Robert Starkweather was born in Wales and lived also in Scotland and the Isle of Man. He immigrated to Roxbury, Massachusetts by 1640. He married Jennet Roberts. Their son, John, was baptized at Roxbury in 1646. He and his wife, Ann, later moved to Preston, Connecticut where he died in 1703. Descendants lived in Connecticut, New York, California, Washington, and elsewhere. Staples ancestry is traced to Elijah Staples, born ca. 1712 in Connecticut. He married Hannah Bigelow in Colchester, Connecticut in 1778. Includes Crandall, Stanton, Hunt, Bostwick, Roberts, Van Antwerp and related families.