Miles de Stapleton

- 1364

• Name	Miles de Stapleton
  Birth	of Bedale, Yorkshire, England   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Death	4 Oct 1364  [1, 2, 4, 5]
  Alternate death	20 Oct 1364  [3]
  Burial	Ingham, Norfolk, England   [2, 3]
  Person ID	I18835	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	30 Sep 2020

  
  

  Father	Gilbert de Stapleton,   b. of Bedale, Yorkshire, England d. Bef 28 Jun 1321
  Mother	Agnes Fitz Alan,   b. Abt 1298   d. Bef 3 Nov 1348 (Age ~ 50 years)
  Marriage	Bef 15 Dec 1317  [1, 2]
  Family ID	F11695	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Joan de Ingham,   b. Abt 1320   d. Between 26 Jun 1360 and 12 Dec 1365 (Age ~ 40 years)
  Children	1. Miles Stapleton,   b. Abt 23 Jun 1357, of Ingham, Norfolk, England d. 10 Apr 1419 (Age ~ 61 years)   2. Joan de Stapleton   d. 2 Sep 1385
  Family ID	F11688	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 Jan 2019

  
  

• Notes

  Walter Rye (citation details below) gives his birth year as "circa 1300", but this has to be wrong, as he was an infant only child on his father's death in 1321. The ODNB (citation details below) says 1320, with a question mark. The ODNB also notes that "[i]t is sometimes impossible to distinguish Sir Miles Stapleton of Bedale from his first cousin, Sir Miles Stapleton of Haddlesey (c.1318–1372)." From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: It was probably he who went overseas in the king's service in September 1342, and the family's historian suggests that he was at the siege of Tournai with his younger brother Brian Stapleton, and then in Brittany. A Miles Stapleton, probably of Bedale, was singled out by the chronicler Adam Murimuth as taking the honours on the first day of a three-day tournament at Windsor which in January 1344 saw the inauguration of the order of the knights of the Round Table. He was given letters of protection to go abroad with Sir John Darcy, the king's chamberlain, in 1345, which may suggest that he was educated in Darcy's household. He was certainly present at the siege of Calais in 1346, and given his later link with the Garter, he almost certainly fought at Crécy in 1346 too. Having become associated with the royal household at about this time, he took part in three further tournaments between October 1347 and January 1348, at Bury St Edmunds, Eltham, and Windsor. An account for the great wardrobe in 1348 describes him as a knight of the chamber, and he became a founder member of the Order of the Garter, sitting on the king's side in the ninth stall. In October 1351 Stapleton was sent abroad with William Latimer and then, for a while, the careers of both Miles Stapletons, of Bedale and of Haddlesey, sometimes coincided. In 1354 both witnessed an instrument requesting papal intervention in the Anglo-French war. Stapleton of Bedale was involved in Lancaster's march across Normandy in 1356, and in 1358 he was paid £50 for acting as a messenger to Philippe de Navarre. In 1359 he went abroad again on royal service. In June 1360 he was granted a life annuity of £100, in consideration of his 'laudable service in the king's deeds of war' (CPR, 1358–61, 429). This makes it likely that he is the Miles Stapleton who was one of the witnesses to the treaty of Brétigny in 1360. Abroad again in June 1361 and January 1362, on the latter occasion he made his brother Brian his attorney for two years. His destination in 1362 appears to have been the Baltic rather than France, since in January 1363 he was one of a group of leading English knights recorded as borrowing money from local merchants at Thorn on the Vistula. The money was to be repaid at Bruges. In March 1361 and August 1362 he served on commissions of peace with the earl of Suffolk. Miles Stapleton of Haddlesey was appointed to a commission of the peace headed by the earl of Lancaster in 1361. In January 1364 Miles Stapleton of Bedale took out letters of attorney for three more years, but died on 20 October 1364, probably from wounds or disease after the battle of Auray (29 September 1364). […] In May 1349 Stapleton was licensed to endow a chantry at North Morton, but following his second marriage his plans became more ambitious, and between 1355 and 1360 his chantry developed into a Trinitarian priory at Ingham, to which Ingham parish church was appropriated. Stapleton was buried in the church, and he and his descendants were commemorated there in a series of splendid brasses: Sir Miles and his second wife were shown holding hands, with the inscription 'Priez pour les almes monseur Miles de Stapleton et Dame Johanne sa femme fille de Monseur Oliver de Ingham fondeurs de cette maison qe dieu de lour almes eit pitee' ('Pray for the souls of Sir Miles Stapleton and Lady Joan his wife, daughter of Sir Oliver Ingham, founders of this house, that God may have pity on their souls'; Gough, 1/2,120). In 1799 the brasses were sold as 'old metal', but rubbings were taken of them before their destruction.

  
  

• Sources

  [S142] Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families by Douglas Richardson. Salt Lake City, 2013. [S1526] The Ancestry of Dorothea Poyntz, Wife of Reverend John Owsley, Generations 1-15, Fourth Preliminary Edition, by Ronny O. Bodine and Bro. Thomas Spalding, Jr. 2013. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing., year only. [S4342] Norfolk Families by Walter Rye. Two volumes, 1911-13., year only.