Colonel Thomas Stanley (14 September 1749 – 25 December 1816)[1] was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 32 years from 1780 to 1812.
He was the son of the Revd Thomas Stanley and educated at Manchester Grammar School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
[2] In his long parliamentary career he spoke often in favour of the Lancashire cotton industry.
Colonel Stanley was also an avid book collector, with a focus on Literature and Fine Binding.
As reported by T. F. Dibdin in his "Bibliographical Decameron" (1817, volume iii, pp 78–82), the Stanley Sale of 1813 (Bibliotheca Stanleiana) was a major event among bibliomaniacs, and was one of the most impressive libraries ever to be sold during the lifetime of the owner.