Ralph Sheldon (1623–1684) was an English
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
and an antiquary. In his will he bequeathed his library and manuscripts to the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...
, his country's authority over
heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
and pedigree.
Family
Sheldon was born on 1 August 1623 at
Beoley
Beoley is a small village and larger civil parish north of Redditch in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire. It adjoins Warwickshire to the east. The 2001 census gave a parish population of 945, mostly at Holt End. The parish includes the ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, the eldest son of the landowner William Sheldon (1589–1659) of Beoley and of Weston in
Long Compton
Long Compton is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England near the extreme southern tip of Warwickshire, and close to the border with Oxfordshire. It is part of the district of Stratford-on-Avon; in the 2001 census had a population of ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
, and his wife Elizabeth (1592–1656), daughter of
William, Lord Petre. He was a nephew of
Edward Sheldon
Edward Brewster Sheldon (Chicago, Illinois, February 4, 1886 – April 1, 1946, New York City) was an American dramatist. His plays include ''Salvation Nell'' (1908) and ''Romance'' (1913), which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo.
...
, a translator of Catholic religious works.
The family was among the wealthiest gentry in the region, but their Catholicism precluded them from prominence in public life.
Commonwealth period
Ralph Sheldon left England for France and Italy in 1642 and returned just before his marriage in 1647 to Lady Henrietta Maria, daughter of
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers
John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers (25 February 1603 – 10 October 1654) was a wealthy English nobleman, politician and Royalist from Cheshire.
Family
A member of the Savage family, John was the first son of Thomas Savage, 1st Viscount Savage, and E ...
(c. 1603–1654), a wealthy Catholic politician and Royalist from Cheshire. Beoley Hall was burnt down in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, apparently to stop it falling into
Roundhead
Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...
hands. The estate was
sequestrated.
After the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
of 1660, Sheldon was nominated for a contemplated Order of the Royal Oak, to mark his family's devotion to Royalism.
Scholarly activities
Sheldon's wife died childless in 1663, perhaps of the plague, after which he devoted himself wholly to genealogy, heraldry and antiquities and drew up a ''Catalogue of the Nobility of England since the Norman Conquest''.
[E. A. B. Barnard: ''The Sheldons'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2014 ]936
Year 936 ( CMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* June 19 – At Laon, Louis IV, the 14-year old son of the late King Charles the Simple, ...
He created a library at Weston that was catalogued by his fellow antiquary
Anthony Wood. He also kept a cabinet of curiosities. Sheldon again travelled to Rome in 1667, to spend three years there expanding his collection. He was described by Wood as "a munificent favourer of learning and learned men".
Sheldon granted a stipend to the antiquary John Vincent and bought from him a major collection of manuscripts which had belonged to his father,
Augustine Vincent
Augustine Vincent (c. 1584–1626) was an English herald and antiquary. He became involved in an antiquarian dispute between his friend William Camden and Ralph Brooke.
Life
Vincent was born presumably in Northamptonshire, about 1584, third and y ...
, the
Windsor Herald
Windsor Herald of Arms in Ordinary is an officer of arms at the College of Arms in London.
It has been suggested that the office was instituted specifically for the Order of the Garter in 1348, or that it predates the Order and was in use as ea ...
(c. 1584–1626). This and many of his own possessions he bequeathed to the College of Arms.
Tapestry maps
After the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
, Sheldon ordered copies to be woven of two of the tapestry maps, those of Worcestershire and Oxfordshire, first commissioned around 1590 by his great-grandfather, also named Ralph Sheldon. Each of the four originals centred on a county in which members of the family lived, held land and had friends: Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire. The copies of each map itself were almost exact, while the decorative borders were updated in style.
The two later maps and the earlier one of Warwickshire were sold at auction with the contents of Weston in 1781, to
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician.
He had Strawb ...
. They were presented to
Lord Harcourt, who built a room for them at
Nuneham Courtenay
Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford. It occupies a pronounced section of the left bank of the River Thames.
Geography
The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field bound ...
. They later passed to the
Yorkshire Philosophical Society
The Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) is a charitable learned society (charity reg. 529709) which aims to promote the public understanding of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the archaeology and history of York and Yorkshire.
...
. The Oxfordshire map is now displayed at the
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...
, Oxford and that of Warwickshire is in the
Market Hall Museum, Warwick. That of Worcestershire is in store in the
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
, London.
[. It includes illustrations. Hilary L Turner, ''No Mean Prospect: Ralph Sheldon's Tapestry Maps'', Plotwood Press, 2010.]
Death
Sheldon died at Weston on 24 June 1684 and was buried, as his wife had been, in the family chapel at Beoley.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheldon, Ralph
1623 births
1684 deaths
17th-century antiquarians
English antiquarians
Cavaliers
English Roman Catholics