It were needless to enumerate all the honours and distinctions heaped in such unwonted profusion upon our illustrious hero.  It has rarely happened that so rapid a career has met with no reverse, for the fickle goddess mostly exalts her votaries only to make their downfall the more terrible.

Henry dying in 1413, was succeeded by his son Henry V., with whom Sir John was held in equal esteem, being again appointed to the government of Ireland; but, landing in Dublin, his health was now visibly on the wane.  Four months afterwards he died at Ardee, to the great grief of his family, and the irreparable loss of the nation.  He was a rare instance wherein a courtier, through four successive reigns, carried himself unimpeached, and unsullied by the political vices which were then too general to excite reproach.  He was truly a knight “sans peur et sans reproche.”

He left two sons, John and Thomas, and one daughter, whose fortunes, at this time, we shall not attempt to follow.

Lady Stanley, his widow, returned to Liverpool with her children, and lived there until her death, in the house built by her husband.

Now did the beam of Sir Oskatell’s favour, like an April day, suddenly change its gaudy and suspicious brightness.  Sir Thomas, waning in years and ready to depart, began to consider his former misdoings.  His daughter and her offspring were, by the laws of nature, justly entitled to his possessions, which he, reflecting on the great impiety and injustice of withholding, bequeathed, with some exceptions, to Lady Stanley and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir Oskatell.  Yet was he not left entirely destitute:  to him and to his descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.  At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest assumed for his sake, an eagle regardant, proper.  It was only subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the present crest, “The Eagle and Child” where the eagle is represented as having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling, whom he is preparing to devour.  This crest, with the motto “SANS CHANGER,” the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of Derby, continue to hold:  the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the origin of that singular device.

FOOTNOTES: 

[12] “Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble family of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some time in this and another university abroad, returned to his native country (Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as also of Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church.  At length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made