Sir William Shelley (1480?–1549) was an English judge.

Born about 1480, he was the eldest son of Sir John Shelley (died 3 Jan. 1526) and his wife Elizabeth (died 31 July 1513), daughter and heir of John de Michelgrove in the parish of Clapham, Sussex. Of the judge's six brothers, one, John, became a knight of the Order of St John, and was killed in defending Rhodes against the Ottoman Turks in 1522; from another, Edward, who is variously given as second, third, or fourth son, came the baronets of Castle Goring, Sussex (created 1806), and Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet. The youngest brother, John Shelley, died in 1554. The settlement of an estate which he purchased on the dissolution of Sion Monastery led to the lawsuit known as ‘Shelley's case,’ and the decision known as the Rule in Shelley's Case.

Although the eldest son, William was sent to the Inner Temple not to make a profession of law but in order to understand his own affairs, and according to his son it was against his will that he was made serjeant, and judge, by Henry VIII. From the beginning of Henry's reign he appears on commissions of the peace for Sussex and other counties; in 1517 he was autumn reader in the Inner Temple, and about the same time became one of the judges of the sheriff's court in London. In 1520 he was appointed recorder of London, and in May 1521 was placed on the special commission of oyer and terminer to find an indictment against Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. In the same year he took the degree of the coif.^[1]

In 1527 Shelley was raised to the bench as judge of the common pleas, and in 1529 he was sent to demand from Thomas Wolsey the surrender of York House, later Whitehall Palace. Soon afterwards he entertained Henry VIII at Michelgrove in Clapham, West Sussex.

He was summoned to parliament on 9 August 1529, and again on 27 April 1536. He was hostile to the Protestant Reformation, and is said to have suffered from Thomas Cromwell's antipathy; but his name appears in important state trials of the period: in that of the Carthusian monks and John Fisher (1535), of Weston, Norris, Lord Rochford, and Anne Boleyn (May 1536), and Sir Geoffrey Pole, Sir Edward Neville, and Sir Nicholas Carew (1538–9).

In 1547 he was consulted by Henry VIII's executors about the provisions of his will. He died on 4 January 1549.^[2]

Shelley married Alice (died 1536?), daughter of Sir Henry Belknap,^[3] grandson of Sir Robert de Bealknap of Knelle in the parish of Beckley, Sussex, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in his era.^[4] By her he had seven sons and seven daughters,^[5] including:^[1]

• John Shelley (d. 15 December 1550)^[1] of Michelgrove in Sussex, who married Mary Fitzwilliam, the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Gaynsparke in Essex, knight. Mary married secondly Sir John Guildford.^[3] John Shelley was the father of:^[1]
  • William Shelley (not the same person as William Shelley of Hertford, also a prisoner in the Tower in 1580) who married firstly the heiress Jane Lyngham of Sutton in Hereford and secondly Mary Wriothesley, the daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton.^[6] He was attainted 15 December 1582 for complicity in Charles Paget's treasons, but not executed, and died ob. s.p. on 15 April 1597;^[1][6]
  • John Shelley (d.1592^[7]) of Hawford in Huntingdon,^[3] second son,^[7] who married Eleanor, daughter of Sir Thomas Lovell of Harling in Norfolk,^[3] and was succeeded by his son John Shelley, created a baronet in 1611;^[1]
  • Richard Shelley, third son, ob. s.p.^[1][6]
  • James Shelley, fourth son, ob. s.p.^[6]
  • Anne, who married Robert or Sir Richard Sherley, knight^[6]
  • Bridget, who married John Hungerford^[6]
  • Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Guildford^[6]
  • Margaret, who married Edward Gage^[6]
  • Ellenor, who married Thomas Norton, son of Sir John Norton of Norwood in Kent^[6]
  • Mary, who married George Cotton^[6]
• Sir Richard Shelley, second son,^[1] knight of the Rhodes^[3]
• The third son, Sir James, knight of the Rhodes,^[3] was, like his brother Sir Richard, a distinguished and widely travelled Knight of St. John^[1]
• The fourth, Sir Edward, was a master of the household of Henry VIII, treasurer of the council of the north, and captain of Berwick, and was killed at the battle of Pinkie on 10 September 1547^[1][3]
• Thomas Shelley of Maple Durham in Southampton, married Mary Copley,^[3] the sister of Roger in a double marriage of siblings.^[5] Mary Copley received a bequest in the will of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, who was married to Margaret Wotton, the cousin of her bridegroom's father, towards her marriage. Mary was the daughter of Sir Roger Copley, knight.^[3]
• Margaret, eldest daughter, a nun.^[3] She is shown in her habit in the effigy of her parents^[8]
• Elizabeth, who married Sir Roger Copley, knight,^[3] the brother of Mary Copley, in a double marriage of siblings, and had Sir Thomas Copley;^[9][5] Bridget Copley, who married Richard Southwell of Horsham St. Faith's in Norfolk, the natural son of Sir Richard Southwell, and had Saint Robert Southwell;^[10] Margaret Copley who married John Gage;^[11] and Katherine Copley who married Robert Lane, the son Maud Parr, Lady Lane and had Sir William Lane, Sir Parr Lane and Sir Robert Lane.^[12]
• Katherine, who married Henry Browne of Betchworth Castle, Surrey, and had Thomas Browne (d.1597)^[3][5][13]
• Dorothy, who married Henry Parker of Frith Hall in Essex, gentleman^[14][15]

A watercolour drawing of his tomb done in 1789 by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm is in the British Museum. The monument is in the north wall of the chancel of St. Mary the Virgin, Clapham Church in (West) Sussex.^[16] Sir William, who passed away in 1549, is depicted in judicial attire, complete with a hood and coif. This portrayal is considered one of the earliest examples of this particular legal garb.^[8]

Sable, a fesse engrailed between three shells Or (Shelley)—Azure, three eagles in bend between two cotises Argent (Belknap)

• "Shelley, William (1480?-1549?)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Shelley, William (1480?-1549?)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.