Richard Shelton

Sir Richard Shelton (died 1647) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Solicitor General between 1625 and 1634. Early life Richard Shelton (or Sheldon or Shilton) was the elder of the two sons of John Shelton (d. 1601) a mercer of Birmingham, by his wife Barbara, daughter and heir of Francis Stanley of West Bromwich, Staffordshire. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham before he studied law at the Inner Temple, and had the good fortune to be employed by Charles I’s favourite, the Duke of Buckingham who was probably the means of Shelton's appointment as Reader at the Inner Temple in 1624. Solicitor General It was also to Buckingham’s influence that Shelton owed his promotion as Solicitor General in October 1625 and was knighted by Charles I at Hampton Court that month. He sat in Parliament for Bridgnorth in Shropshire but his lack of debating power rendered him no match for Coke and the great opposition lawyers of the day. In 1628 he was appointed Treasurer of the Inner Temple. As Solicitor General, Shelton was appointed to a commission to compound with recusants in November 1625 and in December 1633 to the reinforced High Commission, which exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England and Wales. During a Commons debate in February 1629 he defended the appointment of Richard Montagu, object of attack in the Commons, as bishop of Chichester.