Anthony Stapley (born 30 August 1590 – buried 31 January 1655) was one of the

regicide Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...

s of King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after ...

. Stapley was M.P. for New Shoreham (1624–1625),

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of t ...

(1628),

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

(1640, 1653–1654). He was colonel and governor of

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

(1642–1645) and signed the death-warrant of Charles I. He was a member of

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

in 1649–1653, vice-admiral of Sussex in 1650 and a member of interim council and of supreme assembly in 1653.

Biography

Stapley was baptised at Framfield on 30 August 1590, was the son of Anthony Stapley of Framfield, Sussex, by his third wife, Ann, daughter of John Thatcher of Priesthawes, Sussex. The Stapley family removed about 1615 from Framfield to Patcham. Anthony about 1640 gave £10 to the new building at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, and was probably educated there. Stapley represented the borough of New Shoreham in the parliaments of 1624 (elected 21 January 1624) and of 1625 (elected 2 May), and the borough of

in that of 1628 (elected 26 February 1628), having unseated Sir

George Rivers Sir George Rivers (1553–1630) was an English politician. He was born the son of Sir John Rivers of Chafford and Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir George Barne, and probably educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the Middle Temple in ...

by petition. He was returned both for the county of

and for the borough of Lewes to the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Af ...

in March 1640, when he elected to sit for the county. He was again chosen by the county on 22 October 1640 to sit in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septe ...

, and represented it in the

Barebones Parliament Barebone's Parliament, also known as the Little Parliament, the Nominated Assembly and the Parliament of Saints, came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the ins ...

of 1653 and the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the Ho ...

of 1654. In January 1640 Stapley, then a justice of the peace, was reported to Dr. William Bray, Archbishop Laud's chaplain, as causing trouble to the churches by his puritan leanings. On the outbreak of the English Civil War he received a colonel's commission in the parliamentary army, and was present at the

siege of Chichester The siege of Chichester was a victory by Parliamentarian forces led by Colonel William Waller over a small Royalist garrison. The siege was one of the key events in the First English Civil War by Waller to secure southern England and decla ...

in December 1642 under Sir

William Waller Sir William Waller JP (c. 159719 September 1668) was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War, before relinquishing his commission under the 1645 Self-denying Ordinance. ...

. He was left as governor of the town and garrison when Waller moved on to the siege of

Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established during the reign of Edward the Confessor and completed by Roger de Montgomery. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War a ...

. On 22 September 1643 he took the

covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

. At the beginning of 1644 he raised objections to the quartering in the town of some of Waller's horse. The dispute was referred to a committee of the House of Commons, and finally to the

committee of both kingdoms The Committee of Both Kingdoms, (known as the Derby House Committee from late 1647), was a committee set up during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, aft ...

on 26 February. He was ordered by both bodies to observe Waller's commands. While detained in London he was exonerated from all blame in the event of disaster at Chichester. He resumed the command of the town and garrison at the termination of the proceedings early in March. He retained his governorship till 1645, when he was succeeded by Colonel

Algernon Sidney Algernon Sidney or Sydney (15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of Englan ...

. In January 1644 he was deputy lieutenant of the county of Sussex. Stapley was one of the

commissioners A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...

who sat in judgement on

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

during his trial for high treason. Stapley was present at Westminster Hall on 27 January 1649 when sentence was pronounced, and signed the death-warrant on 29 January. He was elected a member of the first

of the Commonwealth on 17 February 1649 (when he signed the engagement), and re-elected on 17 February 1649–1650, 25 November 1651, 30 November 1652, and 9 July 1653. He was one of Cromwell's interim council of thirteen (29 April to 14 July 1653), and of the supreme assembly called on 6 June 1653. He had joined the admiralty committee of the committee of both kingdoms on 6 June 1649, was nominated vice-admiral for the county of Sussex on 22 February 1650, and took the oath of secrecy the following day. He died early in 1655, and was buried at Patcham on 31 January. At the Restoration he was one of the regicides notified as dead, and excepted from the

act of Pardon and Oblivion The Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660 was an Act of the Parliament of England (12 Cha. II c. 11), the long title of which is "An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion". This act was a general pardon for everyone who had committe ...

of 6 June 1660 (which meant that his estate was subject to confiscation).

Family

Stapley married Ann, daughter of George Goring of Danny, and sister of George, Lord Goring. She was buried at Patcham on 11 November 1637. By her Stapley had three sons and one daughter. Stapley married a second wife, "Dame Anne Clarke", who predeceased him on 15 January 1654. Sir

John Stapley Sir John Stapley, 1st Baronet of Patcham (1628–1701) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1679. He was a Royalist who plotted with members of the Sealed Knot to overthrow the Protector Oliver ...

(1628–1701), the second but eldest surviving son abandoned the political views of his father, became entangled in a plot for the return of Charles II as did his brother Antony.

Notes

References

;Attribution * * cites: **Berry's County Genealogy—Sussex, p. 85; **Sussex Archæological Collections, i. 36, iv. 300, v. 88–91, xvi. 78, 108–9, 113, 116, 119–20; **Masson's Milton, iv. 13, 224, 354, 446, 501, 505, 523; **Commons' Journals, i. 878, iii. 362, 401, 403, 616, vi. 146, vii. 37, 42, 303, viii. 61; **Official List of Members of Parliament; **Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 1639 to 1654 passim; **Vicars's Jehovah-Jireh, pp. 234–40; **Dallaway's Western Sussex, vol. i. pp. 14, 20, vol. II. pt. i. p. 28; **Rushworth's Memorials, III. ii. 480; **Nalson's Trial of Charles I; **

Mark Noble Mark James Noble (born 8 May 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder and is well remembered for his time at English club West Ham United, spending eighteen years with the club. Apart from two sh ...

, ''Lives of the Regicides'', pp. 240–6; **

Thomas Walker Horsfield Rev. Thomas Walker Horsfield FSA (christened 2 December 1792, Sheffield - 26 August 1837, Chowbent, Lancashire), was an English Nonconformist minister, topographer, and historian best known for his works ''The History and Antiquities of Lewes ...

's ''Sussex'', ii. app. pp. 49, 55; **Thurlow State Papers (Birch), passim; **Macrae's Cal. of Clarendon State Papers, iii. 281, 312, 358, 374, 388–9, 405; **Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion (Macrae), vi. 58–9, 63; **Burke's Extinct Baronetage; **P. C. C. 189 (Aylett); **Registers of Patcham, Addit. MS. 5698, f. 118.

Biography

Family

Notes

References

Further reading