Anthony Stapley (baptised 30 August 1590 – buried 31 January 1655) was a landowner and Member of Parliament from

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. A

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

and supporter of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

during the

War of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bishops' Wars, ...

, he approved the

Execution of Charles I Charles_I_of_England, Charles I, King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, was executed on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall, London. The execution was ...

in 1649. His death in January 1655 meant he escaped prosecution as a

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'' ...

following the 1660

Stuart Restoration The Stuart Restoration was the reinstatement in May 1660 of the Stuart monarchy in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland. It replaced the Commonwealth of England, established in January 164 ...

Personal details

Anthony Stapley was baptised at Framfield in

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

on 30 August 1590, son of Anthony Stapley ( 1537-1606) and his third wife, Ann Thatcher (1555-?). He married Ann Goring in 1614, and they had four children, two of whom survived into adulthood, Sir John Stapley (1628–1701), and Anthony (1630-1671). Sometime after she died in 1637, he married again, this time to Anne Harding. They had no children before her death in 1654.

Career

Although his family had lived in

since the 15th century, Anthony Stapley was the first to play a significant role in national politics. A minor when his father died in 1606, he was placed in the legal care of his mothers'

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family, but his education entrusted to his

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

kinsman, Sir Thomas Pelham. One of the richest men in East Sussex, Sir Thomas was a prominent local

, and Stapley became a close political associate of his son, the younger Thomas (1597-1654). Stapley appears to have entered

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

around 1606, then from 1609 studied law at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. 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

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

in that of 1628 (elected 26 February 1628), having unseated Sir George Rivers 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 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

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 Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

, 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 inst ...

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 H ...

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 in December 1642 under Sir

William Waller Sir William Waller JP (c. 159819 September 1668) was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War. Elected MP for Andover to the Long Parliament in 1640, Waller relinquished ...

. 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 by Roger de Montgomery in the 11th century. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and earl ...

. On 22 September 1643 he took the covenant. 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 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 Wiktionary: commission, commission (official charge or authority to do something). In practice, the title of commissi ...

who sat in judgement on Charles I 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

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 ...

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

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stapley, Anthony 1590 births 1655 deaths People from Framfield Regicides of Charles I English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1653 (Barebones) English MPs 1654–1655 Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge