|
|
Henry Shirley b 1588 d. 1633,
of Staunton Harold, Leicestershire. buried in Breedon on the
Hill.
He had a large carved pew made for Breedon on the Hill.
His father gave him a noble education, an exact knowledge
of the liberal sciences, and from Oxford he was sent for the
bettering of his understanding and the gaining of languages,
with license of the King, to travel beyond the seas. With all
the qualities that complete a gentleman, he returned to his country
and addressed himself to Henry Prince of Wales, and was received
with honor. When Henry Prince of Wales died, it so devastated
him that he retired into the country to live a solitary life,
determining not to think of courtly pomp or glory.
Upon the persuasion of his honored father, he married Dorothy
Devereux, daughter of Robert Earl of Essex, the favorite of the
Queen, and sister of Robert the last Earl.
Immediately upon the death of his father, Sir Henry by indenture,
dated May 9, 1622, executed a strict entail of the family estates
in Shirley, Brailesford, Hone, Ednaston, Longford, Boobton, Hollington,
Yeveley, Rodisley, Wyaston, Borowes,Thurvaston, and Bradley (Derby
Co.), Silby and Ratcliff.
In 1628, Henry was a prisoner in the Fleet for scandalising
Earl of Huntingdon. In 1633 he was busy rebuilding the manor
house of Ragdale in Leicester Co., an estate inherited from the
Bassett family by marriage with the Shirleys.
Henry was also a Roman Catholic.
m. Dorothy Devereaux May 18, 1615 at St. Lawrence Pountney,
London. In 1633, James Shirley, the poet, wrote a poem about
Dorothy, widow of Henry.
2. (i) Charles Shirley 1623 d. 1646 age 23 years, smallpox
2. (iii) child, unborn when father died. May have been
stillborn says Stemmata.
2. (ii) Robert Shirley b1629 d. 1656 He was about 3
years old when his father died.
In 1645, Robert was admitted a fellow commoner of Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. The following year upon the premature death
of his brother, Sir Charles Shirley, succeeded him in the baronetcy
and estates, being at that time about fifteen years old, and
a war, as also his brother had been to his uncle Lord Essex.
Upon the death of Lord Essex, Sir Robert Shirley succeeded
in the right of his mother Lady Dorothy to a moiety of the estates
of the Devereux family. About 1653 a division was effected by
which it was agreed that the Marquis of Hertford, afterwards
Duke of Somerset, who had married the Lady Frances Devereux,
eldest sister of Lord Essex, should have his share of the property,
Drayton Basset, in the county of Stafford with the estate in
county of Hereford and Brecon, Essex House, in London and a moiety
of the barony of Farney (Shirley estate), in county of Monaghan
in Ireland which had been granted to Walter Earl of Essex, by
Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1576. To Robert Shirley's share
fell the Chartley estate in the county of Stafford, with property
at Newcastle-under-Lyne, the tenements adjoining Essex House,
in London, a rent charge of 300 pounds going out of Havodwyn,
Blanarion or Blagnaron, and Penarth in the county of Cardigan,
and the other moiety of the barony of Farney, (Shirley estates
in Ireland).
On his uncle's death, Sir Robert Shirley retired into the
country and from that time exerted himself as a zealous adherent
to the sacred cause of his sovereign and the Church of England,
in whose holy communion he was educated by his mother, Lady Dorothy;
for the Devereux family had early renounced the errors of the
Church of Rome, to which Sir Robert's father, Sir Henry, was
so sincerely attached.
During the year 1647-48 Sir Robert appears to have been with
other Royalists at Oxford, and appears to be the one who was
resident with his young wife in St. John's college in that university.
Sir Robert Shirley built a church at Staunton Harold during
the time Cromwell made it penal for any persons to keep in their
houses any of the sequestered or ejected ministers in the capacity
of chaplains or tutors, which forbade them likewise to preach
to any others than the members of their own families, to perform
of the offices of religion, or to use the book of Common Prayer.
Staunton Harold continued to be during Sir Robert's life, an
asylum to many of the distressed divines. So upsetting was this
that an order was issued to Sir Robert saying, "He that
could afford to build a church, could no doubt afford also to
equip a ship;" Sir Robert Shirley refused, and was sent
to the Tower of London, dying at age 23, suspicioned of poisoning.
The following letter of condolence was written by Charles
the II to Lady Shirley about a year after her husband's death.
