British Museum. A selection of these was published in 1774, 4to, to illustrate two medals of Shelley preserved in the king's collection (now in the British Museum); these were engraved by Basire, and published as frontispiece to the volume (cf. Gent. Mag. 1785, ii. 713). Two of his letters to Henry VIII, complaining of his treatment of the order, were stolen from the government library at Malta soon after 1848 (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 190). According to his own account, he also wrote a treatise in answer to a book by Nicholas Sanders [q. v.], which came into the pope's hands, and brought him into suspicion. It does not seem to have been printed.
[Lansd. MSS. xx. 43, xxxv. 42, xxxviii. 41, 44, 45, 47, 49, xl. 9, xlii. 18–20, xliii. 36, xlv. 5, 76, li. 10, cxv. 5–9; Harl. MSS. 286, arts. 34, 39, 40, 6164, art. 1, 6990, art. 7, 6992 art. 4, 6993 arts. 14, 15, 23; Letters of Sir Richard Shelley, 1774; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, ed. Gairdner; Cal. State Papers, Dom. For. and Venetian series, passim; Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent; Cal. Hatfield MSS.; Lit. Remains of Edward VI (Roxburghe Club); Camden's Elizabeth, s.a. 1560 and 1563; Sussex Archæological Collections, passim; Strype's Works, passim; Granger's Biogr. Hist. iv. 362–363; Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 57; Abbé Vertot's Knights of St. John, 1728, ii. 160–1; Whitworth Porter's Knights of Malta, p. 573; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, i. 51; Lower's Sussex Worthies; Horsfield's Hist. of Lewes; Hist. of the Rape of Bramber; Gent. Mag. 1785 ii. 713, 872, 1852 i. 517; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 192, xi. 179, 2nd ser. xii. 470, 3rd ser. i. l9, 59.]
SHELLEY, SAMUEL (1750–1808), miniature-painter, was born in Whitechapel in 1750, and mainly self-educated. He first exhibited with the Incorporated Society in 1773, sending some fancy heads, and in 1774 contributed miniatures to the Royal Academy. Shelley became one of the most charming and fashionable miniaturists of his time, ranking with Cosway, Smart, and Collins; he also painted in watercolours fancy figures and compositions from Shakespeare, Tasso, and other poets, which are gracefully designed and harmoniously coloured. His works of this class, as well as his miniatures, were largely engraved by Bartolozzi, W. Nutter, Caroline Watson, and others. All the plates in C. Taylor's ‘Cabinet of Genius,’ 1787, were designed by him. Shelley resided in Covent Garden from 1780 to 1794, when he established himself at 6 George Street, Hanover Square. He continued to exhibit at the academy until 1804, when he joined with W. F. Wells, R. Hills, and W. H. Pyne, who, like himself, were dissatisfied with the treatment there accorded to watercolour art, in founding the Watercolour Society (afterwards known as the ‘Old’ society), of which he held the treasurership until 1807. Shelley died at his house in George Street on 22 Dec. 1808. The British and South Kensington Museums possess good examples of his work.
[Roget's Hist. of the Old Watercolour Society; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers (ed. Armstrong); exhibition catalogues.]
SHELLEY or de Conches, WILLIAM (d. 1155?), author. [See William.]
SHELLEY, Sir WILLIAM (1480?–1549?), judge, born about 1480, was the eldest son of Sir John Shelley (d. 3 Jan. 1526) and his wife Elizabeth (d. 31 July 1513), daughter and heir of John de Michelgrove in the parish of Clapham, Sussex (reproductions of monumental brasses in Addit. MS. 32490). The Shelleys are said, on the suspicious authority of the ‘Battle Abbey Roll,’ to have been descended from a companion of William the Conqueror, and uncorroborated family tradition assigns important diplomatic and other positions to various early members of the family. The name was perhaps derived from Shelley Park, near Lewes, which has long since disappeared. It is attributed to the William de Conches who is said to have been a professor at Paris and to have died about 1155 [see William]. A John and a Thomas Shelley were executed in 1400 by Henry IV for their adherence to the cause of Richard II, and their brother Sir William was ancestor of the judge. His son Sir John, who was M.P. for Rye between 1415 and 1423, married Beatrice, daughter of Sir John Hawkwood [q. v.], the famous soldier. 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 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 important lawsuit known as ‘Shelley's case,’ and the decision known as the ‘rule in Shelley's case’ (see Coke, Reports, i. 94; Chitty, Equity Index, 4th ed. vi. 6307–6318; American and English Encycl. of Law, xxii. 493–524; Stephen, Comment, 12th ed. i. 323–5; Hayes, Observations on Suggestions for abolishing the Rule in Shelley's Case, 1829).
