This boy, in process of time, became the father of Isabella Lathom, who was in after days the wife of Sir John Stanley. From this time the crest of the Eagle and Child' was assumed. It is in the vernacular the Bird and Bairn,' and is a common sign in Lancashire.

6

The close of the career of 'the Great Stanley,' as the seventh Earl was styled, is a narrative of touching interest, and should be told in fuller detail. In 1651, Charles II. being at Worcester, and hoping to be joined by the English Royalists, issued invitations to his friends to support him with all the force they could raise. To the Earl of Derby, who was in the Isle of Man, Charles sent the Order of the Garter. The Earl hastily arranged his affairs, and set off to join the king, committing his noble Countess and three of his children to the care of the Receiver-General. He took

with him from the Isle of Man 300 Royalists. Before he arrived in Lancashire Charles had quitted the county, but left Major-General Massey to confer with the Earl. They met at Warrington, where, not agreeing as to the dismissal of the Papists, Derby, with only his 300 followers from the Isle of Man, and 300 more who joined him out of Lancashire and Cheshire, gathered together at Preston. Advancing to Wigan (on 25th August), they were set upon in a narrow lane by 1800 dragoons under Colonel Lilburne, and the foot militia, whom Cromwell had detached to hang upon the king's rear. Derby performed prodigies of valour. He received seven shots in his breastplate, thirteen cuts

in his beaver, five or six wounds in his arms and shoulders, and had two horses killed under him. Twice he made his way through the whole body of the enemy; but being overwhelmed with numbers, mounting a third horse, he, with Governor Greenhalgh and five others, fought his way through, and, with his wounds green and sore, he was enabled to join his Majesty in the fatal field of Worcester, September 3d. From this battle Derby conducted the king to the Whiteladies and Boscobel; thence making his way into Cheshire with about forty others, he fell in the way of a regiment of foot and a troop of horse, to whom he surrendered on quarter for life and conditions for honourable usage. These terms of surrender were most disgracefully violated; the Earl was tried by court-martial on a charge of high treason, and sentence of death was passed upon him, directing his execution to take place in four days at his own town of Bolton. Meanwhile, he wrote a long and affectionate letter to his wife. Derby had nearly escaped from the leads of the castle at Chester by means of a long rope thrown up to him from the outside of the fortress: he fastened this securely, slid down, and got down to the banks of the river Dee, where a boat was waiting to convey him away. He was here discovered, seized, conveyed back to the castle, and more securely guarded, until his removal to Leigh, and thence to Bolton for execution. The Earl, after his attempt to escape, wrote another sorrowful letter to his wife, and one to his children in the Isle of Man. His two daughters, Lady Catherine and Lady Amelia, who were in

Chester, had their last interview with him on the 14th of October, as he set out on his way to Leigh.

The execution of the Earl took place at Bolton on the 15th of October, amidst the tears, groans, and prayers of the townspeople. Just before he suffered, Derby requested that the block might be so placed that he could face the church; and this having been done, he said, 'I will look to thy sanctuary while here, as I hope to live in thy heavenly sanctuary hereafter.' Then laying himself with his neck on the block, and his arms stretched out, he said, 'Blessed be God's glorious name for ever and ever. Amen. Let the whole earth be filled with His glory.' He then gave the signal to the executioner by lifting up his hands; but the executioner blundering, the Earl gently upbraided him with not at once discharging his office when he was so ready to depart. Repeating the same words of Scripture, the Earl a second time lifted up his hands, 'the executioner did his work, and Derby passed away.' When the body was put into the coffin to be carried to Ormskirk for burial, the following lines, by an unknown hand, were thrown into it:

'Wit, Beauty, Courage, all in one lie dead,

A Stanley's hand, Vere's heart, and Cecil's head.'

Within eight days after his execution, his Manx subjects. rose in rebellion against the authority of his Countess and her family.

We have selected and abridged these details of the closing scene from a work of remarkable interest and value for its authenticity, entitled The Great Stanley; or, James Seventh

Earl of Derby, and his Noble Countess Charlotte de la Tremouille, in their Land of Man. A Narrative of the Seventeenth Century. By the Rev. J. C. Cumming, M.A., F.G.S. 1867. The work is cleverly illustrated from Manx scenery and antiquities, and is dedicated, by permission, to the present Earl of Derby.

The narrative is modestly acknowledged to be compiled from documents existing in the Rolls Office at Castletown and in the registers of the Isle of Man, from the Manx Statute-book and State papers, and from private family records. 'At the same time,' continues the preface, an endeavour is made to elucidate the Manx popular feeling existing at that period of history in connection with their ancient and dearly-cherished "Tenure of the Straw,"1 their struggles for the maintenance of which against the great Stanley led to disaffection towards the Government, the betrayal of his Countess to the Parliament, the execution as a traitor of the celebrated William Christian, and ultimately to the Act of Settlement of 1703-the Manx Magna Charta, procured from James the tenth Earl of Derby, through the exertions of the Apostolic Bishop Thomas Wilson.'

1 By stipulation, or delivery of the stipula, or straw, the Manx held their estates, which they were consequently said to hold by the tenure of the straw.'

THE MANOR OF WAKEFIELD AND

SANDAL CASTLE.

HE Manor of Wakefield, we learn from Domesday Book, is very extensive, including that of Halifax, and stretching from Normanton to the boundaries of Lancashire and Cheshire.

It is more than

thirty miles in length from east to west, and comprises more than one hundred and eighteen towns, villages, and hamlets of these Wakefield and Halifax are the chief; and the two churches mentioned in Domesday are Wakefield and Sandal churches.

It is probable that the manor of Wakefield was granted, in the reign of William Rufus, between the years 1091 and 1097, to William de Warren, second Earl of Surrey, who by charter granted to God and St. Pancras of Lewes, besides other churches, the church of Wakefield, with its appurtenances. William, the first Earl of Warren, standing nearly allied to the Conqueror, viz. nephew to the Countess his great-grandmother, accompanied the Conqueror to England; and having distinguished himself at the battle of Hastings, obtained an immense portion of the spoil.