Richard Stapledon

[5] Stapledon was granted the demesnes of the manor of Milton Damerel by Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (1303–1377),[6] whose effigy also survives in Exeter Cathedral.

[7] In 1311 Stapledon received a grant of one acre in the parish of Drannack, near Gwinear in Cornwall, with the advowson of the Church of St Winneri, authorised by the overlord Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester.

It was stated by Prince that Stapledon's progeny continued in the male line at Annery for a further two or three generations,[9] and then on the failure of the male line passed via a daughter and sole heiress, Thomasine Stapledon, to her husband Sir Richard I Hankford,[10] son of Sir William Hankford (d. 1422), KB, Lord Chief Justice of England.

Foreseeing her forced entry into the City, Stapledon demanded from the Lord Mayor of London the keys to the gates, in order to lock her out.

However, as they rode (presumably from Blackfriars where (according to William de Dene's history of the See of Rochester[13]) the Bishop of London and Bishop Stapledon had gathered together with a group of the Kings Justices) into the City towards St Paul's, through the gate called Cripplegate, a cripple took hold of one of the forelegs of Sir Richard's horse and by crossing it threw the horse and rider to the ground, whereupon Sir Richard was murdered by the mob.

His tomb is marked by an elaborate monument comprising a recessed ogee shaped niche set into the wall, containing his recumbent effigy, in the form of a cross-legged knight, which style supposedly represents crusaders.

[18] The Devon historian Sir William Pole (d. 1635) stated that the arms of Stapledon (Argent, two bends wavy sable) were displayed on the shield of the effigy,[19] but today no trace of colour remains.