William Sheldon MP (abt. 1505 - 1570)

Born about 1505 in Beoley, Worcestershire, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 24 Dec 1570 at about age 65 in Skilts House, nr.Studley, Warwickshire, England

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Biography

William was the eldest of 11 children of Ralph Sheldon by his wife Philippa Heath.

In 1544 Sheldon had acquired land in Beoley that had belonged to Alcester Monastery. John Neville, Lord Latimer sold the superiority of the manor of Beoley to William Sheldon in 1549. "He made a settlement of the manor at the marriage of his son Ralph [Sheldon] with Anne one of the daughters of Sir Robert Throckmorton. . ." "The estates [of the priory called Skilts and other lands in Studley] passed to William Sheldon of Beoley, Worc., who died at Skilts in December 1570."

William Sheldon possessed the manors of Weston, Warwickshire, Abberton (jointly with his brother Francis), and virtually the entire parish of Beoley (some 4000 acres), Worcestershire. He was Receiver at the Court of Augmentations, Knight of the Shire for Worcestershire, and Sheriff of the same county. His magnificent tomb is in Beoley parish church.

Around 1534, William SHELDON purchased 2,000 acres of land at Skilts, between Beoley and his mother’s home Ford Hall. It had been a grange of Studley Priory. William emparked it for deer, and at Lower Skilts, overlooking the Warwick road, he built ‘a very beautiful house of brick’ of 32 hearths, which he made his home with his second wife. It was described in the Victoria County History in 1945, by which time the western half had been demolished; by 1992 only the gatehouse survived.

William Sheldon married firstly, circa 1527, Mary, daughter of William Willington, of Barcheston, by his spouse Anne Middlemore of Edgbaston, Warwickshire.

William Sheldon married 2ndly Margaret. daughter of Richard Broke, M.P., Chief Baron of Exchequer, widow of William Whorwood, who had been Attorney-General to Henry VIII. (He d. 28 May 1545.) They had no issue.

Epitaph

Epitaph to William Sheldon at St Leonard, Beoley. Translated by E A B Barnard.

To William Sheldon, son of Ralph Sheldon and Philippa Heath: He inherited a great fortune from his parents and not by the opportunities of any public office, or by any fawning on a prince but by his well-known and honourable prudence he greatly increased it.

A MAN BORN TO AID THE PUBLIC GOOD

So patriotic that he was the first in England to commence the Art of Tapestry Weaving for which at his own expense he provided large sums of money, and left by will property and money to care for the workmen in that craft. Towards his neighbours, by his very influence he settled their quarrels as they arose, and between discordant people by his very love he established peace; many of his servants, as also not a few of his friends, he raised to ample fortunes. In his will he greatly and openheartedly benefited his relations as well as others. To his children (of whom Mary the daughter and co-heir of William Willington of Barcheston bore to him six in number, and dying on 25 January 1553, commended them to his care) he presented his sons Ralph and William with ample patrimonies, and to his daughters goodly dowries – Anna married Francis Savage of Elmlye in the County of Worcester, Philippa to Anton Pollard of Newnham in the County of Oxford, Catharine to Edmund Plowden in the County of Shropshire, Gooditha to Robert Brayn of Bristol – and he left them all in peace and concord. To his fellow creatures his own house, with all his goods, was as a hospitable inn, ever at their service. On December 25 1570 he departed this life. As an example of true virtue he was greatly missed; no less by his friends in the county as well as by his children, his relatives and his servants.

Ralph his son erected this monument

Sources

• https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp437-442
• https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/sheldon-william-1511-70
• Prerogative Court of Canterbury copy of the will, dated 3 January 1570 and proved 10 February 1571, of William Sheldon of Beoley. http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/Probate/PROB_11-53-79.pdf
• Grazebrook's The Heraldry of Worcestershire, 1873, p.497.
• The Visitation of Worcestershire 1569, p.128.
• The Visitation of Warwickshire 1619 by William Camden, Clarencieux King of Arms, edited by John Fetherston, F.S.A., London, 1877, p.3.
• A History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland by John Burke, Esq., vol.iv, London, 1838, p.527.
• The Visitation of Gloucestershire 1623 (includes 1569 & 1582-3) by Henry Chitty & John Phillipot, deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, edited by Sir John MacLean, FSA., and W.C. Heane, MRCS, London, 1885, pps:145 and 222, where it gives him "of Besley in Worster" (sic), and "of Beley", both presumably a corruption of Beoley, which is pronounced 'Beeley'.
• The Sheldons by E.A.B. Barnard, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S., Cambridge University Press, 1936, p.11-27.
• An Account of the Family of Middlemore of Warwickshire and Worcestershire by W.P.W. Phillimore, M.A., B.C.L., & W.F. Carter, B.A., London, 1891, p.38.
• Plantagenet Ancestry by Douglas Richardson, Baltimore, Md., 2004, p.640.
• Biography and Epitaph of William Sheldon in 'Tapestries called Sheldon' by Hilary L Turner, MA, DPhil.
• Chastleton House by Margaret Dickins, 1935)
• Victoria County History - Warwicks, vol. 3, 1945, p.177.
• welshleigh.org

Additional non-reliable sources

• Source: S1558546867 Repository: #R1550500178 Public Member Trees Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Note:
• Repository: R1550500178 www.ancestry.com Note:

William Sheldon.

• Source: #S1558546867 Database online. Note: Record for Anne Sheldon http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=0&pid=630
• Source: #S1558546867 Database online. Note: Record for William Sheldon http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=0&pid=630