soule and of all my Ancestors & heires haue granted & by this my p'sent Charter confirmed to God & the Church of St Oswald of Nostell & the Regular Canons of the same place halfe a Carucate of Land wherein the Church of the said Canons is scituate &c. J allso grant & Confirme & as much as to me and my heires belongeth of the foresaid Cannons, in pure & ppetuall Almes the Church of South Kirkby & the Church of Fetherston with all their appurtnances &c. Wittnesse Osbert Archdeacon, William de Frist [Fryston], Adam son of Peter de Birkin " & multis aliis. Out of Nostell Priory Coucher, fo. 6. MM [vol. 138] 2 Henry the I. confirmed (inter alia) to God & St Oswald & the Canons of Nostell &c. the Church of Sukerbia [Sukirbia (Dodsworth)] the Church of Bateleia & the Church of Huderesford [Huderesfeld (Dodsworth)] with the lands belonging therevnto which Hugh de la Val gaue unto them. ibm. MM [vol. 138] 9 [Entered under FETHERSTON, vol. x. 535.] ibm. 42. MM [vol. 138] 15 Discord between the Prior of St Oswald of the one pte & Sr Adam de Wannervill of the other pte about the wages [the word translated "wages" is viijs in Dodsworth] of the foresaid Prior from his Priory to his Mann's of South Kirkby & Sherborne &c. Dat. 2 Ed. 2. [Other references are CCC (vol. 34) 64, 66, and F (vol. 125) 3, 71 Spittlehardwicke.93 [There is no entry under this head.] it belongs. It was one of the very earliest which Roger Dodsworth used for his A. volume (now classed as Vol. 116!), and he records that the volume was then "in the keeping of Mr. Skipton in Pontefract, who lent it me most friendly and freely, 17 Aug. 1619,"-274 years ago. It is lamentable to think that a similar loan, I have no doubt also "most friendly and freely," should two centuries and a half afterwards have led to the loss of this interesting coucher book. 91 This second Robert was lord from 1187 to 1193 between Henry de Lascy and Roger of the second house. 92 This is the usual misreading. The witness was Adam de Birkin, son of Peter. There is no evidence that Peter fitz-Asolf, a very great man in his time, ever called himself "de Birkin." He seems to have divided his large posses sions among his sons, or at least given them large estates in his lifetime, and Birkin fell to the share of Adam, who was thenceforth "de Birkin,"-Adam fitzPeter, de Birkin. See also vol. xi., 461. 93 So called, as belonging to the Hospital of St. Nicholas, and to distinguish it from East Hardwick, an outlying hamlet of Pontefract in the opposite direction. It belonged to the manor of Pontefract, of which it was about the tenth part. It is referred to in Domesday as "the alms land of the poor," 2 carucates out of 18. It seems to have been the tithe of the manor, and was probably the gift of some early royal possessor, the founder of the Hospital of St. Nicholas. St. Ive's well, another indication of an eighth-century foundation, is on the estate a few rods distant from the house. Spital Hardwick never became a centre Stanhil nere Drax. Out of Drax Coucher, fo. 1. AAA [vol. 26] 24 [now 20] Fulco Paynel by the Consent of Lecellina his wife [et heredum meorum et hominum (Dodsworth)] for the soules of his father & mother &c. gaue&granted to the Church of St Nicholas of Drax & the Canons there serving God &c. the Jsle called Holmholm & Middelholm, &c., & the Church of Drax, with 2 bovates of Land & one Toft in the said Towne, with the Chappell of Stanhill," &c. Wittnesse &c. 94 Stapleton.96 Fines, 39 Ed. 3 [1365–6]. G [vol. 127] 32 [See under CAMPSALE, vol. x. 361.] of population, though its founder had carefully given to the foundation both banks of the small stream which is sup. posed to bound it, and to which Pontefract has no access throughout the principal part of its course. The house (now a farm house, and for some time the residence of the bailiff of Lord Galway, the owner) is built as such early ecclesiastical foundations generally were, at a little distance north of the stream, and defended by higher ground from the north winds. One of the neighbouring closes is called the Coal Pit Close, as having contained surface coal, of which there is a bed there, and to the west. It is however valueless. Roman remains have been found here, but in modern days it did not attract population, is not named in the Poll Tax Rolls, and was not formed into an Elizabethan township for poor law purposes. 