Staveley Arms of London

The London arms are given in the Visitation of London 1633-4 for Christopher Staveley (leatherseller) in a five generation pedigree descending from his grandfather Robert Staveley of Brafferton (a village just four or five miles West of Thormanby and Easingwold. A most intriguing link here, that reinforces this Oxford/Thormanby connection, is that in 1492, among a raft of other property, lands at Helperby were inherited by William Staveley (of Oxford) and his wife Alice (Francis) on the death of Alice’s mother, Isabel Sapcote (Helperby is a village, essentially at ‘one’ with Brafferton, being divided solely by the main street).

It does rather suggest some form of Staveley settlement there from around this time (1500-1550) though no evidence of this has remained for us to identify the Robert Staveley, grandfather of Christopher. There are several records of a Christopher Staveley of London, yeoman (and ‘glover’), (and his wife Ann, both of St. Margaret’s, Westminster), in the time of Charles II who were in court as suspected of being Catholics and I imagine this is the same Christopher whose arms are given in the Visitation though his wife (who may be his second) is then shown as Agnes.

Author: Peter Staveley