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[edit] Shropshire Parish Registers.[edit] Diocese of Lichfield.VOL. I. (1900)
[edit] The Register of Stapleton.[edit] Stapleton Registers.Stapleton (till 1744 always spelt in Registers Stepleton or Steppleton) in Diocese of Lichfield, Condover Hundred and Rural Deanery ; population in 1891, 245 ; acreage 2,352 ; 6 miles south of Shrewsbury. In 1676, there were 175 “ Conformists ” in the parish above the age of 16, and no “ Papists ” or “ Nonconformists,” which seems to show a decrease in the population in the course of the past two centuries. In 1602, Rowland Harris, Parson of Stapleton, held no degree, and was not licensed by the Bishop to preach. The Parish Register Abstract, 1831, contains the following account of these Registers :—“ Stapleton R. No. I. Register 1630–1747. No. II. Bap. Bur. 1748–1812. III. Marr. 1750–1812.” The oldest Register at Stapleton is bound in calf and has had clasps. It is 12½ inches long by 6½ wide. It contains 25 leaves of parchment, some loose, and much worn and tattered, and all injured by damp ; a break occurs in the entries from 1699 to 1708 ; probably some leaves are lost here. The first legible entry is in 1635, and the last in 1746. The entries include baptisms, marriages and burials. On the outside of the first leaf is written “ Thomas Cooper,” and across the page “ Humphry Sancky lived with Mr. Royston ye yeare 1687 and …” The second Register book begins 1748, and ends in December 1812. It has 15 written leaves, also injured by damp, and imperfect in places ; it contains baptisms and burials, and up to 1750 marriages also. A third book contains printed forms for marriage entries, and entries on them from 1750 to 1812. The Churchwardens books which are complete, and in fair condition, commence in 1670, and contain accounts, lists, plans of the sittings in church and their occupants, lists of the church plate, &c. They mention the “ olde churche bookes ” as being in 1678 “ torne, abused, and much decayed,” and “ as the inhabitants are by now unknown and allmost quite forgotten,” a fresh list for rating purposes is made out, giving the old names from a list of 1599, and the present ones opposite them. No names of much note are legible in the Registers. The families of Haynes, Scott, Meyrick, and Oakley are designated “ esq.”, “ Mr.”, or “ gent ” in the volumes. Some members of the Haynes family, sometimes spelt Heynes, are buried in the chancel ; the vestry book records the “ breaking up of the Church for Mr. Haynes's 2 daughters,” and “ Mrs. Margaret Haynes, widow of John Haynes, Esqr., of Netley ” has a stone now hidden by the choir seats ; her burial is entered in 1682. She was daughter of Thos. Nicolls of Boycott, Sheriff in 1641. John Haynes's daughter Mary, who was eventually his heiress, was born June 7, 1666, and married July 24, 1688, Thomas Edwardes, 2nd son of Sir Thos. Edwardes, 1st Bart., to whom she took Netley, in Stapleton parish, as well as other property. Mr. Thomas Stanier, who died in 1690, is also mentioned as having a stone in the chancel (now hidden). Many names in the Register are still found in the parish ; among them are Harper 1645, Corfield 1663, Bromley 1669, Wigley 1675, Mapp 1675, Huffer 1676, Preese 1689, Tomkys 1690, and later on Savage, Oakley, Tudor, Purcell, &c. An earlier Register than the present first Register must have been in existence shortly before 1831, as a large number of extracts commencing in 1546 are presented in George Morris's MSS. These, which number nearly 180, are here given. The present earliest Register must have been in a better condition then than it is now, as some of the entries now partly undecipherable are given intact in the Morris MSS.[1] The Rectors whose names are legible are :—
Stapleton is mentioned in Domesday under the name of Hundeslit, i.e., Huni's Lyth. It had been held as two manors by two Saxon franklins, Huning and Aelric, and in 1086, was still divided between Roger fitz Corbet, and Alward the Saxon, who both were tenants of Roger de Montgomery. It is possible that the mound near the Church may have been the site of one of the Saxon manor houses. It now, where opened on the south side, shows alternate layers of stones and wood ash. The other stood about a mile away, where the moated remains of the house of the De Stapletons still exist. The place first appears as Stapleton in the reign of Stephen, when Baldwin de Meisy was Lord of Stapleton and Wistanstow. His descendants, who took the name of De Stapleton, held the manor till the beginning of the 15th century, when it passed to six co-heiresses, the daughters of Sir John Stapleton. The advowson was held by their representatives in 1495, when Richard Webbe, the Rector who resigned in 1536, was presented. In 1738, Thomas Powys and his wife presented, pro hac vice, and in 1759 Henry Powys, who inherited the property of the Langleys of Shrewsbury Abbey, was patron. It passed by inheritance from the Powys family to the Earl of Denbigh, and has lately passed into the hands of R. W. Preston, Esq. The Church of St. John the Baptist was originally a chapelry of Condover, and as such paid 10s. annually to the Abbey of Shrewsbury, which had appropriated the Mother Church. The building is architecturally of unusual interest, consisting of an early church, on one side below the level of the soil, above which, probably about the 12th century, another was built, and then at some later period both were thrown together, and lit by 14th century windows. The Church, which seats 122, was restored in 1866, when the windows of the lower church were discovered. The then Rector, the Rev. Hon. C. W. A. Feilding, entered an account of the restoration, with illustrations, in the Vestry Book. The tower was an addition after 1789. The Registers are copied by Miss E. C. Hope-Edwardes, by permission of the Rev. Hudleston Stokes, M.A., Rector, who has collated the sheets with the original Registers as they passed through the press.
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