94 This hamlet had no separate rating to the Poll Tax, nor was it an Elizabethan township. 95 The Charter which is at full in Monasticon II., 96, 97, contains the addition cum alneto eidem capella antiquitùs pertinenti. 96 In the time of King Edward the Confessor, the manor of Stapleton, together with those of Beal, Campsall, Kellingley and Kirk Smeaton, had been owned by Baret, Ulchil having a moiety of Stapleton. But when the Domesday Survey was compiled, twenty years afterwards, these manors were all in the hands of Ilbert de Lascy, who had subinfeuded mostof them and had given both moieties of Stapleton to one Gislebert or Gilbert. Gislebert had then held the manor for some little time; for subse quent to this grant (though still before the time represented by the Domesday volume), when the Chapel of St. Clement's in the Castle of Pontefract was in course of endowment under the patronage of the chief lord Ilbert de Lascy, Gislebert made a contribution thereto, and as he was then called Gilbert, son of Dama, that record, by supplying the name of one of his parents, carries the pedigree a step higher. Stapleton is returned in the Survey as two manors, the entry adding, "In Stapelton, Baret, and Ulchil had 4 carucates of taxable land, where there may be 5 ploughs. Now Gislebert has it from Ilbert. He himself has there 2 carucates. There are 4 villans, and 12 bordars, with 4 ploughs and an acre of meadow. The whole manor is one leuga long and a half broad. In the time of King Edward [the Confessor, i.e. in 1065], the value was £4; now [in 1086] it is £3." Stapleton was thus at that time a comparatively prosperous place, as judged by its comparative geldable value. At the time of the Domesday Survey Gislebert had no name, so far as is known, but Gilbert son of Dama; he never seems to have been called de Stapleton. In the time of his son Hugh, however, the fashion of taking place-names sprang up, and he was called indifferently Hugh son of Gilbert and Hugh de Stapleton, being (and the point cannot be insisted upon too strongly as he is thereby separated entirely from the Stapletons of Carlton and Wighill) the first inheritor of this manor who adopted the territorial name of Stapleton, which cognomen was therefore not brought to the place by the newcomers but assumed by them from the name of the manor. For the Stapletons of this Stapleton Park, in the Parish of Darrington, were not a branch of the Durham family as is sometimes supposed; but the first of this family called by that surname was the Hugh whose father was Gislebert or Gilbert, and his grandfather or grandmother, Dama. In other words Hugh did not receive the name of Stapleton from his ancestors, but at a time when such an assumption was getting to be almost a necessity, he assumed it from this manor of which he was lord, on which he resided, and which as far as can be ascertained was his sole possession. Henceforward, however, Hugh's descendants in the elder branch bore that name; but in some remarkable instances in which the younger branches hived out, they adopted the name of the place in which they settled. For example, Robert, the second son of Hugh, obtained a grant of land at Swillington, and thenceforth abandoning the name of Stapleton, he became known as Robert de Swillington (or Robert, son of Hugh, de Swillington), and was the head of a very important family. The youngest brother Walter also entirely dropped his patronymic, preferring to be known as "Walter the king's bailiff," or "the bailiff of Staincross and Osgoldcross." Similarly in a Doma Gilbert (1086). Hugh 1 William L. de Stapleton. Robert de Swillington. Hugh II. Hugh de Horton. Robert de Horton. Hugh de Horton. The Hortons. Warr. n de Scargill Claricia. William de Scargill, d. 1308. [It may be added that this William had eight sons. Sir Warin, the eldest, and two others had inheritance in the North Riding of the father's land, Sir William the fourth son, and some of his younger brothers had the lands at Thorpe Stapleton, Stapleton in Darrington, Lede, &c.] later generation, the great family of Horton de Horton, near Bradford, were really Stapletons coming from this Stapleton in Darrington, their ancestor being a later Hugh (son of Robert, son of Hugh, son of Gilbert) to whom