STAPLETON, Roger, of Scarborough, Yorks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1386-1421, ed. J.S. Roskell, L. Clark, C. Rawcliffe., 1993
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1416

Family and Education

s. and h. of William Stapleton (d.1394) of Scarborough by his w. Joan. m. by June 1402, Isabel.2

Offices Held

Bailiff, Scarborough Mich. 1411-12, 1416-18, 1419-20.3

Biography

Roger’s father, a former town clerk of Scarborough, died in the autumn of 1394, having bequeathed to him certain farmland in the surrounding countryside. His tenements in Scarborough went to his widow, Joan, for life, although the reversionary interest was promised to Roger, who joined with her in executing the will. In October 1401, Roger obtained the farm of part of the nearby manor of Osgodby during the minority of Robert Barde, a royal ward. One of his mainpernors at the Exchequer was John Mosdale*, the keeper of Scarborough castle, who offered guarantees of his ability to pay an annual rent of five marks for the property. Roger married at some point before June 1402, when his wife, Isabel, was named as a beneficiary of the will of William Marche, a wealthy local merchant who had stirred up a rebellion against the ruling party in Scarborough during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Roger and Isabel were together left money by another burgess named Henry Wresyll, who appointed Roger, in 1406, to act as one of his executors. Among his associates was John Green of Newby, on whose behalf he himself went surety at Westminster during this period.4

Roger first entered Parliament in October 1407, just a few months after relinquishing the keepership of his land in Osgodby. He went on to serve four terms as bailiff of Scarborough and to represent the borough again in the first Parliament of 1416, but little else is known of his activities. His mother presumably died before May 1408, because he had by then taken possession of some of the late William Stapleton’s property in Scarborough.5

Ref Volumes: 1386-1421

Author: C.R.

Notes

  • 1. W. Prynne, Brevia Parliamentaria Rediviva, iv. 1113.
  • 2. Borthwick Inst. York, York registry wills, i. f. 73v; iii. ff. 80v, 252-2v.
  • 3. C219/10/6, 12/3; E368/184 m. 127, 185 m. 98v, 189 m. 86v, 190 m. 107v, 191 m. 108, 192 m. 121, 193 m. 105v; SC1/57/30.
  • 4. York registry wills, i. 73v; iii. ff. 80v, 252-2v; CFR, xii. 141; xiii. 19; CCR, 1399-1402, p. 441; White Vellum Bk. Scarborough, ed. Jeayes, no. 18C.
  • 5. Yorks. Arch. Soc. Rec. Ser. lix. 63; York registry wills, ii. ff. 575v-6.