Sir John Shelley, 7th Baronet
Sir John Villiers Shelley, 7th Baronet was an English Tory landowner and politician.
He was born the eldest son of Sir John Shelley, 6th Baronet and educated at Charterhouse School.
He joined the Royal Horse Guards in 1825 as an ensign and rose to lieutenant in 1828. He transferred as a lieutenant to the 20th Foot in 1830, went onto half-pay with the 60th Foot in 1831 and retired in 1832. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the 46th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers from 1861 to his death.
He was elected at the 1830 general election as a Member of Parliament for Gatton in Surrey, then at the 1831 general election as an MP for Great Grimsby, but did not contest the seat at the 1832 general election.
He did not stand again until he unsuccessfully contested the 1841 general election in East Sussex.
On the death of the 6th Baronet on 28 March 1852 he became the 7th Baronet Shelley of Michelgrove, inheriting Maresfield Park in Sussex.
Shelley returned to the Commons after a twenty-year absence when he was elected at the 1852 general election as a Member of Parliament for Westminster, where he was re-elected in 1857 and 1859. He did not stand again in Westminster at the 1865 general election, when he contested Bridgwater, but without success.
He died of gout in 1867. He had married in 1832 Louisa, the daughter of Rev. Samuel Johnes Knight of Henley Hall, Shropshire. They had an only daughter, Blanche. The baronetcy passed to his younger brother Frederic, although he bequeathed Maresfield Hall to Blanche, who went on to marry Hervey Charles Pechell in 1874 and never took up residence.
