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The Conscientious Man: A Biographical Sketch of LeRoy Lafayette Staples

by Wanda Staples

128 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0568; ISBN 1-55369-166-0; US$16.00, C$17.95, EUR13.00, £9.00

The Staples family trek - from East to West Coast. A representation of the pioneer American.

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About the book      About the author      Sample excerpt      Catalogue info

About the Book A representation of the pioneer American.

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About the Author

Wanda Staples is the author of two previous books. Now retired, former careers include being an agent for a tax and accounting business, being a full-time housewife and mother as well as writing her own personal biography, not yet published.

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Sample Excerpts

This writing is about the life of LeRoy Lafayette Staples and includes his roots and related historical events.

In French, Le(s) Ro(i) means The King. Lafayette was from French nobility, a man who came to the aid of the Americans in the Revolution. The family, Staples, consistently gave their offspring names of prominent people. People who had succeeded in life. The Staples name is in the Peerage book in England, but direct connection is impossible to locate, though some relationship exists with a number of American Presidents. A distant cousin relationship.

Separatists from England had fled to Leydon, Holland, to escape the torments of neighbors in England. Thirty-five of them, along with sixty-five from England were brought over on the Mayflower in 1607. Because they landed north of the allotted land grant, they made their own compact known as the Mayflower Compact which ceded the authority to the will of the majority--the first democratic contract in America. The church covenant was similar. All authority was vested in the assembly of the church members. By 1640, eight towns with 2500 population had been established. Taunton was west of Plymouth, one of the towns settled by separatists. They were simple country folk and artisans from middle and lower classes. They had had little or no education, without social or political distinction. They were eventually absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony for protection because of their lack of self-protection. But many refused to stay to be subjects of the wealthy. They had suffered too much to again be under tyranny. Not while there was land to the west.

Jeffrey Staple, his wife Margery with fifteen year old son Samuel arrived in America about sixteen years after the Mayflower. In 1622, Thomas Weston established a trading station at Wessagasset on Boston Bay about twelve miles southeast from Boston. Twenty one families from Weymouth, England came in 1634 and established the place as Weymouth, Massachusetts. They received parcels of land but their first shelters were huts made by digging a pit into the side of a hill, covering the pit with roughly hewn boards or boughs, then throwing additional dirt from the pit over the boughs. This served until a rude cabin could be built.

The settlers in the area were also threatened by Indian attacks. The Pequot War occurred in 1637. 1675-1678 saw the King Phillip's War. None of this provided much security for fishermen or farmers. By 1654, Samuel was in Braintree, Massachusetts. In 1661, Samuel and William Edwards sailed from Braintree to Taunton, twenty-three miles from Plymouth, to re-settle fifteen settlers and their families because of threats of violence from other settlers who, supposedly, had come to America for religious freedom but were inclined not to grant it to others.

John Winthrop and his associates of the wealthy Massachusetts Bay Colony had attempted to create a refuge for Puritans from England. But by 1691, they had absorbed control of even the Plymouth Colonies, control being vested in the hands of a narrow theocracy. They did not believe in democracy and were accused by their promoters from England with coining their own money, refusing freedom of worship to dissenters, and refusing to obey Navigation Acts. This threatened problems with England.

While religious freedom was an influential cause of the drive to America, it is probably overstressed. It is more likely that desire for economic betterment, including land-hunger and education were more important factors.

The Separatists, so called because they chose to separate from the formalized organizations, descended from Calvinism but were animated by a spirit of inquiry that has resulted in not only the founding of educational institutions like Harvard and Yale Universities but an acceptance of advanced thought that created the basis for government of the people. Among them, each congregation was autonomous or self-governing. No member had to await the authorization of any higher church authority to unite with like-minded believers to form or maintain a congregation. Or for that matter, a civil governing unit. They were considered to be "gathered", that is, a company of believers gathered directly by the spirit to form a community for joint action. No one among them would have charged another with heresy. They recognized the right to disagree.

The theme of heresy echoing through England at that time had its roots in Rome. Each evolving group of believers tended to charge the other with heresy, creating conflict. From the beginning, Christianity has been plagued with this charge of heresy. It was the motive for Saul (whose name was changed to Paul when he was converted) to hunt down and kill the early Christians. His conversion allowed the groups to live and thrive but the developing church felt the need to threaten its own members with the charge.

HERESY: Having an opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine of a church or religious system (or political system). The maintaining of such opinion or doctrine. An heretic is a professed believer who maintains religious opinions contrary to those accepted by his church or rejects doctrines prescribed by his church. That this charge applied to political theory as well was what caused the Separatists to flee England. They were not simply seeking religious freedom. Nor was it just land to farm. They wanted freedom of thought, development of ideas, the right to invent new ways. The opportunities of education for their children with unlimited potential to develop opportunities. All, of which, labeled them as heretics.

The Jesuits did not start this examination of heretics which was considered to be a sweeping scourge insidiously undermining the ties that bound the self to moral values although this eventually implanted an idea of futurism that was fatal to hard work and positive endeavor. People resisted the dependency on a central opinion, wanting to do their own thinking. But church officials felt that it was necessary to keep people controlled.

In the early years of the Catholic Church there were those who advocated that the State punish heretics by imprisonment, confiscation of properties or exile. By 1224, the idea of death began to be imposed because of the increasing numbers of Christians opposing church ritual and ceremony as well as the diverse laws that had been promulgated by the bishopric.

The church considered an heretic to be an enemy of the human race. A desire for religious and racial purity caused the dedicated church officials to promote a separate branch of the bishopric to the duty of Inquisition. It was tantamount to witch hunting. However, witchcraft was regarded as insanity and delusion and was treated leniently by the church. But sincere people who regarded the church as being ill-advised in the matter of laws and rules and chose to cling to their own interpretation of scripture, copies of which, though rare, were finding its way into the hands of the common people, were threatened with severe punishments. Most people of the time were not well educated and needed a reader, but were seriously interested in following the word as written. These same people would impose penalties upon others for not agreeing with their private interpretation of scripture.

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Catalogue Information

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