John Stapleton, Esq., of Stapleton, Shropshire etc.

John Stapleton, Esq., son of John Stapleton and Katherine Burnell, died between 1446 and 1450.1

• Not the same as John “of Wighill” Stapleton
• Not the son of Sir Bryan Stapleton, of Ingham (Ref: Not listed at: Baronia Anglica Concentrata, Or, A Concentrated Account of All the Baronies ... By Thomas Christopher Banks, page 267 link
• Not the husband of Johanna Drake

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Biography

STAPLETON, John II, of Stapleton, Salop.

Family and Education

2nd s. of John Stapleton of Dormington, Herefs. and Stapleton. m (1) between Nov. 1408 and Feb. 1409, Isabel, da. of Elizabeth Elmham; (2) by 1413, Margaret, 1s. d.v.p.; (3) by 1443, Margery, 5da.

Offices Held

Biography

The manor of Stapleton descended in the family of the same name from the early 12th century, along with its advowson and the township of Netley. John, the father of the MP, apparently also inherited ‘Armegrove’ in Shropshire and Normanton-le-Heath in Leicestershire, but resided mainly in his manor-house at Dormington in Herefordshire.1 Stapleton senior was most likely of the affinity of Thomas, earl of Arundel, for he looked for wives for his sons among the daughters of the earl’s retainers, with the consequence that his eldest son Hugh (the heir of his wife Katherine Burnell) was contracted in 1405 to marry the daughter of Thomas Young I*, and young John himself was wedded to Isabel, daughter of Elizabeth Elmham (she who was probably already the wife of William Ryman* and was later to nurse Arundel in his final illness). By the second of these marriage contracts, drawn up in London on 13 Nov. 1408, the earl agreed to pay Stapleton senior 100 marks, to provide the bride with a trousseau, and to meet the cost of the espousals at Dormington, while Stapleton in turn promised to settle on the young couple land worth 20 marks a year and to support them until they came of age.2

John junior’s second wife, Margaret, would appear to have been a kinswoman of (Sir) Leonard Hakluyt*, the former shire knight for Herefordshire and Somerset, for she and Leonard Stapleton (presumably John’s son of that name) were left bequests in the wills of Hakluyt and his widow, Margaret. Indeed, Leonard was later (by 1442) to have possession of the Somerset manor of Grove in South Brent, which had formed the principal part of Margaret Hakluyt’s inheritance.3 Connexions such as these—with the earl of Arundel and the Hakluyts—might explain the fact that, although John Stapleton junior was a comparatively obscure member of the Shropshire gentry, the feoffees of his lands (appointed at some unknown date before 1418) included such important marcher lords as Edmund, earl of March, Gilbert, Lord Talbot, John Talbot, Lord Furnival, and Hugh, Lord Burnell. Otherwise, little is recorded about him, and he never served on a royal commission. He attended the Shropshire elections held at Shrewsbury before the Parliament of 1420, and he himself secured election for the shire a year later, perhaps with the help of one of his distinguished trustees. In 1438 there was a fire at his moated manor-house at Stapleton, but five years later he nevertheless settled the manor in reversion on his son, Leonard, and the latter’s offspring, with successive remainders to his own issue by his wives Margaret and Margery and ultimately to John Talbot, now earl of Shrewsbury. He was still alive in 1446, but both he and Leonard died before 1450, when his properties were divided among the husbands or descendants of his five daughters.4

Family

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stapleton-1398

The History of Parliament reports that he first married, between November 1408 and February 1409, his first wife Isabel, daughter of Elizabeth Elmham.[2]

https://soc.genealogy.medieval.narkive.com/ATZuXKVc/re-john-staplet...

“ My research indicates that John Stapleton, Esq., (living 1446) had two wives, Margaret Deviock and Margery _____. He had issue by both marriages. Margaret Deviock was the daughter and heiress of John Deviock and his wife, Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of John de Longland, Esq.”

He was still alive in 1446, but both he and Leonard died before 1450, when his properties were divided among the husbands or descendants of his five daughters. [6]

Issue

Douglas Richardson reports that John and his first wife Margaret had one son and two daughters. John and his second wife, Margery, had three daughters:[1]

1. Leonard Stapleton, Esq, born about 1400, son of John Stapleton and Margaret Deviock. [1]
2. Margaret, daughter of John Stapleton and Margaret Deviock. [1] or Margery [2] If Margaret was a daughter of Margery and Margery did not marry until 1443, Margaret would have been born an entire generation later.
3. Elizabeth Stapleton, born about 1405, daughter of John Stapleton and Margaret Deviock. [1] or Margery [2] If Elizabeth was a daughter of Margery and Margery did not marry until 1443, Elizabeth would have been born an entire generation later.
4. Joyce, daughter of John Stapleton and his second wife, Margery, married Thomas Horde
5. Joan, daughter of John Stapleton and his second wife, Margery, married Thomas Walwyn and Richard Bondes
6. Mary, daughter of John Stapleton and his second wife, Margery, married Thomas Acton.

The History of Parliament [2] agrees with the total of six children, but states the first child, a son, was the daughter of Margaret, and the remaining five, daughters, were the daughters of Margery.

This results in disagreement about the parentage of Margaret and Elizabeth, with Richardson asserting that their mother was Margaret, and History of Parliament asserting that their mother was Margery.

"Alan Horde, Esq., Bencher of the Middle Temple, son of John Hord and grandson of Thomas Hord of Bridgnorth, co. Salop, by Joyce, d. and coh. of Sir John Stapleton of Stapleton, Knt. Will d. 1553."

