William Stanley jr, Francis`s half-brother?

In John Seacome`s "The History of the House of Stanley", William Stanley, who was for a short time Francis`s stepfather, is said to have "[b]y Joyce, his wife, daughter of Edward, Lord Powis, [...] had issue one son, named William". However, William Stanley is only known to have been married twice; the first time to Francis`s mother, Joan Beaumont, from shortly after 12th November 1465 until her death on 5th August 1466, and the second time to Elizabeth Hopton, from around 1471 to his own death on 16th February 1495. Unless he had another marriage in his youth of which no mention has survived, any legitimate child would therefore have been the son of one of those two ladies. In the case of William having a son by his first wife, this child would also have been a half-brother to Francis.

However, there is no certainty if William Stanley even had a son, much less by whom. The Complete Peerage only lists one child by him, Jane or Joan Stanley, born after 1471 by his second wife Elizabeth. Several other sources, including Seacome`s History mentioned above, claim he had three children, one son named William and two daughters, Jane/Joan and Catherine. Modern historians have by no means accepted the existence of all these children, and even when they are assumed to have existed, there are differing assumptions as to their maternity.

Barbara Coulton, in her article "The Wives of Sir William Stanley: Joan Beaumont and Elizabeth Hopton", claims they were all born to Joan Beaumont. However, the problem with her claim is that it does not fit the time frame of William and Joan`s marriage. Coulton states that Joan died on 24th August 1469, but does not give any source for this claim, and all actual contemporary sources place her death three years earlier. Her marriage to William did not even last a year, and while they were married just long enough for her to have given birth to a slightly premature child conceived in wedlock before her death, she could not have possibly given birth to three unless she gave birth to triplets, an extreme rarity that would have been commented upon. Jean M.Gidman, on the other hand, in her article "The wives and children of Sir William Stanley of Holt", claims that all three children were Elizabeth Hopton`s. Though Elizabeth might have been nearing the end of her childbearing years by the time she married William, having given birth for the first time in 1448, this is completely possible, though Gidman also offers no evidence how she came to the conclusion that they were all Elizabeth`s. J.M.Williams, in her article "The Political Career of Francis, Viscount Lovell (1456 -1487?)" seems to assume that William`s son was Francis`s mother Joan`s, but apart from mentioning him as Francis`s half-brother in the family tree, she does not elaborate on this theory.

Though most casual retellings of William`s life include only his daughter Jane/Joan, most which go into more depth seem to agree on the existence of his son William. Born, at the earliest, in August 1466 and quite possibly after 1471, this son was either too young to fight at the Battles of Bosworth and Stoke, or else fought at his father`s side and as a minor of not too much importance besides his well-known father simply not mentioned. He was, it seems, mentioned in a grant made to his father on 19th February 1489, of the constableships of Flint and Ruddlan Castles, with, as Gidman put it, "the promise that his son would obtain the later". He is also sometimes said to have succeeded his father as sheriff of Chester at around the same time, though Seacome points out that there is some confusion on this point, as another Sir William Stanley, of Hooton, was sheriff of Cheshire. The similarity between "Holt" and "Hooton" and "Chester" and "Cheshire" did, according to Seacome, cause enough confusion to throw doubt on whose son the third William Stanley - not a knight - was. This is also the conclusion found here, perhaps based on Seacome`s statement.

This William Stanley married Joan Massey, only child of Sir Geoffrey, of Tatton, and had a daughter with her, also called Joan. He disappears into complete obscurity towards the end of his life, and seems to have died comparatively young in December 1498.

If it is accepted that this man was indeed Sir William Stanley of Holt`s child, that then poses the question of who his mother was and if he was indeed Francis`s half-brother and second grandson to John, Viscount Beaumont.

While Seacome assigns William Stanley the younger`s maternity to a woman named "Joyce, daughter of Edward, Lord Powis", as noted above, who was never married to William Stanley of Holt, the link between the Lords Powis and the Tiptofts, of whom John Tiptoft was the second husband of William`s second wife, points to Elizabeth as the mother. However, given that name and paternity of her are stated wrongly, it would perhaps be a mistake to attach too much weight to it. It is of course entirely possible; but it is equally possible that the fact that even if William the younger was Joan Beaumont`s child, he would have grown up with Elizabeth Hopton`s children from the age of five and probably have politely refered to her as mother, could have caused more confusion. This could be especially so since Sir William`s first marriage was only of short duration and at a time when he was not yet that widely-known and involved in the government and might therefore not be widely known/remembered, especially long after their deaths, when Seacome`s History was written.

To try and find out who the mother of Sir William`s child was, it is therefore not all too revealing to look at people`s assumptions, particularly since these assumptions were made at least two centuries after the event, but instead try to look what indications primary sources offer.

Sadly, there is nothing in the little paperwork we have of Francis which indicates that he might have had a half-brother or definitely did not. In fact, there is even extremely little about his relationship with his full sisters, whom he definitely had. We do know that he had business transactions with Sir William in the 1470s, but these do not shine any light on their personal relationship nor do they mean that these were conducted for the sake of anyone but themselves. What survives are only the dry facts of the transactions. Nor are there any indications in the few actions known of Elizabeth`s Corbett sons that they had a younger brother, but there is also none that indicates any sort of care for Edward, Earl of Worcester, who was definitely their brother and who died aged sixteen in August 1485. This does not mean there was no care taken of William the younger by either Francis or the Corbetts, it just means that if so, no evidence for it survives.

