Sex

Male

Parish

Alderley

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

Elizabeth Stapultun

Remarks

Was found to have committed adultery with Elizabeth Shae, by whom he had a child.

Causes

EDC 5/9/2 – defendant

Sex

Female

Parish

Alderley

Marital Status

Married

Spouse Name

Thomas Stapultun

Causes

EDC 5/9/2 – plaintiff

Sex

Male

Parish

Bury

Marital Status

Unknown

Occupation Status

Clerk; rector of Bury

Remarks

Qualifications: Bachelor of Law; Bachelor of Canon Law (no university attendance has been traced).

CCEd person ID 37371

Career: rector of Holy Trinity, Chester 1505 -1507; rector of Bury 1507- 1554/5; probably rector of Wigan 1551 -1554; probably vicar of Sandbach 1548-1554.

He resigned the living of Holy Trinity, valued at £8 15s 6d, and on the same day in October 1507 was admitted to Bury, valued at £29 11s 4d (Cooper). He was presented to both these livings by Thomas Stanley, earl of Derby.

Further notes: He was unpopular with his parishioners at Bury and in 1526 he appointed a parish clerk who was unacceptable to certain parishioners who attacked him and the clerk during a service in the church. He claimed that this violence had caused the church to be put under an interdict. Smyth claimed that such violence had been inflicted upon him that he was afraid to go out or to enter the church.

He built a chapel attached to Bury church which he may have intended as a chantry for himself.

(Also listed in the Directory under ‘Officials’.)

Sources:

George T. O. Bridgeman, The History of the Church and Manor of Wigan in the County of Lancaster, part I (Chetham Society, new series, 15, 1888), pp. 121-128

Tim Cooper, The Last Generation of English Catholic Clergy: Parish Priests in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in the Early Sixteenth Century (Woodbridge, 1999), p. 61

J. P. Earwaker, The History of the Ancient Parish of Sandbach (No place of publication, 1890), p. 46

Henry Fishwick (ed.), Pleadings and Depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster time of Henry VIII, (The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 32, 1896), pp. 151-152

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 3-4, 57

Douglas Jones, The Church in Chester 1300-1540 (Chetham Society 3rd series, 7, 1957), p. 172

‘The parish of Bury’, in A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, ed. William Farrer and J Brownbill (London, 1911), pp. 122-128. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp122-128  [accessed 31 December 2024]

Causes

EDC 5/8/1 – plaintiff