"fide sed cui vide" Variations in Spelling: Stapleton, Stapelton ,Stapylton, Stapletun, Stapeltun, Stapyltun, Stapledon, Stapeldon, Stapyldon Stapleton, in its varoious spellings, is an ancient and noble English locational surname. It is also recorded in both Scotland and Ireland, although again the origination is from England. It originates from any of the various places called Stapleton in the counties of Cumberland, Gloucestershire, Hereford, Leicester, Shropshire, Somerset and particularly Yorkshire where various branches held great estates from medieval times. The earliest recording of the place name is to found in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Stapletone, Staplentun, and Stapleton. The Stapletons of today are an Anglo Norman family descended from the marriage of the Dame of Stapleton-on-Tees and Hamon (or Herman, or Heryon) a Norman (Viking) seigneur who accompanied William the Conquerer on one of his forays to England prior to 1066 (1052 Hamon was Lord of the Manor of Stapleton-on-Tees). Stapleton-on-Tees is a village in the parish of Darlington, near Pontefract, Yorkshire. There is a legend that Stapleton-on-Tees was settled during the Norse incursions There are two major branches extant, the English branch and the Irish branch. The Irish branch are descendants of John de Stapleton, 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 1199 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.