Page 28 - The Devil's Arsonist

Chapter 12

The Hall That Burned

Shelton Hall, Shelton, Norfolk, before 1600

When Fire Destroyed this Fine Tudor House
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Wednesday Morning 7 December 1994, Shelton, Norfolk
On this morn, as I had been commanded by my beloved, was spent in search of the ghost of
Sir John Shelton; an elusive figure from my past, a man of power and privilege, who had the
support and ear of his Queen; a member of her Privy Council and one present when Rowland
Taylor did burn at Aldham Common. His family was an ancient one, whose ancestral seat lay
in the Norfolk Domesday village from which they took their name. It was another John
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Shelton, who first held the Manor there in the 12 century. It is also said his descendent,
Nicholas Shelton was among those rebel barons who did present Magna Carta to King John;
while another Shelton, Sir Ralph was knighted for his services to Edward III at the Battle of
Crecy, some six and half centuries ago. But it was in the Tudor period that their power did
arise to its zenith; when his father, Sir John Shelton, then twenty-first Lord of the Manor, and
his wife Anne Boleyn were entrusted with the custody of the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth
when mere children. Such an honour if it be so, was in part because the said Anne was the
aunt to Queen Anne Boleyn and the mother of Mary Shelton, the mistress of Henry VIII