STAPLETON of Old Weston

[AlexStewart]

I have been asked to look into the history of the Stapleton family who used to live many years ago at Old Weston. I am intrigued by Owen Stapleton who was born in Keysoe in Bedfordshire in 1816,
married Elizabeth Gale from Great Stukely in 1841, and by 1861 became established as a farmer
with 193 acres at Mill Hill, Old Weston, after being a farmer in Woolley with 165 acres in 1851.
Remarkably by 1871 he has left his farming in Huntingdonshire altogether and has moved as a widower to Tonbridge or Tunbridge Wells in Kent, probably the latter as it was Albert Street, and lived as a lodger in a household of a carpenter and became a fish hawker. By 1881 he was
a fish dealer or merchant. His son William went to Kent with him and became an apprentice. His father died in Kent in 1889 and William moved back to his father's original village of Keysoe in
Bedfordshire and lived there with his wife, from Bolnhurst, as an agricultural labourer.
Can anyone shed any light on this unusual development, and/or comment on what happened
to the farm at Mill Hill, Old Weston?
Alex

[bedfordshire boy]

Can you check through the 1871 census for Old Weston to see who was living there? Doubtless the farm was let to another tenant.

[AlexStewart]

Can you check through the 1871 census for Old Weston to see who was living there? Doubtless the farm was let to another tenant.

Yes, of course, I looked at the census returns from 1841 to 1891. In 1871 I could not find a
Stapleton in Old Weston. I thought the farm may well have been taken over by Owen's brother,
Charles. However, I discovered that Charles also moved to Keysoe, Bedfordshire after being
with his father Thomas in 1851 at the farm in Old Weston. Later he moved back to Huntingdonshire to take over another farm at Hamerton nearby.
You may well be right about a tenant but I have not been able to find him or her. My query was
more about what drove Owen from the farm in Old Weston to a very different career in Kent.

[Martin232]

In the graveyard of the Church, in Old Weston you can find a grave that says " In memory of Jane, daughter of Owen & Eliz Stapleton. who died June 18th 1863 ,aged 15 years." Is behind the church a bit hidden and in a very bad condition. Maybe it has something to do with the story.

[AlexStewart]

In the graveyard of the Church, in Old Weston you can find a grave that says " In memory of Jane, daughter of Owen & Eliz Stapleton. who died June 18th 1863 ,aged 15 years." Is behind the church a bit hidden and in a very bad condition. Maybe it has something to do with the story.

Thank you so much, Martin. Congratulations on your first post. Several years have passed since I was asked to look into the Stapleton family so I shall have to look back for the material. Your suggestion about the death of the young daughter may well be connected with the move away to Kent.
Regards
Alex