Family and Education

b. 1601/2, 1st s. of Henry Stapleton of Wighill and Mary, illegit. da. of Sir John Forster of Bamburgh Castle, Northumb., warden of the Middle March 1560-95;1 bro. of Sir Philip Stapylton†. educ. Queen’s, Camb. 1617.2 m. 11 June 1622, Catherine (d.1667), da. of Sir Thomas Fairfax II* of Walton and Gilling Castle, Yorks., 3s. (1 d.v.p.) 3da.3 suc. fa. 1631. d. 11 Mar. 1635, aged 33.

Offices Held

Commr. sewers, Yorks. (W. Riding) 1623, 1628.4

Biography

Stapleton’s father, Henry, a landowner in York Ainsty, never sat in Parliament, but Sir Thomas Wentworth*, grateful for his backing during the Yorkshire election of 1625, professed himself ‘ready to make you a fair return of your kindness’. Wentworth was still able to count on Henry Stapleton’s support three years later, so it seems likely that he backed the return of Henry’s son at Aldborough, ten miles north of Wighill, in 1628. Stapleton may also have benefited from the support of his uncle, Brian Stapleton†, owner of the manor of Myton, which lay just two miles from the borough, who was involved in litigation with the town’s usual patrons, the Aldburghe family. Stapleton left no mark on the records of his only Parliament.5

At his father’s death in 1631, Stapleton inherited an estate worth over £900 p.a. gross, but jointures and annuities left him with only £244 a year. He enjoyed this modest inheritance for only three years, dying in London on 11 Mar. 1635. He was buried at Wighill in a sumptuous tomb with an effigy in armour; his widow married Sir Matthew Boynton, 1st bt.* His brother Sir Philip, MP for Boroughbridge in the Long Parliament, became one of the leaders of the post-war Presbyterian party, while his uncle Brian came in for Aldborough as a recruiter in 1645.6

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Karen Bishop / Simon Healy

Notes

• 1. Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. i. 172-3.
• 2. Al. Cant.
• 3. Clay, i. 172-3.
• 4. C181/3, ff. 86, 250.
• 5. Wentworth Pprs. ed. J.P. Cooper (Cam. Soc. ser. 4. xvii), 231, 289; Fairfax Corresp. ed. G.W. Johnson, i. 10.
• 6. H.E. Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘Stapletons of Yorks.’ Yorks. Arch. Jnl. viii. 427-33; T. Lawson-Tancred, ‘Ellenthorpe and the Brooke Fam.’ Yorks. Arch. Jnl. xxxiv. 74; Lansd. 1233, f. 135.