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At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: Miles Thomas Stapleton

Author: Miles Thomas Stapleton (1805–1854)

Alternate Name(s): 8th Baron Beaumont (title)

Biography: Miles Thomas Stapleton was born in 1805 in Yorkshire, the eldest son of Thomas Stapleton (1778–1839). He was engaged to the daughter of Major General Lorenzo Moore and when she broke it off, Stapleton wrote a satiric poem about her. The father challenged Stapleton to a duel on Wimbleton Common in February 1832. Moore seriously wounded Stapleton in the chest and was arrested. Fortunately, Stapleton recovered though the bullet was never extracted. In October 1840, the House of Lords summoned Stapleton by writ as one of the coheirs to the barony of Beaumont. Late in life, he served as the commandant of the West York Militia. In addition to two long poems and a travel book on Austria and Italy, Stapleton wrote the novel Paynell: or, The Disappointed Man (1837). He died in 1854 in London.

References: Stephen Banks, A Polite Exchange of Bullets (Boydell Press, 2010); Boase; Burke

Fiction Titles:

  1. Paynell: or, The Disappointed Man.  2 vol.  London: John Richardson, 1837.