Sir William Stapleton, 4th Baronet ( 1698–1740), of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, was an English Jacobite and Tory politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1727 to 1740.

Early life

Stapleton was brought up on

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and ...

in the British Leeward Islands, 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. In 1699, he succeeded to the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on the death of his father. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 17 April 1714, aged 15. He married Catherine Paul, co-heiress daughter of William Paul of Braywick,

Bray, Berkshire Bray, occasionally Bray on Thames, is a large suburban village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It sits on the banks of the River Thames, to the southeast of Maidenhead of which it is a suburb. The village is mentioned in th ...

and his wife Lady Catherine Fane, daughter of

Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland (13 February 1645 – 29 December 1693), styled The Honourable Vere Fane from 1644 to 1661 and Sir Vere Fane from 1661 to 1691, was a British peer and Member of Parliament for Peterborough and twice for Kent ...

on 28 April 1724. With the marriage he came into possession of

Greys Court Greys Court is a Tudor country house and gardens in the southern Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames in the county of Oxfordshire, England. Now owned by the National Trust, it is located at , and is open to the public. ...

Career

In the 1720s Stapleton associated with Jacobites including

Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton (21 December 1698 – 31 May 1731) was a powerful Jacobite politician, was one of the few people in English history, and the first since the 15th century, to have been raised to a dukedom whilst still a mino ...

. At the general election of 1727 he was returned unopposed as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for . He voted against the Administration in every recorded division. He spoke on a bill for the relief of the sugar colonies on 21 February 1733, and successfully opposed the import of rum from the North American colonies into Ireland as detrimental to the sugar colonies. He was involved in the drafting of the

Molasses Act The Molasses Act of 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. 13) that imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on imports of molasses from non-British colonies. Parliament created the act largely at the insistence ...

. He was returned unopposed again at the

1734 British general election The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...

Linda Colley Dame Linda Jane Colley, (born 13 September 1949 in Chester, England) is an expert on British, imperial and global history from 1700. She is Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a long-term fellow in history at ...

characterises him as an "inarticulate" Tory of the Country Party.

Death and legacy

Stapleton died at Bath on 12 January 1740. He and his wife had three sons and two daughters. She remarried to Rev. Matthew Dutton and died in 1753 He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his second son

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. His eldest son Lt. William Stapleton was killed on board HMS ''Isis'' at Port Royal, Jamaica. His daughter Catherine married Sir James Wright, HM Resident Minister in Venice.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stapleton, William Year of birth uncertain 1698 births 1740 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1727–1734 British MPs 1734–1741 English Jacobites People from Nevis Baronets in the Baronetage of England Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford