The Sheldon archives
All the Sheldon stories in one place
Willie Sheldon had the skills to navigate the divide
William Alexander Watson Sheldon (1907-1999) was an Irish politician who earned the respect and admiration of both sides of the country’s great political and religious divide. Despite being an Ulster Protestant…
Philippa’s will that of a wealthy woman
Philippa did not survivie long to enjoy the fishing rights granted to her in the will of husband Ralph (1470-1546) as she died within two years of him. She had little land to bequeath, but she had many other valuable…
The details of Ralph Sheldon’s will
Ralph Sheldon of Abberton was a wealthy man; by values that apply in today’s world he would undoubtedly have been a millionaire many times over. Much of his wealth was inherited from his older brother, William…
Ralph Sheldon (1468-1546) the first coal king
The Sheldons had already acquired great wealth through sheep farming and weaving when Ralph Sheldon, quite late in life, acquired land at Cole Orton in Leicestershire in around 1533, possibly at the behest…
John Sheldon’s less savoury side laid bare
Following the death of surgeon John Sheldon, his long suffering wife Rebecca presented his prized anatomical specimen, the naked, embalmed body of a 24-year-old woman that Sheldon had kept in his bedchamber…
John Sheldon – the first Englishman ‘to fly’
Surgeon John Sheldon had a legitimate claim to having been the first Englishman to make a manned balloon flight and therefore to being among the first ‘to fly’ anywhere outside France, when he made the ascent…
John Sheldon had a thirst for scientific knowledge
John Sheldon was a leading 18th century anatomist and surgeon whose pioneering study of the lymphatic system earned him a worldwide reputation and ultimately recognition as one of the founders…
Unexpected reward for clutching at straws
This site grew out of frustration. Frustration on two counts. Firstly, that through my own family research I had built a substantial list of names of ancestors but knew little about them or their lives, and secondly…
Feast of the Swans saw 267 new knights created
ONE OF THE GREAT SPECTACLES of the Middle Ages took place in Westminster Abbey over 700 years ago when 267 men were knighted, the largest mass knighting in medieval England. Among them was Nicholas Sheldon.
William Sheldon at the Battle of Bosworth
DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV (1461-1483), William Sheldon, the eldest son of Ralph and Joyce Sheldon (nee Rudding) of Abberton, purchased the Worcestershire manor of Beoley from Richard Neville, Lord Latimer…
The Sheldons move on to Abberton
JOHN SHELDON (1380-1428) left behind the hills of Rowley Regis to establish his family at Abberton, Worcestershire, due in no small part to his marriage to wealthy heiress Joan (Juana), daughter of John Cotton…
An international Sheldon family of entertainers
MANY YEARS AGO a chance find in the 1881 UK census set me on the trail of a Sheldon family of entertainers that moved from England to Germany, the Netherlands and finally to New York…