the second Robert de Lascy about 1190 made a graut of four carucates of land at Great Horton, Little Horton and Clayton. The following memorandum of this transaction is on record in Dodsworth, vol. 118, fo. 122b: "Robert de Lascy, lord of the Honour of Pontefract who lived in the time of Henry II., and died in the 4th of Rich. I., gave and granted to Hugh son of Robert de Stapleton, 4 carucates of land in fee and inheritance, to be held from him as a third part of a knight's fee. To wit in Great Horton, 20 bovates of land, in Little Horton 14 bovates of land, and in Clayton 6 bovates of land with their appurtenances. Witnesses: Paynill and . . . Reineville." In a later generation still, William son of Hamericus the younger brother of this Hugh de Horton similarly hived out, and had land at Whitwood and Whitwood Mere, where he was styled indifferently "of Stapleton," "of Whitwood," and "of Mara," that is The Mere, or Whitwood Mere. The following short pedigree will make this statement clear. Robert, the chaplain of Darrington. Walter, king's bailiff (1180). Hugh, Robert. Hamericus de Whitwood. Thus Hugh de Stapleton, son of Gilbert, was the first to adopt the territorial name, and was succeeded by his son William, who was followed by his son, the Robert who owned two k. f. in 1166. This Robert obtained Cudworth through his wife Claricia, and used that manor as a chief residence. He was a frequent Fines, 1 R. 2 [1377-8]. 97 G [vol. 127] 35 Between John son of Warin de Scargill & Jone his Out of Kirkstall Booke, fo. 44. DDD [vol. 39] 30 Hamericus" de Stapleton [p amore dei & p'a'ï'a (domini) mei Rob'ti (Dodsworth)]" gaue to the witness to the Pontefract charters, as was his youngest brother Hugh II., who with him signed one of the Monk Bretton House. Robert had been present when Henry de Lascy in 1159 confirmed to the monks of Pontefract a grant of the Church of Darrington and of the Chapel of Stapleton. Later on he gave lands at Cudworth to the neighbouring priory of Monk Bretton, a gift which Pope Urban III. confirmed in 1186. And finally he gave land at Armley to the monks of Kirkstall for his obit. After his death his widow Claricia (daughter of Adam de Reineville), and their son William, extended the list of benefactions. For they made a covenant with John Tyrel, the parson of their parish church at Royston, that they should have a chapel in their hall at Cudworth, and they gave six acres of land for the privilege, on condition that the name of Robert de Stapleton should be put in the Martyrology of Royston Church. For this they had the licence of the Archbishop about 1200. Robert, grandson of Robert and Claricia de Stapleton, the last of his name, was one of the superior officers of the Honour of Pontefract in 1250, and the copy of a charter which is misplaced among the North Riding pedigrees in the Leeds Library III. 386, informs us that he had a brother William, that his mother's name was Emma, and that his coat of arms was a Chief indented. It refers to lands at Bramley, and at its foot Mr. Wilson (probably) has made a memorandum: "I sent the original of this to Dr. Rawlinson, F.R.S., and F.S.A., 19 August 1751, which seal is different from the arms of Stapleton, now lord of Armley." And singularly enough this seal (which as clearly as the genealogy above, differentiates the Stapletons of Darrington from those of Carlton, whose use was ARGENT, a lion rampant SABLE) is misdescribed in the Torre MS. as a Fess. This Robert III. son of William II., who received a grant of free warren in 39 Henry III. through all his demesne land in Stapleton, Thorpe Stapleton and Cudworth, is said to have died in 1284. His heirs were then under age, and if there were more, only Clara lived to inherit, who marrying Warren de Scargill about 1300, brought that name from the North Riding to the West, and whose monument is still in Darrington Church, cross-legged, clothed in chain armour and bearing a saltire, on what appears to be a scallop-sown shield, but which is really an ancient form of ermines of which it would be hard to find a better or finer example. The tails of each of the ermines are not of one, or three or even five, which last is rare; but as many as nine and even eleven, which are expanded in a graceful curve so fine as to have much the appearance of the ribs of a scallop shell, for which indeed they are frequently taken. Unfortunately, the shield is somewhat damaged, but it had originally four ermines in each compartment of the saltire. The same heraldry was a century and a half later placed on the west face of the font of the neighbouring church at Featherstone, the tails having become the present conventional three in number, and the ermines being only three in each compartment but that of the base, which still exhibits the original four. Dodsworth seems not to have visited either of these churches, but if he did his notes have not been preserved in the Harl. MS. 800.