Shelleys In England
The name “Shelley” appears to be locational in origin. The word
is said
to have derived from the Old English word scyf or “shelf,” a ledge or
plateau, and “ley”, a field or clearing, and describes someone who
lives at such a place.
The name is thought to have originated in Essex. There is in fact a small hamlet called Shelley near Chipping Ongar in the county. A manor of that name has existed on the edge of Epping Forest since pre-Domesday times. But other early sightings of the name can be found elsewhere, in Suffolk and West Yorkshire. Those who have studied the origin of surnames believe that the current cluster and distribution of a particular name gives us a lot of clues as to where the name originated. People do move around. But not so much or so far as you may think over generations.
| Shelleys In England | per thousand |
| Essex | 0.45 |
| Kent | 0.15 |
| Sussex | 0.17 |
| Hampshire | 0.21 |
| Staffordshire | 0.43 |
| West Midlands | 0.29 |
| England (average) | 0.11 |
Essex is one concentration. There is a particular cluster in
the
village of Rivenhall southeast of Braintree. The South East appears to
be another (where the name is equally distributed around Kent, Sussex,
and Hampshire).
Staffordshire is a third, from Stoke to Wolverhampton.
Shelley Potteries,
in
business from the 1750's, is a
well-known name in Stoke. Of more local interest was the Shelley beer
in Hilderstone. Does the Shelley name in Staffordshire come from
the
same source? Or does it have a slightly different history?
There are Irish Shelleys as well, but from very different roots. Sealbhach (pronounced "shallvig" or "shallvee") was an ancient local chieftain in the Cork area. His kinsmen were known as O'Sealbhach. When the English invaded Ireland, they could not pronounce or spell the Irish surnames and consequently many got corrupted. Names such as Shelvey and Shelley appeared. And the Shelley name has continued in and around Cork since that time.
Shelleys in the South East
Shelleys here had the luck or the opportunity to become landed gentry.
Kent. A Shelley name
in Kent can be traced to the 1380's and the Shottys manor house in
Knockholt near Sevenoaks. They must have been a family of some
substance. Richard
Shelley, the
rector of the village, left
a substantial will on his death in 1413. And you can still find a
Shelley's Lane there today. Later on, the family moved to Hall
Place in
Bexley where they lived until early Elizabethan times.
There were ties by marriage to Sir
Francis Walsingham, a poiltical force at the time, at Chislehurst
nearby. Henry
Shelley from here set sail
in 1609 on the Sea Venture in
a mission to rescue the New World colonists at Jamestown. The
party didn't succeed in their venture as the vessel got shipwrecked off
Bermuda. But Henry Shelley did leave his name to one of the
beautiful beaches there.
Sussex. Shelleys in Sussex were recorded in Rye in East Sussex in the early fourteenth century. A Shelley was knighted for services to King Richard II but then lost his head (literally) when the next king took over. Two generations later, a John Shelley was able, in 1474, to secure the marriage of Elizabeth Michelgrove and thereby bring the extensive Michelgrove estates near Arundel under his control.
For
three centuries thereafter, the Shelleys were landed gentry in
Sussex, with various branches in West and East Sussex. The branch in
East Sussex, which later moved to Avington in Hampshire, included the
black sheep of the family, the poet Percy
Bysshe Shelley. As befits a
family of this stature, the Shelleys had a coat of arms. Their shield
is black with a gold horizontal band and with three gold seashells
placed around this band (a somewhat bogus touch as the name “Shelley”
had no connection with seashells).
The Michelgrove Shelleys are buried in Clapham Church in Sussex.
In 1772, Sir John Shelley composed the following loving
epitaph to
his wife which is enscribed there.
"Here Lyeth the Body of Wilhelmina Shelley
Who departed this Life the 21st of March 1772
Aged Twenty three years.
She was a pattern for the World to follow:
Such a being both in form and mind perhaps never existed before.
A more dutiful, affectionate, and Virtuous Wife,
A more tender and Anxious parent,
A more sincere and constant Friend,
A more amiable and elegant companion;
Universally Benevolent, generous, and humane;
The Pride of her own Sex,
The admiration of ours.
She lived universally beloved, and
admired;
She died as generally revered, and regretted,
A loss felt by all who had the happiness of knowing Her,
By none to be compared to that of her disconsolate, affectionate,
Loving,
And in this World everlastingly Miserable Husband,
Who has caused this inscription to be engraved."
The Shelleys were in general old-fashioned Catholics and paid for their allegiance at times. By the turn of the nineteenth century, they appeared to have frittered their inheritance away (Sir John was described by his wife Lady Frances as "a gamester and a horse-racing nobleman of not too obvious a reputation)." Most of their estates in Sussex were sold. Even so, three centuries of landowning did leave a lot of Shelley names around the county.