SHIRLEY, William

While not actually resident in the borough that he represented in the Commons, Shirley was by the time of his return at least a Surrey man who was connected with inhabitants of Reigate and its hinterland. In 1444 he acted as a feoffee for Henry Goode of Dorking, and in October 1450, along with a probable kinsman, Reynold Shirley, he was among the witnesses to a gift of goods and chattels made by Thomas Snell of Croydon.3 CP25(1)/232/73/6; CCR, 1454-61, p. 47. By Michaelmas 1443 he had entered the royal household as one of the pages of the Chamber, and he subsequently rose to become a yeoman of the same department, as well as holding the post of one of the serjeants. In recognition of his services, in July 1444 he was granted a life annuity of £6 6s. 6d., which in February 1445 was augmented by a further £10 p.a. from the issues of the county of Wiltshire.4 CPR, 1441-6, pp. 276, 326; E101/410/12, f. 82; 16, f. 36; 410/1, f. 30v; 3, f. 32; 6, f. 41; 9, f. 44. Even before Shirley was granted his financial rewards from Henry VI’s notoriously empty coffers, he had been provided for in a different way, for in February 1444 he was nominated for the reversion of a corrody in the Gloucestershire abbey of Cirencester on the demise of the existing corrodian. It seems that for one reason or another he could not make good his claim, for two years later, in November 1446, he received a fresh grant for a similar corrody at Thornton abbey in Yorkshire.5 CCR, 1441-7, pp. 208, 439. The autumn of 1445 saw Shirley appointed duchy of Lancaster feodary for the home counties, jointly with Thomas Aldenham, and, probably in April 1446, he joined the ranks of the yeomen of the Crown, for which he drew the customary wage of 6d. per day.6 CPR, 1446-52, p. 201; CCR, 1447-54, p. 81; PROME, xii. 128. It was undoubtedly on account of his membership of the royal household that he was returned to the Parliament at Bury St. Edmunds.

The Act of Resumption passed by Parliament in 1450 deprived Shirley, like many other members of Henry VI’s bloated establishment, of a substantial part of his annual income. He was allowed to keep only £9 2s. 6d. ‘pro corona’, out of his total fees.7 E163/8/14. Few other details of Shirley’s career have come to light. In November 1452 he was among the recipients of a gift of goods and chattels made by an Essex draper, while in the spring of 1460 he was co-plaintiff in the court of common pleas with the wealthy London mercer Richard Riche in a suit for debt against a group of Suffolk gentlemen. He was at this date still enjoying the status of the yeoman of the Crown, but presumably had to relinquish the office on Edward IV’s accession, and is not heard of thereafter.8 CCR, 1447-54, p. 401; CP40/796, rot. 215.