William Stafford-Howard, 3rd Earl of Stafford

File:William Stafford-Howard, 2nd Earl of Stafford.jpg, by Godfrey Kneller, 1730]]

Stafford-Howard was born on 24 February 1719. He was the only son of Anne Holman (d. 1725){{cite book |last1=Duncumb |first1=John |last2=Cooke |first2=William Henry |title=Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford. In Continuation of Duncumb's History |date=1897 |publisher=E.G. Wright |page=60 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collections_Towards_the_History_and_Anti/yv7lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA60 |access-date=18 July 2024 |language=en}} and William Stafford-Howard, 2nd Earl of Stafford, who were first cousins. His younger sisters were Lady Mary Stafford-Howard (who married, as his second wife, Count Guy Auguste de Rohan-Chabot, son of Louis, Duke of Rohan),{{cite book |last1=Sainte-Marie |first1=Anselme de |title=Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France,... |date=1879 |publisher=Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie |page=232 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Histoire_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9alogique_et_chronologique/TG-mmrVTTUEC&pg=PA232 |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=fr}} Lady Anastasia Stafford-Howard and Lady Anne Stafford-Howard, who both became nuns.{{cite book |title=The Diary of the 'Blue Nuns': Or Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, at Paris. 1658-1810 |date=1910 |publisher=Priv print. for the Society by J. Whitehead & son, Leeds |page=415 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Diary_of_the_Blue_Nuns/kXIEn-z8zgUC&pg=PA415 |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Case of Lady Anastasia Stafford-Howard and Sir William Jerningham (2 copies); with... |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/dd690810-71ce-43db-9672-3cca180d173a |website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=English |date=1800}}

His paternal grandparents were the former Mary Southcote (a daughter of Sir John Southcote) and John Stafford-Howard (a son of the 1st Viscount Stafford),{{cite web |title=Stafford-Howard family records |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1be46791-8e65-48af-907b-aa9f10321b77 |website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=English}} who served as King James II's Ambassador to King Louis XIV when the former was exiled at Saint-Germain. After the King's death, his father served as vice-chamberlain to the King's widow, Queen Mary.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, p. 3707. Among his extended family was aunt Mary Stafford-Howard (wife of Francis Plowden, MP for Bannow)Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes. Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999, p. 2257. and uncle John Stafford-Howard. His maternal grandparents were George Holman of Warkworth, Northamptonshire and Anastasia Howard (a daughter of the 1st Viscount Stafford).

On the death of his father,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|His father had succeeded to the title from his uncle, Henry Stafford-Howard, 1st Earl of Stafford, who had married Claude-Charlotte, daughter of Philibert de Gramont and his wife, Elizabeth (a daughter of Sir George Hamilton), but died without issue.{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-13948|title=Howard, William, Viscount Stafford (1612–1680), nobleman|date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/13948 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-18}}}} in January 1734, he succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Stafford. He also succeeded as the de jure 4th Baron Stafford of Stafford Castle.

In 1743, Lord Stafford was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society.{{cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=James Edmund |title=The Official Baronage of England: Showing the Succession, Dignities, and Offices of Every Peer from 1066 to 1885, with Sixteen Hundred Illustrations |date=1886 |publisher=Longmans, Green |page=394 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Official_Baronage_of_England/FGFmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA394 |access-date=18 July 2024 |language=en}} He inherited a number of English estates from his Holman family members, which he sold in 1749 to Edward Greenly of Doctors' Commons.

File:Henrietta Diana, Dowager Countess of Stafford, 1759.jpg, 1759]]

In 1743, he married Henrietta Diana Cantillon, daughter of economist Richard Cantillon and Mary O'Mahony (a daughter of Gen. Count Daniel O'Mahony).{{cite web |title=Henrietta Diana (1728–1761), Dowager Countess of Stafford |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/henrietta-diana-17281761-dowager-countess-of-stafford-85788 |website=artuk.org |publisher=Art UK |access-date=18 July 2024 |language=en}}

Lord Stafford died, without legitimate issue, on 28 February 1751. His widow Henrietta married Robert Maxwell, 1st Earl of Farnham.{{cite book |last1=bart.) |first1=sir William Jerningham (6th |title=Papers relative to the two baronies of Stafford, claimed by sir William Jerningham ... on the death of ... lady Anastasia Stafford Howard. (i. Petition of sir William Jerningham ... to the crown, claiming both the old barony ... and the new barony of Stafford. ii. Opinion and argument of mr. Hargrave in 1800 in support of lady Anastasia Stafford Howard's right to the new barony of Stafford). |date=1807 |page=27 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Papers_relative_to_the_two_baronies_of_S/7pMNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA27 |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=en}}{{refn|group=lower-alpha|From her second marriage, Henrietta was the mother of a daughter, Lady Henrietta Maxwell, who married the Irish politician Denis Daly.{{cite book |last1=Cantillon |first1=Richard |title=Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General |date=28 July 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-31150-2 |page=264 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Essay_on_the_Nature_of_Commerce_in_Gener/OpsuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT264 |access-date=18 July 2024 |language=en}}}} Upon the death of his uncle in 1762, the earldom became extinct but the barony of Stafford reverted to Anastasia Stafford-Howard as senior heir general of William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford and his wife Mary Howard, Countess of Stafford.{{cite book |title=Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire |date=1830 |publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited. |page=722 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Genealogical_and_Heraldic_Dictionary_of/-1pIAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA722 |access-date=17 July 2024 |language=en}}

;Notes

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;Sources

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• [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1be46791-8e65-48af-907b-aa9f10321b77 Stafford-Howard family records] at The National Archives

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{{succession box | title=Earl of Stafford | before= William Stafford-Howard | after=John Paul Stafford-Howard | years= 1734–1751 }}

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Category:1719 births

Category:1751 deaths

Category:Place of birth missing

Category:Earls of Stafford

Category:Earls in the Peerage of England