S T A 
535 
S T A 
v?as known. Ar but knot .—The original material of a ma¬ 
nufacture. 
At Leister, for her wool whose staple doth excel. 
And seems to overmatch the golden Phrygian fell. Drayton- 
STA'PLE, adj. Settled; established in commerce. 
Some English wool, vex’d in a Belgian loom, 
And into cloth of spungy softness made: 
Did into France or colder Denmark roam, 
To ruin with worse ware our staple trade. Dryden. 
According to the laws of commerce.—What needy writer 
would not solicit to work under such masters, who will take 
off their ware at their own rates, and trouble not themselves 
to examine whether it be staple or no ? Swift. 
STA'PLE, s. [ptapul. Sax., a prop.'] A loop of iron ; a 
bar bent and driven in at both ends. 
The silver ring she pull’d, the door she clos’d; 
The bolt, obedient to the silken cord, 
To the strong staple's inmost depth restor’d, 
Secur’d the valves. Pope. 
STAPLE, Merchants of the, a denomination given 
to the first and most ancient commercial society in England, 
from their exporting the staple wares of the kingdom, which 
were wool, skins, lead, and tin, in their rough state for 
manufacture. This society is said to have had its rise in the 
year 1248 ; and it appears to have had the legal form of a 
corporation before the 12th year of Edward II. A. D. 1319 ; 
as there are records in the pipe-office of the Exchequer, 
which mention, that it was actually a corporation, with the 
title of the mayor and constables of the staple of England, 
who then had their staple at Antwerp, for conducting the 
sale of English staple wares, and the importation of such 
foreign goods as were wanted at home. However, in 1328, 
by 2 Edw III. cap. 9. it was enacted, that the staples, on 
both sides of the sea, should cease, and that all merchant- 
strangers, &c., might go and come with their merchandize 
into England, after the tenor of the Great Charter. In 1336 
the staple of wool was again fixed in Brabant; in 1341, at 
Bruges; and in 1348, at Calais; whither, and to no other 
place, all merchandize exported from England, Wales, and 
Ireland, either by denizens or aliens, were to be shipped 
from England and there landed. The customs from this staple 
are said to have then amounted to upwards of 60,000/. 
sterling yearly. In 1353, Edward III. removed the staple of 
wool from Bruges to Westminster, Canterbury, Chichester, 
Exeter, Winchester, Bristol, Lincoln, York, Norwich, Newcas¬ 
tle, and Hull, for England; and to Dublin, Cork, Waterford, 
and Drogheda, for Ireland. And it was enacted by 27 Ed¬ 
ward III., and the act called the statute of the staple, that 
all staple wares for exportation should be first brought to some 
of these places only, where the custom should be paid, and 
exported by merchant-strangers only, under an oath not to 
hold any staple thereof beyond sea; which privilege was 
extended by 31 Edward III. to denizens also. Calais, how¬ 
ever, still remained a staple. 
In these staple-towns, courts of law-merchant were esta¬ 
blished, by the said statute, or determining all mercantile 
affairs, and for punishing and amercing offenders. From 
the year 1375, the staple of Westminster seems to have been 
removed to the place called Staple-Inn, in Holborn; when 
Calais, which had been for many years a principal staple- 
port for dispersing, in more early times, the English wool, 
lead, and tin, and, in later times, the English woollen 
manufactures, under the conduct of the Merchant-Adven¬ 
turers, into the inland countries of the Netherlands, France, 
and Germany, was lost to this country. In 1588, the staple 
for wool, &c. was established at Bruges; and queen Eliza¬ 
beth, in the third year of her reign, granted a new charter of 
confirmation to the corporation of the mayor and constables 
of the -staple of England, of all such privileges as they did, 
might, or ought to have enjoyed before the loss of Calais. 
However, king James I., in 1604, granted a new charter 
to the iilzxchmil-Adventurers, and in 1617, confirmed 
all their former powers and privileges for trading to the 
Netherlands and to Germany, with the woollen manufac¬ 
tures of England, exclusively of all who were not free of 
their company; in consequence of which, the merchants 
of the staple, who had before been declining, by the manu¬ 
facture and exportation of our woollen cloth, were brought 
to ruin. And when at length it was judged expedient to 
enact a total prohibition of the exportation of our wool, it 
is no wonder that the staplers’ company should become 
extinct. At this day they exist only in name; though they 
maintain the form of a corporation by annually electing the 
officers of their company, according to the direction of their 
ancient charters. This nominal corporation is kept up by 
those who deal in wool (still called woolstaplers), and 
who, in their corporate capacity, possess a small sum in the 
public funds, the interest of which serves to defray the 
expence of their meetings and elections. But they never- 
had a hall, or office of their own, within the city of London, 
like other trading companies, although the Inn of Chancery 
in Holborn, so denominated from their warehouses, which 
were formerly situated there; as was also an office and 
warehouse of theirs, which, since the erection of the 
bridge at Westminster, has lost its place, as well as name of 
wool-staple, at the upper part of Cannon Row. 
STAPLE, a township of England, in Kent; 3 miles 
south-west of Sandwich. 
STAPLE, Fitzpaine, a parish of England, in Somer¬ 
setshire; 5 miles south-east of Taunton. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Hertfordshire; 
3| miles north-by-west of Hertford. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Leicestershire; 
4J miles east-by-south of Melton Mowbray. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Lincolnshire; 
12 miles south-west of Lincoln. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Nottingham¬ 
shire, near the canal and the river Erwash; 5| miles west- 
south-west of Nottingham. Population 954. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Wiltshire; 4 
miles north-north-west of Wilton. 
STAPLEFORD, a parish of England, in Cambridgeshire; 
3 miles south-east of Cambridge. 
STAPLEFORD ABBOTS, a parish of England, in Es¬ 
sex, near the river Rothing or Rodon, over which it had a 
ford; 5 miles south-east of Epping. Population 351. 
STAPLELORD TAWNEY, another parish in the above 
county; 1 mile distant from the foregoing, on the opposite 
side of the Rothing. 
STAPLEFORD BRUINE’S, a township of England, in 
Cheshire; 7 miles east-by-south of Chester. 
STAPLEFORD FOULK’S, a township in the above 
county ; 6 miles east of Chester. 
STAPLEGATE, a village of England, in Kent, conti¬ 
guous to the northern extremity of the city of Canterbury. 
STAPLEGROVE, a parish of England, in Somersetshire; 
2 miles north-west of Taunton. 
STAPLEHURST, a village and parish of England, in 
Kent, noted for the salubrity of its situation, and fruitfulness 
of the soil. Population 1341 ; 5 miles north-by-east of 
Cranbrook. 
STA'PLER, s. A dealer: as, a wool-stapler .—I do not 
mean only the staplers of Hamburgh and Rotterdam. 
Howell. 
STAPLETON, a parish of England, in Cumberland ; 9-r 
miles east north-east of Longtown. 
STAPLETON, a parish of England, in Gloucestershire ; 
2| miles north-east of Bristol. Here is a spring called the 
Boiling Well, the waters of which spring out perpendicu¬ 
larly like a boiling cauldron, and the stream is so copious as 
to drive a mill, a quarter of a mile distant from its source. 
Population 1921. 
STAPLETON, a village of England, in Herefordshire, 
near Ludlow. 
STAPLETON, a hamlet of England, in Leicestershire; 
3 miles north-by-east of Hinckley. 
STAPLETON, 
