Stapleton baronets

The Stapleton Baronetcy, of The Leeward Islands, is a dormant title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 20 December 1679 for William Stapleton, who followed Charles II into exile in France, and after the Restoration was appointed deputy-governor of Montserrat and captain-general of the Leeward Islands.^[1]

The earlier background was well put by John Brooke, who wrote: The Stapletons, of Irish extraction, emigrated to the West Indies temp. Charles II, and settled in Oxfordshire in the early 18th century.^[2]

The fourth Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire. The fifth Baronet represented Oxford in the House of Commons.

In 1788 the abeyance of the ancient barony of le Despencer was terminated in favour of the sixth Baronet, who became the sixteenth Baron de Despencer. On his death the barony passed to his granddaughter Frances Elizabeth (the daughter of his eldest son the Hon. Thomas Stapleton), wife of Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth (see Baron le Despencer for further history of this title). The baronetcy was inherited by the late Baronet's youngest son Francis Joseph, the seventh Baronet. The 1679 creation became extinct upon the death of Sir Henry Alfred Stapleton, 10th Baronet, in 1995.

Greys Court, Rotherfield Greys

James Paul, the son of William Paul the bishop of Oxford (1663–5), a Fishmonger and Linen Draper, of St. Michael Cornhill,^[3] London and Bray in Berkshire, bought Greys Court in 1688. By his second wife Martha, fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Duppa, usher of the black rod from 1683–1694, he had a son William, whose daughter Catherine married Sir William Stapleton, 4th Bt., to whom it passed in 1711 on her father's death. It then remained with the Stapletons until 1937.

Descent

• Sir William Stapleton, 1st Baronet (died 1686)
• Sir James Stapleton, 2nd Baronet (1672–1690)
• Sir William Stapleton, 3rd Baronet (1674–1699),^[4]
• Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet (1698–1740), MP for Oxfordshire, 1727-1740, married Catherine Paul;
• Sir Thomas Stapleton, 5th Baronet (1727–1781), MP for Oxford, 1759-1768, married (1765) Mary, daughter of Henry Fane of Wormsley;^[5]
• Sir Thomas Stapleton, 6th Baronet (1766–1831), and 16th (22nd) baron Le Despencer,^[6][7]of Mereworth Castle, married Elizabeth daughter of Samuel Eliot of Antigua;^[8]

• Hon. Thomas (1792-1829), married Maria-Wynne, daughter of Henry Bankes, of Kingston House, Dorset;

• Mary-Frances-Elizabeth, married Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth,

• Evelyn Boscawen, 7th Viscount Falmouth, and 14th (or 18th or 24th) baron Le Despencer.

• Hon. and Rev. Sir Francis Jervis (or Joseph) Stapleton, 7th Baronet (1807–1874), Rector Mereworth and Vicar of Tudeley Kent, (fourth son of the 6th bart.),^[9][10]
• Sir Francis George Stapleton, 8th Baronet (1831–1899)
• Sir Miles Talbot Stapleton, 9th Baronet (1893–1977)
• Sir Henry Alfred Stapleton, 10th Baronet (1913–1995)

References

1. Vere Langford Oliver History of Antigua Vol. III, pp.102-103 'Stapleton Family'.
2. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, edited by L. Namier, and J. Brooke., 1964.
3. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, edited by D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, and S. Handley, 2002.
4. married Frances, daughter and coheiress of Sir James Russell, governor of Nevis.
5. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, edited by L. Namier, and J. Brooke., 1964.
6. Peerage, Edmund Lodge, London, 1831
7. He had a small sugar operation at Nevis 16 (Mont Pellier), (UCL, 'Legacies of Slave Ownership').
8. Two of his brothers-in-law were: William Hay, 17th Earl of Erroll and Lt.-general Sir Henry Augustus Montague Cosby (1743 - 1822);
9. Debrett's Baronetage of England, edited by William Courthope, London, 1835
10. His sisters: Emma Stapleton (d. 1879), married Charles Brodrick 6th Viscount Midleton (1797-1863); Maria married Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden; Emily married Hercules Robert Pakenham; and Anna married Henry Maxwell, 7th Baron Farnham.

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets