Sir Ralph SHELTON, the 26th Lord of Shelton. He died in the Battle of Rhe.

Knighted at Theobald's, Warwickshire, England in 1607. According to records in the British Museum, he was Minister to Spain, Secretary to the Prince of Wales and one of the entourage of the Earl of Carlisle on the trip to France in 1612 to arrange for the marriage of Charles I with the sister of the French King. It was this Sir Ralph who held the Norfolk and Sufolk estates in 1606 (succeeding his brother John) prior to the sale of Shelton. In an account of his marriage to Jane West he is given as Ralph Sheldon, Esquire of Beoley, Worcestershire. Sir Ralph was a member of the Second and Third London Companies. In all the Colonial records of the Second Charter granted to the London Companies, 23 May 1609, the names of Sir Ralph Shelton of Norfolk England, a Captain Shelton and a James Shelton, Gentleman, appear. The Second London Company sailed under Lord De La Warr with nine ships and 500 people. The admiral's ship named "Sea Venture". They landed in America in 1610. A charter was granted to the Third London Company in 1611. As a member of Parliment, Sir Ralph signed the petition circulated there by the Company in 1610. There is nothing to indicate that Sir Ralph ever came to America to live. If so, he returned to England; but his son James Shelton, Gentlman, came with Lord De La Warr in Jun 1610, remained and founded the Shelton family of America and Virginia.1251