Robert Shelley (abt. 1587 - bef. 1638)

Descendants

Died before 1638 before about age 51 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

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Robert Shelley migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 1662) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Robert Shelley born say 1587, if father of Robert Shelley b. say 1612 (see below).^[1] Previously said herein to have been born at East Harling, Norfolk, England, but there is no evidence of it in either primary or reliable secondary sources.

Birth

Born say 1587, if father of Robert Shelley born say 1612 (see below).^[1]

Death

Died by 1637,^[1] probably Boston, but only if father of Robert Shelley born say 1612 (see below). Previously said herein to have died in Scituate, but no evidence exists that a male Shelley ever lived there. Scituate was the home of Judith (Garnett), who married Robert Shelley (b. say 1612) "from Boston," and of Richard Foxwell of Scituate, who married Anne (Shelley) (b. say 1614); the latter couple lived in Scituate until 1639, then removed to Barnstable.

Marriage

Spouse: [Anne?] ________ (only Banks gives her forename [see her Wikitree page])

Married: by say 1612.

Children:

1. Robert, born say 1612, died 1692; married first in Scituate 26 Sept. 1636 Judith Garnett;^[1] married second by 1668 Susannah (possibly daughter of Thomas Dimock).^[1]

2. Anne Shelley, born say 1614; married by 1635 Richard Foxwell of Scituate and Barnstable.^[1]

Passenger Lists for the Lyon, 1632

This page compares two elaborations of the passenger list for the 1632 voyage of the ship Lyon from England to America. The first three columns contain information from Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth, 99–102. The fourth column contains information from a paper by John Corley entitled "Emigration to New England on the Lyon in 1632," prepared in 1984 by the Braintree and Bocking Heritage Centre, Braintree, Essex, England.

In The Planters of the Commonwealth, Banks introduces his passenger list thus:

LYON, William Peirce, Master, sailed from London June 22 [1632] and arrived September 16 [1632] at Boston. "He brought one hundred and twenty three passengers, whereof fifty children, all in health. They had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land's End."

In the table of contents of his paper, Corley describes his list as follows:

Emigrants on the Lyon, which sailed in 1632 with the Rev. Thomas Hooker's Braintree Company on board. It is said that the ship carried 350 passengers. However, many names are missing from the list in The Lyon partly due to the fact that several were members when only the head of the house was mentioned, while others omitted went as servants.

Planters of the Commonwealth version:

ROBERT SHELLEY [and] Mrs. Anne Shelley [settled at] Roxbury. The only Shelley named in the original passenger list is Robert (see below).

John Corley's 1984 version:

ROBERT SHELLEY (from Nazeing, Essex; first lived in Boston, then Roxbury). There is, however, no evidence that the Shelleys came from Essex.

Ship and Passenger Information:

"LYON, William Peirce, Master, sailed from London June 22 [1632] and arrived September 16 [1632] at Boston" (Banks, Planters of the Commonwealth). "[Mr. Peirce, the shipmaster] brought one hundred and twenty three passengers, whereof fifty children, all in health. They had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land's End.They had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land's End (Winthrop's Journal, 1:90). The original passenger list consists in its entirety of 33 names, all men, of whom Robert Shelley is one; it gives no places of origin for any of them.^[2]

SHELLEY, Robert – Nazing [Essex, England] – Lion – Boston.^[3] As above, there is no primary evidence of the Shelleys' origin, in Essex or elsewhere, and leading authority Robert Charles Anderson (The Great Migration Begins, 3:1662) calls their origin unknown.

Who Was Lyon Passenger Robert Shelley?

"The 1632 passenger list entry may have been for the Robert born about 1612, perhaps accompanied by his sister and widowed mother [she is described retrospectively as "widow Shelley" in Boston town records dated in 1637 and 1639/40], and we may have no evidence at all about the name of the father of Robert and Anne."^[1]

Ancestors of Robert Shelley

John and Eleanor (Lovell) Shelley have been proposed as parents of Robert Shelley, but no evidence has been presented. Professional genealogists have not been able to establish a relationship. Robert is not a family name of the Shelley family. No records to prove a connection have been found. Dellinger-332

LYON, William Peirce, Master, sailed from London June 22 [1632] and arrived September 16 [1632] at Boston. 'He brought one hundred and twenty three passengers, whereof fifty children, all in health. They had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land's End.'--The Planters of the Commonwealth Robert Shelley, his wife and 3 children arrived in Boston on the voyage of the ship, Lyon. (Most of the data below is from Passengers on the Lion by Sandra Sulphin Olney Robert Shelley b. 17 May 1586, East Harling, Norfolk, England d. 26 Sept. 1636 Scituate, Plymouth m. Alice Tazwell, Exning, Suffolk, England. b. 1575 d. 1637 children: 1. Anne--b. England d. MA m. Richard Foxwell 2. Robert--see below 3. Margaret--b. England d. RI Settled first at Roxbury; then to Scituate

Research Notes

Needs Relationship Check: questions about the wives need to be resolved.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, (Boston, 1995), 3:1662–63.
2. ↑ The Original Lists of Persons of Quality . . ., ed. John Camden Hotten (London, 1874), 150.
3. ↑ Banks, 'Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620–1650, p. 50.

See also:

• Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650, database on-line], (accessed 25 July 2014), Ancestry.com. Original data: Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650, by Charles Edward Banks, editor: Elijah Ellsworth Brownell, (Baltimore, Massachusetts, Genealogical Publishing co., 1976), page 50.

• New England Marriages Prior to 1700, by Clarence Almon Torrey., 3rd Supplement, p. 233, as cited by Marlyn Lewis at Our Royal, Titled, Noble and Commoner Ancestors & Cousins database online

• The Great Migration Begins, database online at Ancestry.com, author: Robert Charles Anderson

• The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995). Page 1662 - 1663.

• English America

• The Lyon, 1632 Voyages are listed at ship name on Ship

• James Savage, GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY OF FIRST SETTLERS OF NEW ENGLAND. Originally published 1860, p. 71.

• Larry Shelly, A SURVEY OF THE GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE SHELLEY FAMILY OF HILL AND BOSQUE COUNTIES TEXAS [info on where to find this source has not been found]