Sir Robert Stapylton

Playwright Sir Robert Stapylton (or Stapleton) is buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. He seems never to have an inscribed gravestone. He was born at Carlton in Yorkshire, a son of Richard (d.1636) and his wife Elizabeth (Pierrepont). Educated at Douai in France with his brother Ralph he was professed as a Benedictine in 1625. He returned to England and then became a member of the established church. He was appointed gentleman in ordinary to the future Charles II and went with Charles I to Oxford during the English Civil War. He was knighted in 1642 and lived quietly during the Cromwellian period. He translated book 4 of the Aeneid and Juvenal's satires. He married widow Hope Hammond but they appear to have had no children. At the Restoration of Charles II to the throne he was appointed a gentleman usher of the privy chamber. His first play was The Royal Choice followed by others including The Slighted Maid. He died on 11th July 1669 and Sir Miles Stapleton, his nephew, was his heir.

Further reading

"The Stapletons of Yorkshire" by H.E. Chetwynd-Stapleton, 1897

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography