Title Earl of Derby Name Charles 8th Tenure 1651-1672 Died December 21, 1672 | Nationality English | |
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Born 19 January 1628 ( 1628-01-19 ) Children James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby Parents Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby, James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby Grandparents Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby Similar People James Stanley - 7th Earl o, Charlotte Stanley - Countess, William Stanley - 6th Earl o, Thomas Stanley - 1st Earl of De | ||
Great-grandparents William the Silent | ||
Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby (19 January 1628 – 21 December 1672) was an English nobleman and politician. He was the only son of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby and Charlotte de La Trémouille.
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Life
As Lord Strange, he took little part in the English Civil War. In France at the time of his father's condemnment in 1651, he petitioned unsuccessfully for the latter's life. After succeeding to the Earldom, he lived quietly at Bidston Hall, Cheshire, emerging to support Booth's unsuccessful rising in 1659. Attainted for so doing, he was restored the following year and the family's lands in the Isle of Man were returned to him.
He served as mayor of Liverpool, between 1666 and 1667.
Family
He married Dorothea Helena Kirkhoven (died 1674), daughter of Jehan, Lord of Heenvliet and his wife, Katherine Stanhope (later Countess of Chesterfield), in 1650. Dorothea reportedly had an extramarital tryst with King Charles II of England which resulted in a child. Their son George, born 1658, was raised by the wife of a Gunner at Windsor named Swan. George assumed the surname Swan.
The brother of Swan's wife, Bartholomew Gibson, was the king's farrier in Edinburgh. It would further appear that Gibson obtained, on trust for George Swan from Charles II or his brother the Duke of York, a grant of land in New Jersey, where Gibson's son died about 1750, as would appear from a notice in the London Chronicle in 1771.
George Swan (1658–1730) was recognised by King Charles II as his son. When asked why he had not ennobled him, as he had his other illegitimate children, the king replied, "I did not dare to make a deuck (Scots for 'duck') of him, but I made a nobler bird". George Swan became a burgess in Glasgow in later life.
George Swan had, at least, two daughters, Hannah Swan (married name Robertson; 1724–1800, Edinburgh) and Elizabeth Swan (1726–1790). Elizabeth married William Mercer in 1746. Both are buried at Kinnoull, Perth, Scotland.