James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange

James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange (1716 – 1771) was commonly known by that courtesy title, although neither he nor his father had any claim to it as a parliamentary peerage. He was the eldest son of Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby, whose predecessors had held that peerage, but after the death of the 10th Earl the right to two Strange baronies (both baronies by writ) had descended to daughters, while the earldom had passed to an heir male.

James Stanley married Lucy daughter and coheiress of Hugh Smith of Weald Hall, Essex; on his marriage, he took by a private act of Parliament the additional surname of Smith. (21 Geo. 2. c. 4 ) They were the parents of Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, and several other children, including Thomas Stanley. He died before his father, so that the earldom later went to his eldest son.

He attended Westminster School where he became a close friend of the future soldier, playwright, and politician John Burgoyne, who was to surrender his army at Saratoga in 1777. As a young man, Burgoyne eloped with Lord Strange's sister. Burgoyne also wrote a masque to celebrate the wedding of Edward Smith-Stanley to Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, a daughter of James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton.

Public service Lord Strange was a Member of Parliament for Lancashire from 1741 until his death. He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the ministry of Lord North from 1762 and became a Privy Councillor at the same time.

As Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire during the Seven Years' War, he was tasked with calling out the Lancashire Militia, which had been disembodied since 1746. Although Lancashire's quota was only a single regiment, and despite Strange's enthusiasm, it was not until July 1760 that the regiment got up to six-tenths of its establishment and was issued with arms. Strange was then commissioned as its Colonel (15 July 1760). The regiment was finally embodied for full-tine service on 23 December that year. In October 1761, King George III presented the Regimental Colours and granted the unit the title 'Royal Lancashire Militia', the colonel's own company becoming 'the King's Company'. The regiment was disembodied in December 1762, as the war was coming to an end, but Strange remained its colonel for the rest of his life.

He is mentioned by Parkman as plenipotentiary to Paris and Choiseul, and advisor to Pitt, during the 1760s turbulence that attended the Treaty of Paris (1763).

Ancestry