Roger Sheldon

circa 1550 - 1623

All that is known about Roger is taken from J Gardner Bartlett's research ⁽¹⁾, but what sources have been verified (such as his son's will) appear to be correct.

Roger was born somewhere around 1550, probably in Monyash. As a youth in 1566 he got into a fight with his distant cousin George Sheldon, who obviously came off better because he was fined 3s 6d for it.

In 1575 he appears listed in a frankpledge of Monyash. At about this time his eldest known child, Arthur, is born, followed by Anne, George and Thomas.

His father died about 1600, and Roger inherited a cottage in Ashford called Lowefield, that had been in tha family for over 100 years.

He died in 1623, and was buried at Bakewell ⁽²⁾.

• Arthur has his own page.
• Anne died unmarried and was buried on 4th January 1620 in Bakewell
• George was buried on 26th March 1622 in Bakewell
• Thomas lived in Ashford, where he was a husbandman. He entered into a bond in 1628 and defaulted on the payment. He was fined for it in 1630.

1. The Sheldons of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, and Isaac Sheldon of New England by J Gardner Bartlett, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register contains a genealogy of the Sheldon family and includes this section on Roger Sheldon:

   ROGER ⁷ SHELDON (Richard ⁶, John ⁵, John ⁴, Richard ³, Hugh ², Richard ¹), born about 1550, was buried in Bakewell, co Derby, 30 Sept 1623 aged over 73 years. The name of his wife is unknown.

   The earliest mention found of him is as a youth in Monyash, when in an altercation he was assaulted by his remote and youthful kinsman, George Sheldon (11), who was fined therefor 3s 4d at a court held 30 Oct, 8 Elizabeth [1566]. (Court Rolls of the Manor of High Peak Hundred, 42/444)

   Roger Sheldon also appears as a frankpledge of Monyash at a court held 2 Nov 1575. (Ib, 42/451)

   He is mentioned as son and heir of Richard Sheldon in the lawsuit in 1591-92 between the latter and his half brother, Henry Sheldon. (Vide supra, No 9.)

   Upon the death of his father, about 1600, Roger Sheldon succeeded to the little cottage with 4 acres in Ashford, co Derby, called Lowefield, which had come to his great-grandfather John Sheldon in 1494. (Vide supra, No 5)

   Children:
   i. ARTHUR, b about 1575.
   ii. ANNE, d unm; bur 4 Jan 1619/20.
   iii. GEORGE, bur 26 Mar 1622.
   iv. THOMAS. of Ashford, husbandman. In the spring of 1630 Thomas Sheldon of Ashford, co Derby, husbandman, was summoned to answer William Tattershall, in the Court of Common Pleas, in a plea of debt of £6 13s 4d, by bond of 25 June 1628. Verdict for the plaintiff, with costs of £1 13s 4d (Plea Rolls, 6 Charles I, Easter Term, no 2261, m1494, and Trinity Term, no 2265, m 18-00)

2. Parish Register of All Saints, Bakewell [Transcript by Val Neal] lists the burial of Roger Sheldon on 30th November 1623.