[Illustration] Stanhope, in the wapentake of Darlington in the
bishoprick of Durham, gave name to this knightly family, of whom the
first recorded ancestor is Walter de Stanhope, whose son Richard
died at Stanhope, in 1338 or 1339. In the reign of Edward III. we
find Sir Richard Stanhope, grandson of Walter, Mayor of
Newcastle-on-Tyne. Hampton and other manors in this county came by
marriage with the heiress of Maulovel about 1370; but on the death
of Richard Stanhope in 1529, these estates went to his only daughter
and heiress, who became the wife of John Babington. The monastery of
Shelford was soon after this period granted to Sir Michael Stanhope
(in the 31st of Henry VIII).
Younger Branches. 1. Stanhope of Holme-Lacy, Baronet 1807, descended
from the youngest brother of the great-grandfather of the present
Earl. 2. Stanhope Earl Stanhope 1718, descended from the eldest son
of the second marriage of the first Earl of Chesterfield. 3.
Stanhope Earl of Harrington 1742, descended from Sir John Stanhope,
younger brother by the half-blood of the first Earl of Chesterfield.
See Lord Mahon's (now Earl Stanhope) Notices of the Stanhopes. 8vo.,
1855; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, 147; Surtees's Durham, ii. 46; and
Brydges's Collins, iii. 407, iv. 171, and 284.
ARMS.--_Quarterly ermine and gules_. And so borne in the reign of
Edward III., but after the match with Maulovel, who brought into the
family the estate and seat of Rampton from the heiress of
Longvillers, the arms of that family, viz. _Sable, a bend between
six cross-crosslets argent_, were assumed; on losing that
great estate, Sir Michael Stanhope resumed the more ancient coat in
the reign of Henry VIII.
Present Representative, George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield.