John Shelley (bef. 1354)

Born before 1354 in Sussex, England

Ancestors

Biography

The Shelley's first rose into notice in the 14th century as adherents of Richard II., and in the year 1400 two members of the family. Sir John and Sir Thomas Shelley (sons of John Shelley) paid the penalty of their attachment by being attainted and beheaded.-f" A younger brother. Sir William, was more fortunate and became the progenitor of the important branches which were subsequently established at Michelgrove, Patcham, Warninghurst, and Worth. Sir William's grandson, John Shelley, was M.P. for Rye in the reigns of Henry V. and VI., and married the daughter and heir of that celebrated warrior. Sir John Hawkwood. By her he had a son, John Shelley, who by his marriage with Elizabeth Michelgrove, acquired the estate of that name which we have already described. To this the second son:|: succeeded, and becoming eminent in the law was made by Henry VIII. Recorder of London, and one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas. It devolved on him to demand from Cardinal Wolsey the surrender of York Place (now Whitehall) into the hands of the King. The Cardinal objected that he was only tenant for life, but this plea being over-ruled yielded under protest, desiring the judge to beg the king "to call to his most gracious remembrance that there is both heaven and hell." Lingard observes that this formed a precedent for subsequent surrenders of church property to the crown. Judge Shelley (who has been already mentioned as the builder of the mansion of Michelgrove) had several sons who rose to distinction. Sir Richard, the second son, was appointed, through the interest of Cardinal Pole, to the office of Grand Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, but lived chiefly abroad — first in Spain, where the king treated him with honour, and then at Malta.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Dudley George Cary Elwes. A history of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex. London: Longmans & Co, 1876. P 66.