Sir Henry Shirley (1589–1633), landowner and local politician, was born in January 1589 at

Somerton, Oxfordshire Somerton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, in the Cherwell valley about northwest of Bicester. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 305. Archaeology Fourteen Saxon or early medieval graves have been discov ...

, the eldest child of Sir George Shirley. According to the memoir of his younger brother Sir Thomas Shirley he attended Oxford university, but no record of this has been found. He then travelled abroad before joining the court of Henry, prince of Wales. In May 1615 he married Lady Dorothy Devereux, the daughter of

Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a ...

. On his father's death Shirley entered local politics as a supporter of the

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham held with Duke of Chandos, referring to Buckingham, is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been earls and marquesses of Buckingham. ...

. In 1624 he was picked as high sheriff of Leicestershire and the following year read the proclamation of Charles I's accession in Leicester's market place. He was the most active local opponent of Leicestershire's lord lieutenant, the earl of Huntingdon. In 1627 an absurd squabble with a gentleman of the earl's household led to his imprisonment and house arrest, ended by an embarrassing public apology. When he was subsequently accused of adultery, his wife 'both for safeguard of her honour, blemished by him scandalously, and for her alimony or maintenance (being glad to get from him) … was forced to endure a suit in the High Commission Court'. He subsequently boasted that he had been promised a barony as compensation, if he failed to secure a seat in the parliamentary elections, and the lieutenancy of Leicestershire. The privy council were initially lenient, but when it was widely reported that he had said he 'cared for never a Lord in England a fart, except the Lord of Hosts', he was summoned before the House of Lords and committed to the Fleet Prison. Four days later the house heard his apologies and ordered that they be published at the next assizes in Leicester. Shirley died in February 1633 and was buried in the Shirley family chapel at

Breedon on the Hill Breedon on the Hill is a village and civil parish about north of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The parish adjoins the Derbyshire county boundary and the village is only about south of the Derbyshire town of Melbourn ...

, Leicestershire. According to his brother, he died a Catholic. Two years later his widow married William Stafford (c.1604–1637) of

Blatherwycke Blatherwycke is a village and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire, England. It is about north-east of Corby. It is near Blatherwycke Lake, on the Willow Brook. Demographics The population is grouped with the nearby village of Laxton ...

, Northamptonshire, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in the Queen's chapel at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, Henry 1589 births 1633 deaths 17th-century English nobility Baronets in the Baronetage of England High Sheriffs of Leicestershire