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SHELLEY, Henry (c.1563-c.1634), of Patcham, Suss.
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Family and Education
b. c.1563, 1st s. of Richard Shelley of Patcham by Dorothy, da. of Richard Hill of Hartley Wintney, Hants, wid. of one Welche. educ. I. Temple 1584. m. (1) into Walsingham fam.; (2) Jane, da. of Richard Bellingham of Hangleton and Newtimber, 6s. 7da. suc. fa. 1594.
Offices Held
J.p. Suss. from c.1583.
Biography
The Shelleys had been established in Sussex certainly since the late fourteenth century, though the Patcham branch began in the sixteenth. Shelley and his father, protestants in an otherwise recusant family, were the only two in the Elizabethan period to be active in local administration. Lord Buckhurst emphasized Shelley’s adherence to the established church when successfully recommending him as ‘a gentleman of so honest sort and honour’ to Burghley in 1586 for the lease of a sheep pasture forfeited for treason by William Shelley of Michelgrove. Shelley’s uncle Robert Byng had come into Parliament for Steyning in 1555, and Shelley was presumably returned through his own local standing in 1586. (Sir) Thomas Shirley I was then in the Netherlands. Shelley stated in 1619 that he had lived in Patcham nearly all his life. His will, dated 28 Aug. 1630, was proved at Lewes 17 Feb. 1634.
J. Comber, Suss. Genealogies, Lewes Centre, 248-9; Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 20; Lansd. 50, f. 39; 737, f. 158d; Royal 18 D. 111; Hatfield ms 278; Mousley thesis; PRO Index 6800; Suss. Arch. Colls. lvi. 11.