-At the time of the Poll Tax of 1378, there were 29 persons assessed in Stapleton township to a total of 10s. 10d., of whom 22 were charged at 4d. and 7 at 6d. The 7 at 6d. were two tailors, two websters, a mason, a smith and a walker. One of the websters, Agnes de Scargill, is an illustration of the tenacity with which the old name clung to the soil. Among the peculiar names, there was a Dion Rosedaughter, a William at Yate, a William at Hall, a William de Merre and a John del Hill. 97 See ante, vol. viii., 12, 13. 98 See the genealogy in note 96. Hamericus was the progenitor of the Whitwood and Mere branch. 99 Here the transcriber evidently makes Monastery of Kirkstall 6 Acres of Land in Stapleton in the plowland [cultura, Dodsworth] which is called Wulpuitedale.100 C [vol. 120] 21 of Cudeworth' in Charta, 39 H. 3 [1254] m. 6. The King granted to Robert de Stapleton free warren in all his demeasne Lands of Stapleton & of Thorp & the county of Yorke. Fines, 8 Ed. 2 [1314-5]. GG [vol. 128] 21 [Given under LITLE SMEATON, vol. xii., p. 77.] Escheats, A 6 Ed. 2 [1312]. GG [vol. 128] 169 [Partly given under GREAT SMEATON, vol. xii., p. 76.] The Jurors say that William Vavasour held the Mann's of Heselwood, & the moyety of the Towne of Stutton, of Henry de Percy &c....Allso they say the said William 2 held the Manor of Fryston [Ferry Fryston] by the service of one Kts fee val. 15 & of diuerse Lands in Stobis, litle Smithton, Kirke Smithton, Stapleton & Badesworth [Lord (Dodsworth)] William Vavasour next heire. [Under Great Smeaton the next heir is said to be a Walter.] [Other references given are CCC [vol. 34] 23, 45, 56, 74.] Stubs Walding. Pleas of Juries & Ass*. 9 Ed. 1 [1281] ro. 11 in dorso. EE [vol. 124] 64 William le Vavasor, & Nicholaa his wife, by their Atturney complaine agt Robert son of Pagan & an omission on account of a difficulty. The word patris is blotted and almost illegible; but a reference to the pedigree in note 96 will show what the word should be, and I have supplied it accordingly. 100 Apparently this did not remain with the Abbey till the Dissolution, at least it is not in Burton's list of their possessions; but the name still adheres. There is also the beautiful Brocker-dale, or Badger-dale and Dale-field each at the Wentbridge end of the township. 1 This Robert de Stapleton was the last lord of that name. The family had held Stapleton for at least two centuries, and Cudworth which Claricia de Reineville brought in by marriage for at least half that time (see note 73). It is singular that this family, a succession of Williams, Roberts, and Hughs, should ever have been confused with the Durham and North Riding Stapletons whose predominating names were Brian, and Miles and Nicholas. 2 See vol. x. 532. 3 The place took its second name quite as early as the first half of the 12th century from one Walding, who is sometimes called Walding the soldier. He flourished about 1140, but as is very frequently the case with tenants of the Pontefract Honour of the second grade in that generation, hardly anything is known of him but his name; for the "war" in the early part of the reign of King Stephen obliterated almost all local records. What were his antecedents, and by what means he obtained his grant, are both enveloped in darkness, and we first learn of him through his son William. For although he left his name on this manor, we know no more of him than we do of Dama the progenitor of Gilbert of Stapleton. He witnessed no charter that I have met with, he conveyed no property, his death does not appear to have benefited the royal treasury through the Pipe Roll, and we first hear of him |
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