SHELLEY, Henry II (1582-1644), of Warminghurst, Suss. and Gray’s Inn, London

The Henry Shelley ‘junior’ listed in the copies of the Crown office list for the 1614 Parliament, was almost certainly the second son of Henry Shelley of Warminghurst, rather than his kinsman Henry Shelley of Patcham, who was by this date probably in his fifties. OR; Procs. 1614 (Commons), 459; HP Commons, 1558-1603, iii. 375. His father owned property close to Bramber and was probably the man of that name who had represented the borough in 1604, but by 1614 he was in ill health, for which reason he presumably nominated his son, then studying the law. Shelley’s elder brother Thomas also sat in 1614, having been returned for New Shoreham. Neither left any mark on the records of the Addled Parliament.

Shelley was called to the bar the following year. In 1621 he married the heiress to an estate in Wiltshire but sold the property five years later. VCH Wilts. xii. 6. He had already succeeded to a life interest in the manor of Warminghurst on the death of his father in 1623, and, as Henry Shelley of Warminghurst he compounded for knighthood at £10 in 1630. He consented to the sale of the manor in 1637, died on 9 Mar. 1644, and was buried in the Shelley chapel at Warminghurst. No will or grant of administration has been found. The Henry Shelley elected for Lewes in 1641 was the son of his Patcham kinsman. Timothy Shelley, the father of the poet, was a descendant of his brother Richard and was returned for Horsham in 1790. VCH Suss. vi. pt. 2, p. 52; ‘Compositions for Knighthood, temp. Charles I’ ed. H. Ellis, Suss. Arch. Colls. xvi. 49; Suss. Manors and Advowsons ed. H. W. Dunkin (Suss. Rec. Soc. xx), 503; Berry, 66, 68; M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 338; HP Commons, 1790-1820, v. 140.