The name is local, from Pelham, in Hertfordshire, the seat of the ancestors of this family in the time of Edward I., and probably even before the Conquest. In the 28th of Edward I., Walter de Pelham had a confirmation grant of lands in Heilsham, Horsey, &c. in this county. From the reign of Edward III. the Pelhams have been a most important Sussex family; it was in that reign that Sir John Pelham assumed the Buckle as his badge, in token of his claim to the honour of taking John King of France prisoner at the battle of Poictiers. Laughton belonged to the Pelhams before 1403, but has been long deserted as the residence of the family.
See Brydges's Collins, vol. v. p. 488; Horsfield's Lewes; and Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. iii. p. 211, for a curious paper on the arms and badges of the Pelhams.
Arms.—Quarterly, 1 and 4, Azure, three pelicans argent, vulning themselves proper; 2 and 3, Gules, two belts in pale argent with buckles and studs or.
Present Representative, Henry Thomas Pelham, 3rd Earl of Chichester.
Shelley of Maresfield, Baronet 1611.
Although there is no doubt of the antiquity of the house of Shelley, the accounts of the earlier descents of the family are very scanty. Originally of the county of Huntingdon, the Shelleys are said to have removed into this county at a very early period. But the earliest mention we have in history of any of this family is of John and Thomas Shelley, who, following the fortunes of Richard II., were attainted and beheaded in the first year of Henry IV. The remaining brother, Sir William Shelley, not being connected with the followers of Richard II., retained his possessions, and was the ancestor of this family, who in the reign of Henry VI., by a match with the heiress of Michelgrove, of Michelgrove, in Clapham, was seated at that place, which continued the residence of the Shelleys until the year 1800, when it was sold, and Maresfield became the family seat.
Younger Branches. Shelley or Castle-Goring, Baronet 1806, descended from the fourth son of Sir John Shelley, of Michelgrove, who died in 1526. Shelley of Avington, in the county of Southampton, and Shelley (called Sidney Foulis) Lord de L'Isle and Dudley 1835, descended from the second marriage of Sir Bysshe Shelley, of Castle-Goring, Baronet, and the heiress of Perry, of Penshurst.,
See Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 39; Cartwright's Topography of the Rape of Bramber, p. 76; and Dallaway's Rape of Arundel, p. 40.
Arms.—Sable, a fess engrailed between three whelk-shells or.