Adam de Aldithley accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066 from Normandy to England. His grandson, son of Adam, Jr., married Joan Stanley, only daughter of Thomas Stanley, of Stoneleigh. Her dower was the Manor of Thalk in Staffordshire, but her husband exchanged it for Stoneleigh and half the Manor of Battesleigh. He selected for his seat Stoneleigh, so called from its rough, stony soil. Honoring his wife and her noble Saxon forebears, who had flourished in England many years prior to the Norman Conquest, he took the name of Stanley, of Stoneleigh. A descendant, Sir Thomas Stanley, was the first Earl of Derby, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Knight of the Garter and Chamberlain to King Henry VI. He died in 1458 or 1459.95