Author: Stapleton, Miles Thomas
Biography:
STAPLETON, Miles Thomas, later BEAUMONT (1805-54: GM)
He was born on 4 June 1805 at Richmond, Yorkshire, into an ancient Roman Catholic family of the north of England with its family seat at Carleton (or Carlton). He was the eldest son of Thomas Stapleton (1773-1839), a Richmond banker, by his first wife Maria-Juliana Gerard (1780-1827). He was probably educated on the Continent, since the English universities would have been closed to him. When a woman broke their engagement, he wrote a satirical poem about her and was obliged to fight a duel with her father on Wimbledon Common on 13 Feb. 1832; he was wounded by a bullet to the chest but recovered and did not press charges. His first publications were literary: the poems listed here; a novel, Paynell, or The Disappointed Man (1838); and a tragedy, Francesca da Faenza (1843). His life took a dramatic turn in 1840 when his claim to a peerage was accepted by Parliament and he became the 8th Baron Beaumont after the title had been in abeyance for centuries. He played an active role in the House of Lords particularly on the liberal side of issues related to Roman Catholicism and on agricultural reform. Later publications include several pamphlets, including The Ultra Party among the English Roman Catholics (1851), and a Mechanics’ Institute lecture, Climatology (1853). His book on Austria and Central Italy (1849) had multiple editions. On 9 Sept. 1844 at St. George’s, Hanover Square, London, he married the Hon. Isabella Ann Browne of Dublin (1824-1916), daughter of Lord Kilmaine, and with her had three children, two sons and a daughter: the 1851 census records them all as living at Curton St., London, with his unmarried sister and eleven servants. He died, however, on 16 Aug. 1854 after they had moved to Bruton St., Berkeley Square, London, and was later buried at Carleton. At the time of his death he was a deputy-lieutenant for Yorkshire and the Colonel-Commandant of the 4th West Yorkshire militia. (GM Oct. 1854, 387-8; ancestry.com 25 Nov. 2024; findmypast.com 25 Nov. 2024; Morning Post 15 Feb. 1832, 19 Aug. 1854; MH 19 Aug. 1854; information from AA)
Other Names:
- Miles T. Stapleton
- M. T. S.