STAPLEY, Anthony (1590-1655), of Patcham, Suss.

The Stapleys had held land in East Sussex since the late fifteenth century, but none had previously sat in Parliament. Suss. Gens.: Horsham Cent. comp. J. Comber, 325; Notes of Post-Mortem Inquisitions taken in Suss. ed. E.W.T. Attree (Suss. Rec. Soc. xiv), 216. The Catholic family of Stapley’s mother secured a grant of Stapley’s wardship in 1604, two years before the death of his father, but his education was committed to a Protestant kinsman, Sir Thomas Pelham† of Halland Place. C66/1657, 1940; CSP Dom. 1603-10, pp. 180, 299; M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 349. In 1614 he married, at Lewes, a sister of Sir George Goring*, then a rising courtier. During the next few years he bought land from Goring and from Goring’s relative, the 2nd Lord Bergavenny (Sir Henry Neville II*). Despite differing so sharply in politics and religion, he remained financially close to the Gorings and the Nevilles. Danny Archives ed. J.A. Wooldridge, 30, 71, 86; C54/2641/6; 54/3024/23 CCC, 2051.

In 1624 Stapley was returned for New Shoreham, about nine miles from Patcham, where he had settled in about 1615. He was re-elected in 1625, but on neither occasion did he leave any mark on the parliamentary records. VCH Suss. vii. 217, Though nominated sheriff of Sussex towards the end of 1625, he was not pricked, and was therefore eligible to sit in the second Caroline Parliament. However, there is no evidence that he sought re-election in 1626. SP16/9/43. In 1628 he stood for Lewes, probably shortly after he joined with Sir Thomas Pelham*, the son of his former mentor, in founding a puritan lectureship in the town. Add. 33145, f. 28v; Fletcher, 71. The election was contested by Sir George Rivers* and the sheriff returned two indentures, consequently Stapley had to wait until 3 Apr. before the Commons confirmed his election. CD 1628, ii. 275. He played no recorded part in the proceedings of the Parliament.

It was not until 1633 that Stapley, probably on Pelham’s nomination, secured a place on the Sussex bench. By the end of the decade a fellow magistrate described him in a letter to one of Laud’s chaplains as one of the leaders of the ‘puritan faction’ in the county. Fletcher, 241; CSP Dom. 1639-40, pp. 386-7. He refused to contribute to the First Bishops’ War in 1639, Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 914. and in the Short Parliament elections he successfully challenged the nominees of the 4th earl of Dorset (Sir Edward Sackville*) and his brother-in-law Goring at Lewes, before taking the county seat, for which he was re-elected to the Long Parliament. Active as both a soldier and a politician during the Civil War, he became a regicide and a friend of Oliver Cromwell*. Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion ed. W.D. Macray, vi. 59. His will, dated 12 Oct. 1654, was witnessed by the puritan minister Francis Cheynell. He died in the following January. After sitting for Sussex under the Protectorate, his eldest surviving son John represented Lewes in the Convention and Cavalier parliaments. PROB 11/246, f. 232.