James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby

James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, styled The Honourable until 1702, was a British peer, soldier and politician. He became Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and served in the Anglo-Dutch Brigade.

Early life

Derby was the second son of Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, and Dorothea Helena Kirkhoven, born on 3 July 1664. He was elected to the House of Commons for Clitheroe in 1685, a seat he held until 1689, and then represented Preston from 1689 to 1690 and Lancashire from 1695 to 1702. He held the post of Groom of the Bedchamber to King William III from 1689 to 1702.

Having served in the Anglo-Dutch Brigade with William III in Holland and Flanders, he was commissioned as a captain and Lieutenant-Colonel in the 1st Foot Guards on 11 April 1689. When his elder brother, the 9th Earl of Derby, as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire was ordered to call out the Lancashire Militia, Lt-Col James Stanley commanded the brigade in the subsequent campaign in Ireland in 1690–91.
When the Lancashire Militia returned home to be disembodied at the end of the campaign, and Stanley was ordered to Flanders to join Colonel Hodges' Regiment as second-in-command, he induced a large number of his militiamen to volunteer to fill vacancies in the regiment. After Col Hodges was killed at the Battle of Steenkerque in 1692, Stanley succeeded to the command, and the regiment became 'Stanleys'. He remained its colonel until 1705. He was promoted to major general in 1704.

In 1702, he succeeded his elder brother as 10th Earl of Derby and entered the House of Lords. In 1732, he succeeded his great-niece as sixth Baron Strange. Derby was admitted to the Privy Council in 1706 and appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a position he retained until 1710, and was later Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1715 to 1723. He also served as Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire during 1702–1710 and 1714–1736.

In February 1705 he married Mary Morley, only daughter of Sir William Morley of Halnaker and his second wife Anne Denham, daughter of the celebrated poet Sir John Denham and his first wife Anne Cotton. He died on 1 February 1736, aged 68, without surviving issue. The Earl was succeeded in the earldom by his distant relative Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby. The barony of Strange and lordship of the Isle of Man passed on to his first cousin once removed, James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl. Lady Derby died on 29 March 1752.