Miles Stapleton (1408 - 1466)

Born 1408 in Ingham, Norfolk, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1466 at about age 58 in Norfolk, England

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Biography

Origins

Sir Myles Stapleton, Lord of the Manor of Ingham, Norfolk and de jure Baron Ingham of Ingham, Norfolk, and Lord of the Manor of Bedale, was born about 1408 (30 years old in 1438), son of Sir Brian Stapleton and Cecily Bardolf.^[1]

Lands

In 1457 Sir Miles had transferred the manor which he purchased from Ralph Estlet, Esq. and wife Julian in South Cove, Norfolk to his son-in-law William Calthorpe, who married his daughter Elizabeth (see Family section).^[2]

He inherited Waxham Hall by marriage from his ancestors Oliver de Ingham and Sir John de Ingham. After his death, Waxham also became the property of his son-in-law.^[3]

He was de jure [only] Lord Ingham of Ingham, Norfolk, and Lord of Bedale, Yorkshire. He was a Knight of the Shire for Suffolk, for Norfolk also, and was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk.^[4]

Reign of Henry VI

in 1428 he was a commissioner to look after the beacons of Norfolk.^[2]

He was in the French wars where he singlehandly captured seven prisoners for whom he had a safe-conduct dated 22nd June 1436 to pass into Flanders, probably to obtain money for their ransoms.^[5]

In 1441/1442 Sir Miles Stapleton and Thomas Tudenham were summoned for Norfolk with other Knights and Members of Parliament to attend the King's Privy Council.^[6]

In June of 1442, Sir Miles along with Sir William Eure, Sir Stephen Popham, and John Heron, Esq., executed warrants for eight barrels of gunpowder for "certain ships and vessels with which they had been appointed to keep the sea" as well as offer letters of safe conduct for any prisoners they might take. In July, Sir Miles, Sir William Eure and John Heron, Esq. were instructed to "perform the covenants in their indentures for keeping the sea". Finally, in August, Sir Miles along with Sir William Eure, Sir Stephen Popham, and John Heron, Esq. were sent to the Isle of Wight to muster on the sea, and the next day received a cache of spears, bows and arrows, having been appointed to keep the sea.^[7]

The following year he and his brother Bryan received the thanks of the Privy Council in connecton with a riot at Norwich. On 4th March 1443 the King's Council ordered Letters of Thanks be made out to the Duke of Norfolk, William Calthorpe, Miles & Brian Stapleton, Thomas Brewes, sheriff, and others, "for their diligence in finding out the rioters and misdoers at Norwich." Chief Justice Fortescue was sent down to try the prisoners.^[5]

In 1447/1448, the Lord Treasurer, Marmaduke Lumley, on behalf of the King's Commissioners Richard Haynes and Robert Pylton of Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, sent Sir Miles and Thomas Fen acting is constables to Yarmouth. They were sent to enforce a customs levy of 1,000 pounds due that was being withheld in an attempt to defraud the government by a Robert Pyn on shipment of wool goods.^[8]

In January of 1449, for the session beginning in February and once again in October of 1450 for the session beginning in November, he was a Member of Parliament for Norfolk, England.^[9][10] His service as an MP for Norfolk in 1450 was aided by the influence of the Duke of Norfolk and more so that of Richard, Duke of York, who replaced one of the original candidates given him, Sir William Chamberlain, with Sir Miles Stapleton's name. Sir Miles was then notified that he should wait for the Duke of York to arrive in Norwich.^[11]

On 21 August 1450, John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford wrote from East Winch, Norfolk (says Wynche) "To my ryght and trusti and wyth all myn hert intyerly wel-belovyd Sir Mylys Stapelton, Knyght" where he apologized for not being able to meet with him at Framingham Castle as he had to be by the King's side. He asked that both he and Thomas Brewes come to the King and Privy Council to offer the best ways to deal with the people in order to restore peace.^[12]

Sir Miles Stapleton was also the Duke of Exeter's Commissary in Norfolk, with his brother Bryan his Lieutenant. ^[5] He and others appear to have made themselves unpopular, with complaints being lodged against them, and the Duke of Norfolk was sent in 1452 to sort things out.^[13]

Reign of Edward IV

In the first year of the reign of King Edward IV of England, an election was held for the Knight of the Shire of Norfolk, won by John Paston, a current Member of Parliament and a former member of Edward's household. John Berney of Witchingham, a member of the election proceedings, had been accused of murder by Sir Miles previously and now he also openly suspected him of contemplating further bad deeds. Despite the acrimony, Berney and Paston both had no objections to a new election, and the King endorsed the new election on Saint Laurence's Day.^[14]

Family and Children

He married first Elizabeth Felbrigg, daughter of Sir Simon Felbrigg KG, of Felbrigg, Norfolk and Margaret Noszak. They had no issue.^[15]

He married second Katherine de la Pole, daughter of Sir Thomas de la Pole and Anne Cheyne.^[1] They had children:

