Tuesday 30 October 2012

Henriette Marie Stanley 1630-1685


Henriette Marie Stanley 1630-1685 was one of the daughters of James Stanley the seventh Earl of Derby. In August 1651, she was with her father in the Isle of Man where he was planning his ill-fated expedition to England. On 11 August 1651 she wrote to Sir Thomas Tyldesley 1612-1651 [FN1]:
Sir, — Not a minute since, as I was passing the bridge, I met with your letter, and do not a little admire your goodness, when I consider so great an indisposition was not capable to divert you from so troublesome an employment. Nothing can please me better than to hear from you my lord's gallant resolutions: they are so well seconded by you and the rest of the noble persons with him, that I do not doubt of a happy success in all your enterprizes, though the wind is so unmercifully cruel. I am just now told it begins to be fair, which makes me believe this will not reach you, and that I have in some part acquitted myself of what I owe you, without exposing to your view the absurdities of,

Sir, your affectionate Servant,
Henriette Marie Stanley,
Aug. 11, 1651.
My lady commands me to assure you of her service. Mine, I beseech you, Sir, to Colonel Roscarroek and Mr Tilsley Sandes [FN2]. Let the first know that I am sorry that any of my concernments should give him the least trouble; wherefore I desire him to forget the book, and only remember how much I am his servant.
Sadly there was to be no "happy success". Just two weeks later, on 25 August 1651, Sir Thomas Tyldesley fell at the Battle of Wigan Lane. The Earl of Derby was taken prisoner in September 1651, and—despite having been granted quarter by Captain Oliver Edge—was beheaded at Bolton on 15 October 1651.

In 1654 Henriette Stanley married William Wentworth, the second Earl of Stafford. Oddly, Wentworth's father had also been beheaded—in 1641. Henriette Wentworth died in 1685 and a memorial to her survives in Wentworth Old Church.

1. Private Devotions and Miscellanies of James Seventh Earl of Derby, The Revd. F R Raines, Chetham Society FS Vol 66, 1867.
2. The identity of "Mr Tilsley Sandes" has not yet been established.