"It hath been my particular care of you that I have
this long deferred to lament with you the greate losse that you
and I have sustained, least insteede of comforting I might farther
expose you to the will of those who will be glad of any occasion
to do you further rejudice; but I am promised that this shall
be put safely into your hands, though it may not so soone as
I wish; and I am very willing you should know which I suppose
you cannot doubte, that I beare a greate parte with you of your
affliction, and whenever it shall be in my power to make it lighter,
you shall see I retayne a very kinde memory of your friende by
the care I shall have of you and all his relations; and of this
you may depende upon the word of your very affectione frinde....Charles
R"
m. Katherine Okeover 1646 d. 1672
children:
3. (i) Seymour Shirley 1647
m. Diana Bruce (he died, and their son died without issue).
3. (ii) Robert Shirley 1st Earl Ferrers born 1650 East
Sheen Surrey
In 1677, he was created a Baronet. In 1682 his Lordship was
appointed Master of the Horse to Catharine Queen Dowager and
in 1685 Steward of her Household and one of the Privy Council
to King James II. In 1692 he was sworn of the Privy Council to
King Willam, and in 1708 to Queen Anne, who in 1711 advanced
him to the dignity of a Viscount and Earl by the style and title
Earl Ferrers and Viscount Tamworth.
The title has continued to the present day and Robert Washington
Shirley is the 13th Earl Ferrers serving in Parliament in the
House of Lords.
In 1678 he entailed his entire estate upon failure of his
own heir (if he didn't have any) to the heirs male of his great
grandfather Sir George Shirley, but Robert had heirs.
m. 1st Elizabeth Washington by whom he had 17 children.
(From this marriage, see the Shirley
family of Staunton Harold, the Earls Ferrers)
m. 2nd Selina Finch daughter of George Finch, of London esq.
children:
4.xviii Hon. Robert Shirley born May 27 1700 died July
12 1738 Lord of the Manor of Ettington
4.xix Lady Selina Shirley born July 2 1701 died
Dec 14 1777 married Peter Bathurst
4.xx Lady Mary Shirley born Nov 20 1702 died May 17 1771
married Charles Tryon
children:
5.i Governor
William Tryon of North Carolina
4.xxi Hon. George Shirley born Aug 18 1704 died Dec 21
1704
4.xxii Hon. George Shirley b. 23 Oct 1705, lived at
Ettington, Warwickshire, England; He died on 22 October 1787
at age 81
married Mary Sturt, daughter of Humphrey Sturt, on 28 December
1749.
(From this marriage, see the Shirleys
of Lough Fea, Lords of the Manor of Ettington)
4.xxiii Lady Frances Shirley born May 5 1707 died July
15 1778; lived at Twickenham with her neice Lady Huntington;
reputed to have been a great beauty in her day; rumors of affairs
with Lord Chesterfield; Subject of a famous poem by Alexander
Pope, esq.
4.xxiv Lady Anne Shirley born May 24 1708 died Feb
26 1779; married Sir Robert Furnese
4.xxv Hon. Sewallis Shirley born Oct 19 1709 member
of Parliament 1742 to 1761; comptroller of the household of Queen
Charlotte; died Oct 25 1765; He was buried on 2 November 1765
at Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, Mayfair, London, England;
married Margaret, dau of Samuel Rolle of Hainton Devon, Baroness
Clinton and Say, and Dowager Lady Orford.
Horace Wolpole, later Earl of Orford, son of Prime Minister
Robert Wolpole, and brother-in-law of Margaret, Lady Orford -
" Mr. Shirley has had uncommon fortune in making the
conquest of two such extraordinary ladies (Lady Vane and Lady
Orford), as equal in their heroic contempt of shame, and eminently
above their sex, the one for beauty and the other for wealth.
He appeared to me gentle, well-bred, well- shaped, and sensible,
but the charms of his face and eyes, which Lady Vane describes
with so much warmth, were I confess always invisible to me, and
the artificial part of his character very glaring."
Lady M. Wortley-Montagu in a letter to her daughter writes,
"Statira (Lady Orford) has declared to her son that she
is marrying Shirley, but ties him up strictly," and
again, " I am not surprised at Lady Orford's marriage;
her money was doubtless convenient to Mr.Shirley, and I dare
swear she piques herself on not being able to refuse him anything."
- source: Letters from Lady Jane Coke to Her Friend, Mrs.
Eyre at Derby, 1747-1758, By Jane Wharton Coke
no children
4. xxvi Lady Stuarta Shirley born Aug 19 1711 died
Dec 31 1767
4. xxvii Hon. John Shirley born Mar 1 1712 died Feb
15 1768.
Robert Shirley had several illegitimate children making
him the father of 57 children in all. (yes, 57).
|
Shirleys
of