442
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. m. JUNE 10, 19Q&
to do in the way of setting his house in
order, for, from the moment of his com-
mittal to the Fleet, his servants had caused
his wife great trouble, afterwards (in 1582)
going so far as to eject her from her house at
Sutton ('S.P. Dora. Eliz.,' cxlviii. 39, civ. 59).
On his arrival there he found his wife's
mother on her death-bed, and on 27 November
obtained an extension of leave to the follow-
ing 15 January ('P.C.A.,' N.S., xiii. 262). The
opportunity for following his religion was
too good a one to be lost, and he therefore
made " great preparation for the keeping of
a solemne and extraordinary Christmas, a
thing," as the Lords of the Council thought,
" very inconvenient for him." In consequence,
steps were taken to have him summoned back
to the Fleet by St. Stephen's Day, should it
be necessary (ibid., 286-8). Whether it was
necessary does not appear. The next we hear
of him is that he was again released, this
time on his own bond, on 24 February, 1581/2,
to watch certain lawsuits respecting his
Sussex and Surrey properties, and was
ordered to return by 7 April, 1582, which lie
did (ibid., 331, 384). Before 24 August, 1582,
he had been transferred from the Fleet to the
Marshalsea, and Mass was being celebrated
in his chambers there ('S.P. Dom. Eliz.,' civ.
27). Nevertheless, he must again have had a
temporary release in the autumn of 1583, for
on the night of 16 September, 1583, he met
Charles Paget in Patching Copse, and plotted
with him for an invasion of England, the
liberation of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the
return of the nation to the Catholic faith
(Baga de Secretis, Pouch 47, in ' Fourth Rep. of
the Deputy-Keeper Pub. llec.,' App. ii. 274-5 ;
cf. also ' S.P. Dom. Add. Eliz.,' xxix. 39). In-
quiries being made as to the means whereby
Lord Paget and Charles Paget had escaped
again beyond the sea, William Shelley's name
began to be mentioned ('S.P. Dom. Eliz.,'
clxiv. 23, 30). He was therefore arrested on
suspicion of treason, and on 18 January,
1583/4, committed to the Tower. On 12 Feb-
ruary he was indicted before Sir Christopher
Hatton and others at Westminster, and
pleaded guilty. It is probable that he also
made some confessions on the rack (' S.P. Dom.
Eliz.,' clxviii. 14). He was sentenced to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.
His attainder was subsequently confirmed
by statute 29 Eliz., c. 1, "An Acte for the
Confirmacion of the Attainders of Thomas,
late Lorde Pagett, and others." But the sen-
tence of death was, it seems, remitted.
He was sent back to the Tower, where we find him mentioned as being in 'S.P. Dom. Eliz.,' clxxviii. 11, 74, clxxix. 35, clxxxii. 16,
27. He was still there, apparently, in 1588,
when, to his great discredit, he gave evidence
against the Earl of Arundel (Strype, 'Ann.,*
iii. ii. 79). One result of his attainder was
that all his property was forfeited, and this
included his estate jure uxoris in the Here-
fordshire and Shropshire freeholds (compare
'S.P. Dom. Eliz.,' ccxxxii. 67). However,
Mrs. Shelley must have possessed some in-
fluence at Court, for on 20 June, 1586, a
warrant was issued to the lleceiver-General
of Herefordshire and Salop to pay annually
to Jane Shelldie, wife of William Shelldie,
Esq., late attainted of high treason, the
sura of 200/. out of the rents, &c., the said
William held in right of his wife, and to
assign her one of the houses to inhabit in
during pleasure; also to allow the said
William such sums as are accustomed to be
paid for prisoners in the Tower, and the
yearly sum of 50/. for apparel, &c. ('Cal.
Cecil MSS.,' iii. 146). This annuity
seems to have been paid to Jane Shelley
down to her husband's death, though she
complains that she sometimes had great
difficulty in getting it ('Cal. Cecil MSS./
iv. 433).
It was probably some time after this war- rant that Mrs. Shelley was convicted of har- bouring a priest, and, as Cooke relates ('Herefordshire,' iv. 52), was lodged in the- common gaol of Worcester, from which, it appears, she was liberated at last on paying a fine. Thereupon she went to London, ana probably lodged in Holborn. There she con- sulted a cunning man named Shepton con- cerning certain things she had lost, and an astrologer named John Alfry about the likeli- hood of the execution, natural death, or escape of her husband, to whom she attributed all her troubles, and who at the time was appa*- rently dosing himself to death with too much physic. On three occasions she went to Cam- bridge to consult John Fletcher, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, on these and similar points ('S.P. Dom. Eliz.,' ccxliv. 42).
This not altogether blameless superstition on the part of Mrs. Shelley was twisted by her enemies into an accusation that she had sought by witchcraft to discover the date of the queen's death. She was accordingly thrown into the Fleet Prison in January,, 1592/3. There she was subjected to extortion on the part of the warden, and to disgraceful treachery on the part of a young man named Benjamin Beard, who (apparently on the pre- text that his mother's brother, Benjamin Tichborne, afterwards first baronet of that name, had married a Shelley of Mapledurham, who was probably a first cousin of William-