St. Martin’s in the Fields, London, England

     St. Martin’s in the Fields in London is where two daughters of Jasper Stallings were christened in the 1620’s.  He was married to Mary Haywood, and they were married in St. Margaret’s Church at Westminster Abby.  Jasper was at Jamestown, Virginia, cultivating silkworms  around 1617.  William Stallenge was a member of the Virginia Company but did not go to Jamestown.  He asked for permission from Salisbury to import some mulberry trees into England and was told that he could and that he could plant them anywhere he wanted to.  He planted them at Taunton, which is near Stallenge Thorne farm in Devonshire, and started a silk industry there.  On a train going to Bristol, a man and his wife, who were from Taunton, said there was still some evidence of an old silk industry there.  William was a very active person.  He was comptroller of the port at Plymouth and also asked for permission to hold a fair at Penzance in Cornwall.  It was granted.  He was active in shipping and getting goods to market and devised a new system for reporting to the king that would make the procedure easier for the king.  He may have gone to parliment on one occasion to make a brief report.  There is some evidence that he was the son of Nicholas Stallings and that his home was Taunton in Devonshire.

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