Mapley / Mabley Family history

The Mapleys and Mableys worldwide originated in England, with two identifed clusters.

A Norman-based cluster of Mapleys descended from William the Conqueror and successors, appeared in 12th century records of England, possibly as noblemen or Knights of the Order of Hospitallers. From the earliest surviving Exchequer pipe rolls, covering the 1129-1130 financial year (reign of Henry I (1068-1135), Rogerus filius Mabilie is recorded in Northamptonshire. The pipe rolls were a series of census and tax records kept by the English Treasury, a written record of the audit process of the king's accounts for one financial year, formalised annually by order of King Henry II (1154-1199). They run nearly continuously from 1155 until 1832, the earliest series of English royal records.

The Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem was militarized in the 1120s and 1130s, hiring knights that later became Hospitallers. This Order was established in England in 1130. In its Cartularies or charters and title deeds of an estate, Willelmus filius Mabilie, and his brother Gilbertus de Mabilie are mentioned re. a granting of land from Willelmus' estates in Essex in 1160.
Willelmus de Mabilie land grant 1160

Other records of early "Mabilies" are found in various rolls - Robert de Maples appeared in the Devonshire tax rolls from 1273. A Mapley was first found in Essex, where that of Robert atte Mapele was listed in the Assize Rolls of 1285. Later John Mapel was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls for Cambridgeshire in 1327 and John del Mapples, was found in Sheffield in 1348.

In September 1538, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's Chief Minister, ordered that every parish should keep a record of every baptism, marriage and burial. The details that are included within the registers vary from parish to parish and from clerk to clerk and many registers from the early period have not survived. In 1598, it was ordered that 'great decent books of parchment' should be used for this purpose and that copies of new entries should be sent each month to the Bishop.

Regarding Buckinghamshire, a Mapley family spread from Northamptonshire to Hanslope in the mid-1500's, then to Newport Pagnell in the 1590's onwards. The family spread throughout Buckinghamshire to Wavendon to Little Linford, then Great Linford. Mapleys spread to other local villages like Castlethorpe, (New) Bradwell, Great & Little Woolstone.

In the late 15th Century Lace was made in the Eastern Counties of Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Bedforshire, a legacy from Catherine of Aragon's exile, and to this day still remains a flax growing area - as a result we see many Mapley women engaged in the lace-making industry.

The Mapley population grew in this area during the Middle Ages, moving slowly closer to London, along trade routes based on the old Roman Roads such as Watling Street. The advent of the UK railways, the oldest railway system in the world, led to expansion hand-in-hand with the Industrial Revolution and the demand for bulk materials, coal, iron and later steel. Many Mapley became skilled artisans, working on the railways with wood and metal. These skilled Mapleys then spread throughout the UK as the railway network expanded.

The second cluster of Mableys, however, seemed to derive from Brittany and northern France, becoming established in Cornwall, predominantly around St Minver. Given the local economies of farming, sea-faring and mining, the advent of commonwealth mining opportunities - "gold rushes", together with improved sailing and depleted local mines, gave rise to Mabley emigration to USA and Canada in the 19th Century, as well as spreading to South Wales (mining) and the shipping industry around Bristol. When France ceded Canada to England in 1763, and the American Revolution in 1776 resulted in independence, the availability of cheap land within the British colony of Canada gave rise to the "Great Migration" between 1815 and 1850 once the War of 1812 had ended. Canada is predominantly populated by Mableys, many farmers from large Cornwall acreages, who spread west as the railways opened up the prairies before they helped to establish the mining communities of Alberta.

Economic developments were the engine of migration - end of the Napoleonic wars and the industrial & agricultural revolutions gave rise to high unemployment in the countryside and migrations to cities for work in the new factories. Corn laws raised the prices of bread, and the advent of steamships and much shortened sailing times, after the end of the War of 1812, attracted many English to North America, including soldiers who remained after the war. With the Corn laws pushing up the price of food, Richard Mapley of Great Linford was tried and shipped to Tasmania, Australia in 1844 for stealing food. After he was pardoned, he was joined by his wife and family 4 years later, and a whole new branch of Mapleys was established in Australia. Richard's cousin William, however, of neighbouring Little Linford, ventured west, and his family settled in New York state and Michigan State in the 1860's and remain there to this day.