Mapleys in Buckinghamshire

In 1841, 40% of all UK Mapleys (133 in total) were registered in Buckinghamshire.

The Roman road "Watling Street" (today's A5) passed through Towcester into Buckinghamshire, and was the major coach road between London and the North West. The earliers Mableys in Buckingham appear to have migrated south 10 miles from Northamptonshire, settling in Stony Stratford (where Watling Street crossed the River Ouse), Castlethorpe and Hanslope on the county border as early as the 1550's. From there economic migration gravitated towards the larger towns in the country.

Buckingham Mableys/Mapleys are found and named in The Hundred Rolls commissioned by Edward I, in the Posse Comitatus of 1798, and UK Censuses from 1841 onwards... The predominance of the Mapley families were in North Buckinghamshire, reflecting the migration south from Northamptonshire.

Newport Pagnell became one of the largest towns in the County of Buckinghamshire. Newport Pagnell, together with Olney, became the centre of the lace industry in England, and many local Mapley women list their occupation as lace makers in the 18th and 19th centuries, whereas the Mapley men became employed and skilled in the railways industry in the early 19th century.

Due to the early, major railway linking London to the industrial heartlands of Birmingham (1833), the Mapley men acquired vital skills, which they took with them from Wolverton by the next generation to an expanded railway network throughout Great Britain. Carpenters, coachmakers, tin-plate machinists, lathe operators, the UK Censuses reflect the change from agricultural labourers to skilled workers over two generations in the early stages of the industrial revolution.

In 1841, 40% of all UK Mapleys (133 in total) were registered in Buckinghamshire, 21% in London, and the rest scattered throughout the UK. Only 10% of UK Mableys (193 in total) were based in Buckinghamshire, 40% of Mableys in Cornwall and 19% in London.

Buckingham Towns and Villages


The old Roman Watling Street is the straight line North-West from Little Brickhill to Stony Stratford.