uxoris, to the barony of Strange end the sovereignty of the Isle of Man.

t The whole island is now under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of a bishop, who is styled "Bishop of Sodor and Man," who is, also, sole baron of the island, and possesses several other important privileges.

~ The Queen of Edward I., and the mother of the Princess Elisabeth, was Eleanor, the daughter of Ferdinand III., King of Castile. Whilst Edward was in the Holy Land, he was stabbed by an assassin with a poisoned dagger, ‘when the Princess Eleanor of Castile saved his life by $uekuig the poison from the wound.

* This gentleman was a frequent guest at Lathom and Knowsley in the time of Earls Edward and Henry, where he was familiarly known as " Mr. Stanley the younger," to distinguish him from his uncle, Henry Stanley, Esq., of Aughton.

* Seacombe has it, that Peter Stanley, Esq., had ‘six children, namely, Thomas, James, Robert, Edward, Bridget, and Mary by his wife Elizabeth, and that he was " an eminent Royalist and joined his interest and force with that of his noble relative, James Earl of Derby," as already noticed ; but it appears that Margaret, the wife of Henry Stanley, the elder, was the only daughter of Peter Stanley, Esq., by his first wife, Elizabeth Scarisbrick, and that the six children, whose names are stated, were by a second marriage. If, as Seacombe says, Peter Stanley, Esq., survived till 1652, he could not have been less than 145 years of age, as his son-in-law, Henry Stanley, according to the Family Pedigree, was born in 1515, and his daughter Margaret, by his first wife, in or about 1525, If in 1582 she was 57 years of age. The Peter Stanley noticed by Seacombe as " an eminent Royalist

* In 1642, Sir Thomas was found on the side of the Parliament, and commanded the militia, with Holcroft and Birch, at Manchester, where, it is said, he fired at Lord Strange (James, seventh Earl of Derby) from a window, but missed him. He was also appointed, with his father-in-law, one of the committee of sequestrators for Lancashire, but does not appear to have been a very active member—See Ormerod’s Civil War Tracts.

