Stapleton / Stapleton Family

Spelling Variations

• Stapleton
• Stapelton
• Stapylton
• Stapletun
• Stapeltun
• Stapyltun
• Stapledon
• Stapeldon
• Stapyldon

Origins

Stapleton is an ancient and noble English locational surname. It is also recorded in both Scotland and Ireland, although again the origination is from England. The name Stapleton dates back to the time of Anglo-Saxon tribes of England. Saxons of the Isle of Thanet and Kent were being harassed by the peoples of what is known today as Northumbria. Sometime around 450 Anno Domini a group was sent up to the Tees River to build an outpost to help stop the raiding. They picked a sharp bend in the river which today is between Richmond and Darlington. As the outpost grew it become known as Stapleton-on-Tees. Stapleton is considered a habitational name derived from Old Norse/Old English/Saxon with staple (stapol) meaning a post or pillar and ton (tun) meaning estate. In time the name referred to commerce in a walled, fortified community. As time went on the people took on the name of their community and as it was in those days spelling seemed to be by personal choice. So, Stapleton has had many different spellings; be sure to check them all.

It is believed that at the time of William the Conqueror, he was accompanied by a Norman knight by the name of Hamon (Herman or Heryon) who in 1052 was made Lord of the Manor of Stapleton-on-Tees. Hamon married one Dame of Stapleton and from this marriage the Stapletons of today have descended.

There are two major branches extant, the English branch and the Irish branch. The Irish branch are descendants of Sir John Stapleton (1140-1199), the Black Knight who accompanied Strongbow on his conquest of Ireland in 1171. At the coronation of Richard I (Coeur de Lion) in 1189 Sir John carried his golden spurs. In 1172 King John awarded his good friend (probably step first cousin) and loyal subject Sir John about 50,000 acres of land in what is now Northern Tipperary centered around Drom. The family continued to be large landowners in this area and the surrounding counties until the diaspora of the Irish Catholic Gentry during and after the Cromwellian Confiscations and the later rebellions. The family was very loyal to the Plantageanet, Anjovin, Tudor and Stuart Royal families. Most subsequant world migration of Stapletons is mainly from the Irish branch and is tied to the diaspora of the Irish, firstly the flight, emigration and transportation following Cromwells pogroms of then secondly, the great famine.

Migration to Ireland

The Irish Stapletons spring from Sir John Stapleton, a scion of the Yorkshire family, who went to Ireland in support of King Henry II in 1170. From this service Sir John received a grant of lands from King John of about 50,000 acres in and around Counties Kilkenny and Tipperary.

Migration to America

Families began migrating abroad in enormous numbers because of the political and religious discontent in England. Often faced with persecution and starvation in England, the possibilities of the New World attracted many English people. Although the ocean trips took many lives, those who did get to North America were instrumental in building the necessary groundwork for what would become new and powerful nations.

Notable Individuals

• At the time of the Conquest, Saddleworth was constituted a manor; and in the year 1200, William de Stapleton, to whom it then belonged, founded a chapel here for his tenants, which he made subordinate to the church of St. Chad, Rochdale. From the Stapletons the portion of the manor called Friermere or Friar-Mere, which is in extent one-half of the chapelry.
• Walter de Stapeldon (1261-1326), was Bishop of Exeter, and virtual founder of Exeter College, Oxford, a younger son of William and Mabilla de Stapeldon, was born at Annery in the parish of Monkleigh, Devonshire.
• Sir Bryan Stapleton (c1322-1394), of Wighill, knight, was the second son of Sir Gilbert de Stapleton, and younger brother of Miles de Stapleton (d. 1364.)
• Sir Miles Stapleton (1320?-1364), of Bedale, Yorkshire, an English knight, one of the Knights Founder of the Order of the Garter who served in the Wars of Gascogne in 1268; was Lord of Ingham, Norfolk by marriage in 1360 to Joanna, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Oliver de Ingham. Sir Miles is the progenitor of our family line.
• Thomas Stapleton (1535-1598), an English Catholic controversialist from Sussex.
• Sir William Stapleton, 1st Baronet (died 1686) was an Irish colonial administrator and planter who served as the governor of the Leeward Islands from 1671 to 1686, when he died in office.