Source: Arnold Harris Hord, The Hord Family of Virginia, re-printed from William Smith Ellis, "Hoard or Howard of Ewell and Guilford, Co. Surrey", as printed in Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, new series, vol. IV, 1884, edited by Dr. Joseph Jackson Howard

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stapleton-394

John Stapleton (or Stepulton) b: abt 1399 d: before 1450, of Stapleton, Shropshire; Dormington, Herefordshire; ‘Armegrove’ in Shropshire and Normanton-le-Heath in Leicestershire. Knight of the Shire for Shropshire 1421. (The 2nd son of John Stapleton, of Stapleton and Oaks (in Pontesbury), Shropshire. Sheriff of Shropshire in 1383 and 1391 Knight of the Shire for Shropshire 1406. He had two sons Hugh and John. At that time John Stapleton snr was married to Katherine of Langley Shropshire, one of three daughter and co-heiress of Edward Burnell, son of Hugh Burnell of Langley, Shropshire.)

https://soc.genealogy.medieval.narkive.com/ATZuXKVc/re-john-staplet...

"MARGARET DEVIOCK, daughter and heiress, evidently born before 1380. She married before 1400 (as his 1st wife) JOHN STAPLETON (or STEPULTON), Esq., of Stapleton, Shropshire, Dormington, Herefordshire, etc., Knight of the Shire for Shropshire, 1421, 2nd son of John Stapleton, of Stapleton and Oaks (in Pontesbury), Shropshire, by Katherine, 2nd daughter and co-heiress of Edward Burnell, of Langley, Shropshire. They had one son, Leonard, Esq., and two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth. He married (2nd) MARGERY _____. They had three daughters, Joyce (wife of Thomas Horde), Joan (wife of Thomas Walwyn), and [Mary?] (wife of Walter Acton)."

The surname of STAPLETON was a locational name 'of Stapleton' a village in the parish of Darrington, near Pontefract, County Yorkshire. Early records of the name mention William de Stapleton, 1273 County Oxford. Robertus de Stapulton was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Originally the coat of arms identified the wearer, either in battle or in tournaments. Completely covered in body and facial armour the knight could be spotted and known by the insignia painted on his shield, and embroidered on his surcoat, the draped garment which enveloped him. Between the 11th and 15th centuries it became customary for surnames to be assumed in Europe, but were not commonplace in England or Scotland before the Norman Conquest of 1066. They are to be found in the Domesday Book of 1086. Those of gentler blood assumed surnames at this time, but it was not until the reign of Edward II (1307-1327) that second names became general practice for all people. The names introduced into Britain by the Normans during and in the wake of the Invasion of 1066, are nearly all territorial in origin. The followers of William the Conqueror were a pretty mixed lot, and while some of them brought the names of their castles and villages in Normandy with them, many were adventurers of different nationalities attached to William's standard by the hope of plunder, and possessing no family or territorial names of their own. Those of them who acquired lands in England were called by their manors, while others took the name of the offices they held or the military titles given to them, and sometimes, a younger son of a Norman landowner, on receiving a grant of land in his new home dropped his paternal name and adopted that of his newly acquired property. The name was taken to Ireland by settlers where they lived in counties Kilkenny and Tipperary. In Gaelic Mac an Ghaill (the son of the foreigner), which has in turn been re-Anglicized as Gall. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. The lion depicted in the arms is the noblest of all wild beasts which is made to be the emblem of strength and valour, and is on that account the most frequently borne in Coat-Armour.

References

• Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition ... Page 92. GoogleBooks
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stapleton,_Shropshire ... The other manor house stood about a mile away, where the remains of the De Stapleton's house still exists. The place was first recorded as Stapleton in the reign of King Stephen, when Baldwin de Meisy was Lord of Stapleton and Wistanstow. His descendants, who took the name of De Stapleton, held the manor till the beginning of the 15th century, when it passed to six co-heiresses, the daughters of Sir John Stapleton.
• “Shropshire houses : past & present ; illustrated from drawings,” by Leighton, Stanley, 1837-1901 Publication date 1901. Page 28. Archive.Org “THE MOAT HALL, STAPLETON. R. P. LLEWELLIN, ESQ. THE Stapletons, who also possessed Thonglands in Corvedale, were the early owners of this manor. One of them was Sheriff in 139 1, another in 1441, and one was Knight of the Shire in 1421. Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Stapleton in the fifteenth century, married Edward Leighton of Stretton-in-le-dale, and in his descendants the estate remained, till, in 1614, Robert Leighton of Wattles- borough leased *' Stapleton with the capital messuage called Moate Hall in the occupation of Elizabeth Leighton his mother" to Lord Keeper Egerton, who accumulated a great estate in Shropshire, and is said to have bought more land than any lawyer either before or since ; he assumed the motto of" munda manus," or the " clean- handed." His son, John Egerton, was M.P. for Shropshire in 1601. The lease to the Lord Keeper was probably followed by a re-lease, and so amounted to a purchase ...
• https://www.gdcooke.org/ss/default.aspx/page/org2-o/p22381.htm cites
  • [S1947] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Five vols. (Salt Lake City, Utah: s.p., 2013), 2:639 (Fitz Ives 12), further cited as Richardson, Royal Ancestry.
  • [S2174] Gary Boyd Roberts, The Royal Descents of 900 Immigrants to the American Colonies, Quebec, or the United States Who Were Themselves Notable or Left Descendants Notable in American History, two vols. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing, 2018), 1:687, further cited as Roberts, RD900.
  • [S1947] Richardson, Royal Ancestry, 2:638 (Fitz Ives 12).