Second Earl of Derby and Lord of Mann, and the grantor of a charter confirming the possessions of the Manx church.

A charter of Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby and Lord of Man, dated 28 March 1505, gave and granted to Huan, Bishop of Sodor, a confirmation of the church lands, tithes, possessions and liberties which had been granted by his predecessors, the Kings and Lords of Man, to the Church and Bishop of Sodor. It is printed in the Monasticon Anglicanum, and the Manx Society's editors used it in reconstructing the succession of the bishops, since it fixes Huan Hesketh in the see in 1505.

He succeeded his grandfather, the first Earl, who died in 1504.