Many thanks Mel for this fascinating account of the 'Eagle and Child'.
Mel Carter
19-Sep-2008 12:43
In February 1406, Sir John Stanley was granted free warren of the Manors of Lathom and Knowsley (which was then in the county of Lancashire) in his wife's right. (The Manor of Knowsley is still held by his descendant, the Earl of Derby, while the Manor of Lathom remained in the Stanley family until 1717, when it was sold by the daughter of William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby.) It was about this time that Sir John Stanley adopted the crest of an eagle and child which has been used by his descendants ever since.
One account tells of a Sir Thomas Lathom who greatly desired a male heir, but his wife was advanced in years and their only child was a daughter. One day, he and his wife were walking in Tarlescough Woods, a wild section of his estate when they heard an infant crying. Servants were sent to investigate and they returned with a young male child which they had found lying in the grass below an eagle's eyre. In another version, it was discovered in an eagle's nest. The child was well dressed, and Sir Thomas and his wife decided to bring it up as their own son, naming him 'Oskatel'.
The present Lord Derby still resides at the family seat of Knowsley Hall, which is in the newly formed county of Merseyside.
