The Stapley Family of Twineham, Framfield and Rotherfield I

The Stapley family is a very well known and ancient family of Sussex, dating back to at least the 13th century when individual Stapleys were written in the records. Within the whole of England during earlier centuries, the Stapleys were mainly concentrated in the area of East Sussex and West Kent. In the village of Rotherfield there was a particularly high concentration of Stapleys during the 16th and 17th centuries as evidenced from the parish registers. The Stapley family of Rotherfield was considered as being so old and well known that one of the many branches was included in the Visitation of Kent in 1663-68, in which they were recorded as one of the “Ancient and Knowne Familyes without Armes.” There was also the well known gentry Stapley family located in the village of Twineham which was established there in the late 15th century. Furthermore, there was also a more well known younger branch of this family which was established in Framfield by about 1500. Both these branches appear to have originated from Buxted which village lies between Framfield and Rotherfield, thus there is the possibility that the gentry Stapleys were originally a branch of the Rotherfield Stapleys. Both the gentry Stapley lines of Twineham and Framfield are given in this book. Within the younger branch of Framfield, there was the famous member called Anthony Stapley, Esq. (b.1590-d.1655), who during the Civil War was loyal to the Parliamentary forces and was a member of the Council of State alongside Cromwell. He was also one of the Commissioners in Westminster Hall at the trial of Charles I in 1649, and was one of the signatories of the King’s death warrant. The Rotherfield Stapleys are a very extensive family, and the earliest known member of this family who forms the start of a proved line, was John (II) Stapley (b.c.1510-d.1568), and from this first John (II) Stapley, five known branches developed in the 17th and 18th centuries who initially remained in Rotherfield. However, a substantial number of the mainly younger branches of the Rotherfield Stapleys moved to other surrounding villages and established their own Stapley lines. Later on in the 19th century several members of the Stapley family went further afield to Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the USA. Within one of the branches of Rotherfield who had moved to Framfield in the late 18th century, two of the members of this line used the titles of Knighthood and Baronet. In actual fact, one member, Sir Richard Stapley, Kt. (d.1920), was a genuine knight of the realm, while the other who was Sir Richard’s first cousin, “Sir” Harry Stapley, “Bart.,” claimed he had descended from the gentry Stapleys of Framfield and Patcham in the 17th century, who had been created baronets in 1660 by Charles II, but had died out by 1701.