Michael Rhodes
2003-10-15 00:33:38 UTC
Following a Sunday Telegraph article six months ago on the
relationship between the Duke of York and Amanda Staveley, I set out
to dig into the lady's ancestry. Richard Kay, of the Daily Mail, has
replaced Nigel Dempster as the diarist on that organ, and if he is to
be believed (Oct 14) then the Duke of York is about to marry
30-year-old Amanda, daughter of millioniare Yorkshire landowner,
Robert Staveley.
Sadly, I have found no Coronets (yet) but here goes:-
Miss Staveley is daughter of Robert Arthur Miles Staveley, of North
Stainley Hall, near Ripon, of a landed family, armigerous (according
to press cuttings) whose armorial bearings carry the motto: "Nil
Desperandum".
However, some confusion has arisen re the ancestry & arms of the
current Staveleys of Stainley. It would appear that two families of
that name have been associated with the manor. When the current family
became "landed" in the 1952 edition of Burke's, the pedigree sent up
by Capt Miles Staveley omitted, quite honestly, to show any
relationship between his Easingwold yeoman family dating back to 1450
and the "original" family, which started off at North Stainley about
the same time, but died out, in the proper sense of the word, with the
death of Miss Roseberry Mary Staveley in 1931. (Miss Staveley was
armigerous according to Fox-Davies: - "upon a lozenge: Per Pale
embattled gules and argent, on a chevron engrailed between three
mascles, two buck's heads all counterchanged".).
That the arms of the two Staveley families are similar, does not
establish a link. The College of Arms would promptly explain that the
Heralds over the centuries have granted arms to families of the same
name but with no common origin which bear similar emblems but are
distinct in themselves as separate blazons. There are, for instance,
the Staveleys of Hunmanby in the East Riding of Yorks in whose ancient
church there is an elaborate marble memorial erected in 1780 showing
the same emblems as the other two families but again with different
colours.
Certainly General Miles Staveley was the last of the old male line at
North Stainley at his death in 1814 when the estate passed to Miss
Roseberry Staveley's father, Thomas Kitchingman Hutchinson, because
his great-grandmother, Mrs Tanfield, of Carthorpe, had been a
Staveley, of North Stainley.
So, there have been two families, and not one family, at North
Stainley since 1400, of the same name but not the same stock, the
"new" one starting in 1931.
Robert Staveley (Amanda's father) is the elder son of Capt (William
Arthur) Miles Staveley, of North Stainley Hall, Ripon, who died in
March, 1981, aged 68. Capt Miles Staveley was born in Waterford, Eire,
circa 1912, and arrived at the North Stainley estate when he was 17
(circa 1930). In the 30s he joined the 1st Battalion The Green
Howards, and served with the regiment in WW2. Miles Staveley, farmed
the Yorkshire estate until his death, & was a judge of ponies and
Cleveland Bays at the Royal International Horse Show and the Great
Yorkshire Show; & was Chairman of the Dales Pony Society, a county
councillor for Ripon and Pateley Bridge. He married Nancy (maiden name
unknown to me - although someone with a 1952 Burke's Landed Gentry may
have it) and was father of two sons, Robert, and Simon Henry, and one
daughter, Mrs Rickards.
The second son, Simon, in June, 1977, married into the Landed Gentry
when he wed Judy Odette Willis Fleming, (b. 28 June, 1954), daughter
of the late Colonel Edward Charles Augustus Willis Fleming (descended
from the Earls Fortescue), by his second wife the former Josephine
Templeton Knight. Miss Amanda Staveley was a bridesmaid.
Amanda's father married, 18 October, 1970, at St Mary's Church,
Sprotborough, near Doncaster, Yorks, Miss Lynne Raper (a renowned
showjumper), the only daughter of Mr & Mrs R.K. Raper, of Burntwood
Grange, Sprotborough.
--
Michael Rhodes.
relationship between the Duke of York and Amanda Staveley, I set out
to dig into the lady's ancestry. Richard Kay, of the Daily Mail, has
replaced Nigel Dempster as the diarist on that organ, and if he is to
be believed (Oct 14) then the Duke of York is about to marry
30-year-old Amanda, daughter of millioniare Yorkshire landowner,
Robert Staveley.
Sadly, I have found no Coronets (yet) but here goes:-
Miss Staveley is daughter of Robert Arthur Miles Staveley, of North
Stainley Hall, near Ripon, of a landed family, armigerous (according
to press cuttings) whose armorial bearings carry the motto: "Nil
Desperandum".
However, some confusion has arisen re the ancestry & arms of the
current Staveleys of Stainley. It would appear that two families of
that name have been associated with the manor. When the current family
became "landed" in the 1952 edition of Burke's, the pedigree sent up
by Capt Miles Staveley omitted, quite honestly, to show any
relationship between his Easingwold yeoman family dating back to 1450
and the "original" family, which started off at North Stainley about
the same time, but died out, in the proper sense of the word, with the
death of Miss Roseberry Mary Staveley in 1931. (Miss Staveley was
armigerous according to Fox-Davies: - "upon a lozenge: Per Pale
embattled gules and argent, on a chevron engrailed between three
mascles, two buck's heads all counterchanged".).
That the arms of the two Staveley families are similar, does not
establish a link. The College of Arms would promptly explain that the
Heralds over the centuries have granted arms to families of the same
name but with no common origin which bear similar emblems but are
distinct in themselves as separate blazons. There are, for instance,
the Staveleys of Hunmanby in the East Riding of Yorks in whose ancient
church there is an elaborate marble memorial erected in 1780 showing
the same emblems as the other two families but again with different
colours.
Certainly General Miles Staveley was the last of the old male line at
North Stainley at his death in 1814 when the estate passed to Miss
Roseberry Staveley's father, Thomas Kitchingman Hutchinson, because
his great-grandmother, Mrs Tanfield, of Carthorpe, had been a
Staveley, of North Stainley.
So, there have been two families, and not one family, at North
Stainley since 1400, of the same name but not the same stock, the
"new" one starting in 1931.
Robert Staveley (Amanda's father) is the elder son of Capt (William
Arthur) Miles Staveley, of North Stainley Hall, Ripon, who died in
March, 1981, aged 68. Capt Miles Staveley was born in Waterford, Eire,
circa 1912, and arrived at the North Stainley estate when he was 17
(circa 1930). In the 30s he joined the 1st Battalion The Green
Howards, and served with the regiment in WW2. Miles Staveley, farmed
the Yorkshire estate until his death, & was a judge of ponies and
Cleveland Bays at the Royal International Horse Show and the Great
Yorkshire Show; & was Chairman of the Dales Pony Society, a county
councillor for Ripon and Pateley Bridge. He married Nancy (maiden name
unknown to me - although someone with a 1952 Burke's Landed Gentry may
have it) and was father of two sons, Robert, and Simon Henry, and one
daughter, Mrs Rickards.
The second son, Simon, in June, 1977, married into the Landed Gentry
when he wed Judy Odette Willis Fleming, (b. 28 June, 1954), daughter
of the late Colonel Edward Charles Augustus Willis Fleming (descended
from the Earls Fortescue), by his second wife the former Josephine
Templeton Knight. Miss Amanda Staveley was a bridesmaid.
Amanda's father married, 18 October, 1970, at St Mary's Church,
Sprotborough, near Doncaster, Yorks, Miss Lynne Raper (a renowned
showjumper), the only daughter of Mr & Mrs R.K. Raper, of Burntwood
Grange, Sprotborough.
--
Michael Rhodes.