Lancashire estate and one of the principal seats of the Stanley family, Lords of Man.

Knowsley formed, with Lathom, the centre of the Stanley family's English estates. The household accounts preserve the scale of the establishment maintained by the Earls of Derby. The ordinary weekly consumption of the household was about one ox, twelve calves, twenty sheep, fifteen hogsheads of ale, together with bread, fish and poultry. The forests around Knowsley supplied logs for the fires, while the low ground around Lathom supplied turves.

James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, was born at Knowsley on 31 January 1606/7. Much of the surviving manuscript material used by later editors to reconstruct his life and government was preserved there.

The library contained a vellum manuscript in French and Latin, richly decorated with heraldic arms, setting out the genealogy of James Stanley and his wife Charlotte de la Trémoille. The volume had apparently been prepared around the time of their marriage and emphasised the royal and noble ancestry claimed by both families.

The Stanley Papers were themselves later edited from manuscripts held at Knowsley. The Chetham Society acknowledged the Earl of Derby for allowing access to the papers of James Stanley and to other manuscripts in the library, as well as permitting portraits in the collection to be engraved.

Knowsley also appeared regularly in the movement of people between the English and Manx Stanley estates. Manx officials, tenants and petitioners might deal with the Earl either on the Island or at one of his Lancashire houses.