Brian Stapleton (1379 - 1438)

Born 1379 in England

Ancestors

Husband of Cecily (Bardolf) Stapleton — married about 1406 in England

Descendants

Died 17 Aug 1438 at about age 59 in Ingham, Norfolk, England

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message] and Robin Wood [send private message]

Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Biography

Origins

Sir Brian Stapleton, son of Sir Miles Stapleton and Ela Ufford, was born about 1379:^[1] he was aged 40 at his father's 1419 death. ^[2]

Life and Career

He was captured in France in 1417 and was imprisoned for 5 years and was returned after a ransom of 3,000 marks was paid.^[2][3] He secured his release in 1423 with a bond of 1200 crowns from Sir John Fastolf of Caistor as a loan.^[4]

He was de jure Lord Ingham at his fathers death in 1419, according to modern doctrine.^[2]

In 1424, Sir Brian was involved for the defense of Walter Aslak, who took up an unrelenting vendetta against William Paston for his successful defense of the prior of Norwich in an action Aslak was taking against the prior for claiming title to the Sprowston Church. The murder by hanging of John Grys of Wighton, Norfolk by an angry mob in 1423 was used by Aslak on posted bills in Norwich and in other places nearby to infer that Paston would suffer the same fate. A lawsuit was brought forth by Paston against Aslak, and after an unsuccessful attempt was made by Sir Brian to mediate in the case, Aslak was jailed in Norwich after he refused to pay the fine levied by the court.^[5][6][7]

In November of 1424, the Privy Council authorized letters patent to Sir Brian so that he may assign the manors of Langford, Cadeford and Dene in Wiltshire to his son Miles who he names as his heir along with his wife Elizabeth, and also allowing his son and daughter-in-law to be trustees for someone using the Dene manor.^[3]

He served as Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk from 1424-1425 as well as Knight of the Shire of Yorkshire from 1436-1437.^[1][2]

Family and Children

He married Cecily Bardolf, daughter of Sir William Bardolf, 4th Lord Bardolph of Wormgay and Agnes Poynings.^[1][2] They had children:

• Sir Myles Stapleton, Knt, Sheriff of Norfolk & Suffolk, Lord Ingham, born about 1408, married (1) Elizabeth Felbrigg, (2) Katherine de la Pole.^[1][2]
• Anne Stapleton, who married (1) Thomas Hethe and (2) Sir Walter Trumpington.^[1]
• Brian Stapleton, Esq., born about 1410, died between 1462-1467.^[1]

Will and Death

Sir Brian left a will on 5 April 1438 and wrote a codicil following it on 4 May 1438.^[2] At the time of his death it was certified that he had no lands or tenements in his possession and that he had, attested to at North Moreton on 5 July 1438 before his death and provided to all jurors present, given all of his properties to his son and heir Miles Stapleton, which were named in the document as "Stapilton Maner", with an annual value of £10 and a tenement named "Hemseys" with an annual value of 5 marks that was being rented to the abbot of Dorchester for 1lb pepper so that services could be rendered. In the document his son Miles is recorded as being aged 30 years and more. The probate was received on 12 February 1440.^[8]

He died on 17 August 1438 at Ingham, Norfolk, and was interred in the chancel at Ingham Priory on 29 August 1438.^[1] The memorial to Sir Brian and Lady Cecilia was on the north side of the church of Ingham, with effigies of both present as he depicted as a knight with cuirass and she depicted in mitre head-dress. The name of their dog, Jakke, accompanied their effigies on the memorial. Over the canopy one could view the arms of "Stapleton impaling Ufford; Lord Bardolf, Azure, three cinquefoils pierced or, impaling Barry of six, a bend over all, Lord Ponyngs, perhaps; and Stapleton impaling Bardolf."^[9] Also according to Cotman, the memorials to Sir Brian and his wife were removed from the Ingham Church in 1800 without care by the minister and churchwarden and sold for the value of the metal.^[10]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. II, p. 109.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} George Edward Cokayne, et. al, eds. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. VII: Husee to Lincolnshire, 2nd edition. (London, 1929). Online at FamilySearch pages 63-64: Ingram.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Sir Harris Nicolas, ed. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 1 Henry VI. 1422 to 7 Henry VI. 1429, (1834), Vol. 3, p. xxv.
4. ↑ Henry Edward Chetwynd- Stapylton. Chronicles of the Yorkshire Family of Stapelton (Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Journal, 1884), pp. 95-96.
5. ↑ James Gairdner, ed. The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Henry VI (1422-1461, A.D.) (London: Birmingham, 1872), Vol. 1, pp. xxiv.
6. ↑ The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Henry VI (1422-1461, A.D.), Vol. 1, pp. 14-15.
7. ↑ Richard Barber, ed. The Pastons: A Family in the Wars of the Roses (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2004), p. 16.
8. ↑ King's College London, 2014. Mapping the Medieval Countryside [online]. Available under E-CIPM Inquisition 25-206. Accessed: 3/12/2021.
9. ↑ John Sell Cotman. Engravings of sepulchral brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk (London: H. G. Bohn, 1839), p. 19.
10. ↑ Engravings of sepulchral brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk, p. x.

See also:

• Francis Blomefield, Happing Hundred: Ingham, in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 9 (London, 1808), pp. 316-327. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol9/pp316-327 [accessed 5 November 2021].
• Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, 7th Edition, additions by Walter Lee Shippard Jr., 1999. Pages 257-35. Available online at Ancestry.com.
• Weis, Frederick Lewis. The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999. Pages 49-8 and 40-8. Available online at Ancestry.com.

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta Project by Darrell Larocque in November and December 2021 and reviewed for the Project by Michael Cayley on 4 December 2021.

Brian appears in badged trails from Gateway Ancestors

• Charles Barnes to Magna Carta Surety Baron John FitzRobert. This trail was badged in December 2021 and can be viewed in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.
• Elizabeth Haynes to Magna Carta Surety Barons John FitzRobert and Saher de Quincy. See all the Haynes trails in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.

Brian appears in unbadged trails from the Kempe Gateway Ancestors (Richard Kempe, Edward Kemp, Edmund Kempe and Matthew Kempe) to one or more Magna Carta Surety Barons. The trail(s) have not yet been developed on WikiTree and can be viewed HERE.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".