[From Manx Note Book vol 3]

A
SHORT ACCOUNT
OF
THOMAS I.
BARON STANLEY
THE THIRD KING
IN MANN OF
THAT NAME AND FAMILY 

SIR THOMAS STANLEY, only son of SIR JOHN STANLEY, by Isabel only daughter of Sir John Harrington, succeeded his father in Mann and his other estates in 1432. (He had been knighted some years before his father's death.) In the same year he was appointed Lieutenant of Ireland for six years, and shortly afterwards Comptroller of the King's Household. During the first year of his rule in Ireland he called together a Parliament for the redress of grievances; but, being called to England by the King's command soon afterwards, that kingdom fell into great disorder, and he was obliged to return to it in 1435, when he successfully repressed a serious revolt. In 1441 he was appointed one of the Lieutenant justices of Chester, at a. salary of £40 per annum. He was one of the Commissioners who treated with the Scotch for a truce in 1448, and, when it was concluded, he became one of its conservators. He also served on a commission for the custody and defence of the town and castle of Calais from 1450 to 1455. During the year 1451 he held the office of sole Judge of Chester, and in 1452 he was commissioned to treat for a new truce with Scotland. In 1456 he was summoned to the House of Peers as Baron Stanley, being made Lord Chamberlain of the King's Household, and, in the following year, one of the Council of Edward, Prince of Wales. He was again appointed one of the ambassadors to treat with the Scotch in 1460, "but, dying the latter end of the year, the nation was deprived of this very great and valuable person, and the King of one of his best subjects.^* . . . He was brave in the field, wise in the Senate, just to his Prince, an honour to his country, and an ornament to his family." He married Joan, the only daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Gonshill, by whom he had issue three sons, Thomas, William, and John ; and three daughters. There is no account of is having visited the Island; and no legislation is recorded during his reign.

* Seacombe (Edition of 1793), P. 73.