Nathaniel Heywood was brother of the pious Nonconformist, Oliver Heywood, who suffered persecution at the hands of the Cromwellians, for refusing to give thanks to God for the defeat of the Royalists at Preston ; and who, on the restoration of Charles II. to the British throne, thus expresses himself :—" Lift up thine eyes, my soul, and behold the face of things abroad. After a dark and gloomy winter comes a heart-reviving spring. What a change has been effected in half a year ! Surely there is a gracious, moving wheel of Providence in all these vicissitudes. Usurpers have had the seat of jurisdiction, have held the reins in their hands, and driven on furiously these twelve years. They commanded a toleration of all but truly tender consciences, cast off parliaments of their own appointing at their pleasure, anti threatened sequestration for all ‘who would not fall down and worship the golden image of their invention. They turned out our nobles, made our illustrious kingdom a confused commonwealth, an imaginary free state, while they deprived the people of their native privilege of electing their own members to sit in Parliament."— Mr. Nathaniel Heywood was born at Little Lever, in the parish of Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire, and was baptised at the Parish Church, September 16th, 1683. On the 4th May, 1648, he was admitted into Trinity College, Cambridge ; and after taking his degree he went to London. In course of time he married Miss Elizabeth Parr, a relative to Dr. Parr, Bishop of the Isle of Man. Soon after his marriage, he was appointcd curate of Illingworth, in the parish of Halifax, Yorkshire, where he continued three or four years, and, as already stated, at page 242, in 1656, he was appointed to the vicarage of Ormskirk by Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess Dowager of Derby, succeeding the Rev. John Brixop. The income of the vicarage at that time was very small, not more than £20 a year, but there was an exhibition of £50 a year " granted by Queen Elizabeth for an itinerant preacher," and which had long been enjoyed by the vicars of Ormskirk—the vicar of Ormskirk, for the time being one of the four King’s preachers amongst whom £200 a year was divided. After the restoration of Charles II., however, one Mr. Stanninghaugh, the rector of the adjoining parish of Aughton, although receiving £148 a year. rode up to London and, by the help of his friends, surreptitiously obtained the £50 as King’s preacher settled upon himself, which circumstance caused some people to reflect on a sermoa previously preached by Mr, Heywood at Ormskirk Church, on a day of thanksgiving for the King’s restoration, from 2 Sam. xix., 20,—" And Mephibosheth said unto the King. yea, let them take all, for as much as my lord the King is come again in peace unto his own house." Notwithstanding the loss of his £50 a year as King’s preacher, Mr. Heywood managed to support his family of nine children in great decorum, besides ministering of his limited means to the wants of others. On the 24th August, 1662, Mr. Heywood, and many others, allowed themselves to be deprived of their livings, because their consciences would not allow them to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity, passed by the Lords and Commons, which offered to every Non-conformist minister within the Church of England that if on or before August 24th, 1662 (St. Bartholomew’s Day) he received episcopal ordination, declared his assent and consent to all and every thing prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and abjured the league and covenant, he might continue to hold his living, but otherwise, he must depart from it, being allowed three months’ notice for deliberation,—certainly a hard measure, and much to be deplored for the sake of many good men such as the Heywoods, Baxter, and many others ; yet merciful, compared with the treatment which many of the 8,000 ejected ministers of the Church of England had experienced at the hands of the Cromwellian and Puritan fanatical elders, who did not allow their predecessors so many hours, and some of whom now persuaded others not to conform, but conformed themselves, to retain their own or get the better livings of others, nearly the whole of whom had got into and been enjoying church livings they had never any legal or just right to hold or enjoy, many of them being laymen, never educated for the ministry. It is pleasing to know, however, that Mr. Heywood was not of this class, hs refusal to conform was purely a matter of conscience. Mr. Heywood continued his public ministrations at Ormskirk until the appointment of his successor, the Rev. John Ashworth ; and, in 1672, on the King’s licence to preach being issued, Mr. Heywood, we are told, cordially embraced it, and had two chapels licensed, one adjoining Bickerstaffe Old Hall, then the seat of Sir Edward Stanley, and the other near Hurlston-green, in Scarisbrick, where he preached for about two years, when more trouble and opposition awaited his ministerial employments, warrants being issued for his apprehension, and which was effected while he was in the pulpit at Bickerstaffe Chapel, although Lady Stanley interposed and did all she could to prevent the officers laying hands upon him. Whilst taking Mr. Heywood towards Wigan the people rescued him, and several persons became surety for his appearance at the Wigan sessions ; where he surrendered at the proper time, attended by Lady Stanley, who, with others, came to mediate for him, and gained his liberty. After this Mr. Heywood continued to preach and pray as often as circumstances and health permitted. He died on Sunday morning, December 16th, 1677, and was buried, by the consent and desire of the Stanley family, in the Bickerstaffe chancel at Ormskirk Church, on Wednesday, the 19th of December, on which occasion the Rev. Mr. Starkey, a Nonconformist minister, was permitted to preach a sermon, taking for his text, Col. iii., 4, " When Christ who is our life shall appear, theis shall ye also appear with him in glory." All the people in the town did honour to the remains of the deceased : " Mr. Constable, the chief officer in the town, of considerable authority, carried the staff (like a mace) before the corpse and the rest walked in due and decent order."—See Life of Rev. Nathaniel Heywood in Works of Oliver Heywood.—Connected with the illustrious name of Charlotte de la Tremouille, Countess of Derby, and that of the pious Nathaniel Heywood, mention may be made of an interesting relic in the Parish Church of Ormskirk, that being an old stone font, supposed by some to have been’ presented to the Church by the Countess of Derby in 1661, a presumption quite plausible and acceptable, as one side of the font bears the crest of the Stanley family, and the stone appears to have been hewn from the " Round 0 Quarry," in Lathom. This font was first used by the Rev. Nathaniel Heywood, as the following entry in the baptismal register records : " 2 January 1661. Elizabeth Gnise dl : William de Ormak : Bapt. Being ye First in ye new Font p~. Nath, Heywood." For a great number of years the font occupied various positions in and about the church, at one time being placed under a spout to receive the downfall and at another time being the companion of rubbish, having been removed from the baptistery about 90 years ago, and supplanted by a marble basin, the gift of the Rev. William Knowles, MA., vicar of the parish. Last year the old font underwent a complete and careful renovation, at the expense of William Weisby, Esq., to whose munificence we are also indebted for the new window in the baptistery of the church. The font, which was last year (1863) restored to its proper place in the baptistery, is sexagonal, having on one side the date of its original erection, " 1661 ;" on another a Latin cross, on a calvary of three steps ; then a St. Andrew’s cross ; next a Royal Crown with the initials " C. B.," being those of Charles II. ; then the Stanley crest— the Eagle and Child ; and on the sixth side the representation of an hour glass—In 1859, John Pemberton Heywood, Esq., the eminent banker of Liverpool, and a lineal descendant of the Rev. Nathaniel Heywood, in response to an appeal from Mr. Richard Bromley, then churchwarden of Ormskirk, gave the present east window of the church, as a memorial to his ancestor—the subject being " The Ascension."