[12] "Thomas Stanley, Bishop of Man, was a cadet of the noble family of
the Stanleys, Earls of Derby; and, after he had spent some time in this
and another university abroad, returned to his native country
(Lancashire), became rector of Winwick and Wigan therein; as also of
Badsworth, in the diocese of York, and dignified in the church. At
length, upon the vacancy of the see of the Isle of Man, he was made
bishop thereof, but when, I cannot justly say; because he seems to have
been bishop in the beginning of King Edward VI., and was really bishop
of that place before the death of Dr Man, whom I have before mentioned
under the year 1556. This Thomas Stanley paid his last debt to nature in
the latter end of 1570, having had the character when young of a
tolerable poet of his time."--Wood's _Athenæ Oxonienses_.
[13] This extract is from an interesting pamphlet, printed for private
circulation only, by Thomas Heywood, Esq. of Manchester, entitled, "The
Earls of Derby, and the Verse Writers and Poets of the 16th and 17th
Centuries." 1825.
[Illustration: THE BLACK KNIGHT OF ASHTON.]