Name Sir Stapleton, | ||
Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet (c.1698–1740) was an English politician and Jacobite.
Contents
Life
Brought up on Nevis, he was the son of Sir William Stapleton, 3rd Baronet and his wife Frances Russell, daughter of Sir James Russell who had acted as governor of the island. He inherited the baronetcy when his father died in 1699, and entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1714, aged 15.
In the 1720s Stapleton associated with Jacobites including Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton. At the general election of 1727 he stood for Oxfordshire and was returned unopposed. Not active as a parliamentarian, he was involved in the drafting of the Molasses Act. Linda Colley characterises him as an "inarticulate" Tory of the Country Party.
Family
Stapleton married Catherine (died 1753), co-heiress daughter of William Paul of Braywick, Bray, Berkshire (by his wife Lady Catherine Fane (died 1737) (marriage licence 21 February 1696) daughter of Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland and sister and co-heir of the 5th, 6th and 7th Earls of Westmorland). William Paul, MP for New Windsor 1710-1711, was the grandson and eventual heir of Bishop William Paul via his uncle Sir William Paul (d.1684). They had three sons and two daughters. The eldest son Lt. William was killed on board HMS ISIS at Port Royal, Jamaica, and daughter Catherine married Sir James Wright, HM Resident Minister in Venice.