The matter is made even more difficult by the fact that whoever young William`s brother(s) was/were, it is quite possible he didn`t have much to do with them. In the case of Francis, he would have been almost exactly ten years older than his younger half-brother and never lived in the same place as him, while in the case of the Corbetts, they would be over twenty and around twenty years older than him and in the case of the oldest one, already married with a child by the time of William jr`s birth. Looking for any close brotherly relationship between young William and any of these men might therefore not prove very fruitful.

Perhaps more telling is the fact that when Elizabeth Hopton died in November 1498, no mention of a son named William is made in her Inquisition Post Mortem. This, however, might be because he died only a month after her and by the time the IPM was made, was already dead. It might also be because as her youngest son, with his older brother already having his own heir, he was not expected to inherit anything of her possessions.

Equally, there are reasons why the Beaumont lands which were not under attainder went to Francis, unchallenged by anyone else. By the time Francis was attainted in November 1485, William the younger would have still been a minor and not been able to challenge Francis; and even after attaining his majority, he might not have had much of a chance; apart from the fact that Francis, as the older brother, would very likely have been entitled to hold/inherit all of it unless otherwise stated, after 1483 his position as the king`s chamberlain and closest friend would have made challenging him an endeavour unlikely to succeed. However, in this case, young William might have been seen as Francis`s heir to the Beaumont lands he held. Unfortunately, we do not have any paperwork to dismiss or confirm this. When Francis`s uncle William Beaumont died without heirs in 1507, his viscouncy would have fallen to his oldest nephew by his sister Joan, but not only was Francis attainted and most likely dead by this point, young William too was dead and had left only a daughter, so that there can be no conclusion reached by the title falling into abeisance about whether or not William the younger had Beaumont blood.

With Francis`s attainder, the fact that William the younger, if he indeed was his half-brother, would have been heir to some of his lands became insignificant, as all his possessions were forfeit to the throne. However, it is notable that Sir William did receive a large amount of Francis`s lands. This, of course, was presumably because of the significant role he had played helping Henry VII win the throne, but it may have also served the purpose of pre-empting any suit by William`s son, once he reached majority, to get back some of the Beaumont lands by claiming that not all of them had been Francis`s by right and therefore should not have been subject to the attainder. In a similar way, claming his mother had lost them to coercion, the Earl of Oxford got back some lands which had belonged to his family and which the crown held in the 1490s. Granting some of the lands his son might have an interest in to Sir William, so that William the younger stood to inherit them at his father`s death, would have pre-empted such a claim while at the same time not stripping the son of one of Henry`s most important supporters of something he might consider himself entitled to and thereby running the risk of angering him.

Of course, this is purest speculation. Perhaps the most telling as to whose son William the younger was is what deductions can be made about his age. Clearly, whether he was born in summer 1466 or after 1471, he was still a minor when the Battles of Bosworth and Stoke were fought, though if he was Joan Beaumont`s son, just barely when Stoke happened. This might not have stopped him from fighting - Edward Hastings, son of William, born in 1466, did so in both battles - but it could well mean he did not have too much significance yet and there was no reason to mention him in the case of him fighting alongside his far more important and high-profile father. It does not mean he wasn`t there - though if he was born after 1471, he likely would not have been as he would have been too young - but if he was, it shows he was not considered of particular interest.

It is notable, though, that by 1489, he was apparently old enough to be included in grants, and to be acting alone as sheriff. This may well have been possible had he been born in 1472 and around seventeen, but it is curious and somewhat unlikely that if so, the fact he was still a minor would not have been mentioned. If, however, he was born to Sir William and Joan Beaumont in August 1466, he would have come of age between the Battle of Stoke and this arrangement, which fits what we know about both these instances.

Finally, Sir William already having a son by his first wife could well explain why after her death, he waited so long to remarry, though of course there could be any number of other reasons for this, such as grief for a wife he may have genuinely loved, no marriage prospect he liked presenting itself in the meantime or a failed courtship are just some. However, in the face of hardly any evidence being there for when and to whom William the younger was born, all that could throw a light on it should be considered, and Sir William`s comparatively long widowhood would be notable if he didn`t have a son already.

If William the younger was indeed Joan Beaumont`s son, it seems she died in childbed, or just after his birth of childbed fever. Her older son Francis was already in the care of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, by then, and it seems when she died, her daughters by John Lovell were given into the care of their brother`s mother-in-law, Alice FitzHugh. William the younger would have presumably stayed with his father; at least, he definitely did not grow up with his half-siblings in either the Warwick or the FitzHugh household. How well he and his Lovell half-siblings would have known each other is hard to say, but most likely not very well, having little to nothing to do with each other at least until Francis and Joan Lovell were grown up. What feelings they had towards each other, if any, is of course impossible to say.

All that can be said is that evidence suggests Sir William Stanley had a legitimate son, and that circumstantial evidence shows it to be somewhat more likely he had this son by his first wife, meaning that Francis, and his sisters Joan and Frideswide, had a Stanley half-brother.