His
daughter and her offspring were, by the laws of nature, justly entitled
to his possessions, which he, reflecting on the great impiety and
injustice of withholding, bequeathed, with some exceptions, to Lady
Stanley and her heirs, revealing at the same time the fraud which he had
practised, and extinguishing for ever the hopes and expectations of Sir
Oskatell. Yet was he not left entirely destitute: to him and to his
descendants were reserved, by due process of law, the manors of Irlam
and Urmston, near Manchester, with divers other valuable inheritances.
At the same time was given to him the signet of his arms, with the crest
assumed for his sake, _an eagle regardant, proper_. It was only
subsequent to the supplanting of Sir Oskatell that his rivals took the
present crest, "_The Eagle and Child_" where the eagle is represented as
having secured his prey, in token of their triumph over the foundling,
whom he is preparing to devour. This crest, with the motto "SANS
CHANGER," the descendants of Sir John Stanley, the present Earls of
Derby, continue to hold: the foregoing narrative showing faithfully the
origin of that singular device.
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