It was created on 20 December 1679 for William Stapleton,[3] who followed Charles II into exile in France, and after the Restoration was appointed deputy-governor of Montserrat and captain-general of the Leeward Islands.

[4] John Brooke wrote: The Stapletons, of Irish extraction, emigrated to the West Indies temp.

They were supporters of the West India Interest, though their own main concerns were in the small islands of Nevis and Montserrat, and they were not very prominent.

[18] The final division gave the 5th baronet 25%, Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet 12.5%, with 62.5% divided equally four ways between Catherine, Ellis Yonge (1717–1785) the husband of Catherine's sister Penelope (1732–1788), Elizabeth Stapleton and Frances Stapleton.

[21] The 7th baronet, as his father's executor, made an unsuccessful claim in the 1830s for compensation for the enslaved people on the Montpellier estate in Nevis.

The barony passed to the granddaughter (Mary) Frances Elizabeth of the 6th baronet; she married Evelyn Boscawen, 6th Viscount Falmouth, and was mother of Evelyn Boscawen, 7th Viscount Falmouth, 14th Baron le Despencer (see Baron le Despencer for further history of this title).