• Elizabeth Stapleton, born about 1441, married first Sir William Calthorpe KB (as his second wife), second Sir John Fortescue, third Sir Edward Howard, died 18 February 1505.^[1]
• Joan (or Jane) Stapleton, married first Christopher Harcourt, Knt of Great Ashby, Leicestershire, England, second Sir John Huddlestone, Knt of Millom, Cumberland, England, died 13 May 1519.^[16][17]

Will and Death

Sir Miles's will was recorded by Blomefield in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: "He devised all his goods, chattels, and moveables, to be dispensed to pious uses, and all his manors to his feoffees, Thomas Betts, Humphrey Forster, John Heydon, John Fyncham, &c. for 4 years, to raise money for almes-deeds, for his soul's health; and by his testament in 1444, wherein he styles himself Miles Stapleton, Esq. of Ingham, he gives legacies to this priory, this church, and that of Waxham, to the Friars-preachers of Yarmouth, and Norwich, &c. appoints the Lady Catharine, his wife, Lady Ela Brewes, John Fastolf, Edmund Clere of Stokesby, Esq. Symon Gunnore, &c. executors; Thomas Bishop of Norwich, and William Earl of Suffolk, supervisors: proved December 21, 1466, by William Pykenham, LL. D. commissary of Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, having bona notabilia; he died seized of this lordship, and those of Horsey, Waxham, Lammas, and Sterston in Norfolk; Weybread in Suffolk; Bedal, Cotherston, and Askham, Brian in Yorkshire".^[2]

Sir Miles was buried in the chancel at Ingham, last of the Stapleton family buried there, along with both of his wives Elizabeth Felbrigg and Katherine de la Pole. The stone and brass memorial there is presented as "Stapleton impaling de la Pole, azure, on a fess between three leopard's faces, or, a mullet, sable, Stapleton, impaling Felbrigge, or, a lion saliant, gules, Stapleton and Ufford, Stapleton and Bardolph; the head dresses of his wives on this brass are curious: one of the ladies only wears a girdle."^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} 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, pp. 109-110.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} 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].
3. ↑ Colonel Christopher William Carr-Calthrop. Notes on the families of Calthorpe & Calthrop in the counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, (London: F.A. Perry, 1933), p. 34.
4. ↑ Samuel Moore. Patrons of Letters in Norfolk and Suffolk, c. 1450., (Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1912), Vol. 27, pp. 196-197.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society. Norfolk Archaeology: Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to the County of Norfolk, (Norwich: Miller and Leavins, 1879), vol. 8, pp. 204-205.
6. ↑ Sir Harris Nicolas, ed. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 22 Henry VI. 1443 to 39 Henry VI. 1461, (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1837), Vol. 6, p. 341.
7. ↑ Sir Harris Nicolas, ed. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 15 Henry VI. 1436 to 21 Henry VI. 1443, (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1835), Vol. 5, pp. xl-xli.
8. ↑ Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 22 Henry VI. 1443 to 39 Henry VI. 1461, Vol. 6, pp. 328-330.
9. ↑ Parliament of Great Britain. Members of Parliament: Parliaments of England, 1213-1702, (1879), p. 339.
10. ↑ Members of Parliament: Parliaments of England, 1213-1702, p. 345.
11. ↑ James Gairdner, ed. The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Henry VI (1422-1461, A.D.), (London: Birmingham, 1872), Vol. 1, p. lxiii.
12. ↑ The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Henry VI (1422-1461, A.D.), Vol. 1, pp. 141-142.
13. ↑ The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Henry VI (1422-1461, A.D.), Vol. 1, p. lxxxiii
14. ↑ The Paston Letters, 1422-1509. A.D.: Edward IV, (1461-1471, A.D.), vol. 2, London, 1874, pp. xv-xvi.
15. ↑ Magna Carta Ancestry, Vol. II, p. 148.
16. ↑ Magna Carta Ancestry, Vol. II, p. 110.
17. ↑ 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. IV, p. 349.
18. ↑ John Chambers. A General History of the County of Norfolk: Intended to Convey All the Information of a Norfolk Tour, with the More Extended Details of Antiquarian, Statistical, Pictorial, Architectural, and Miscellaneous Information; Including Biographical Notices, Original and Selected, (Norwich: John Stacy, 1829), Vol. 2, p. 737.

See also:

• Cokayne, George Edward, 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.

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta Project by Darrell Larocque in November 2021, and reviewed for the project by Michael Cayley on 20 November 2021.

Miles appears in a badged trail from Gateway Ancestor Charles Barnes to Magna Carta Surety Baron John FitzRobert that was badged by the Magna Carta Project in December 2021. Miles also appears in a trail from Charles Barnes to Magna Carta Surety Barons Gilbert de Clare and Richard de Clare that was badged by the Project in July 2022. These trails can be viewed in the Magna Carta Trails section of the Gateway's profile.

Miles 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".