File:Shelley brasses in chancel of Clapham Church by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm 1789.jpg

• Top: Sir John Shelley (d.1526) and his wife Elizabeth de Michelgrove (d.1513), daughter and heiress of John de Michelgrove of Michelgrove in the parish of Clapham, Sussex. His son was w:Sir William Shelley (1480?–1549) Judge of the Common Pleas who married Alice Belknap, daughter of Sir Henry Belknap, grandson of Sir Robert de Bealknap of Knelle in the parish of Beckley, Sussex, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Arms of de Michelgrove missing, spaces shown by hatched lines (Quarterly or and azure, a falcon (volant) argent (Michelgrove of Sussex) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.683))
• Bottom: (text from: Robert Hutchinson F.S.A., The Brasses & Monuments in St. Mary the Virgin Church, Clapham, West Sussex, Published by The Friends of Clapham and Patching Churches, 2008

[1]) John Shelley [III], died 1592, and wife Elinor [daughter of Sir Thomas Lovell of Harling, Norfolk] with one son [Sir John, created 1st baronet, 1611] and daughter [Eliza, married Sir Thomas Tymperley of Hintlesham, Suffolk]. Rectangular brass plate, relaid in a new limestone slab at the restoration of the church in 1873-4, but retaining two incised inscriptions in alabaster below. South wall, chancel. 41 Diary of Henry Machyn (London, 1847), 273. 42 The brass is illustrated in Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society XIV (1986-91), 294. 43 For a description of this workshop, see Robert Hutchinson and Bryan Egan: “History Writ in Brass: The Fermer Workshop” in Transactions of the Monumental Brass Society, XV (1992-96), 256-81. Both main figures are shown kneeling on a tiled floor, on each side of a covered table with two open books (? prayer books) lying open before them. The male figure, at dexter, wears a representation of the high-status Greenwich armour with escalloped edges and lobster-tail tasset plates protecting the thighs. There is a prominent ruff at the neck. Behind him kneels his only son, also wearing a ruff over a doublet with hose and cape. Facing them are the female figures, mother and daughter, both wearing Paris headdresses, ruffs, and dresses with full sleeves. Between them is a shield bearing the arms: Silver, a chevron between three escallop shells sable for SHELLEY impaling Silver, a chevron azure between three squirrels gules cracking nuts, gold, LOVELL. These Shelley arms are different from previous blazoning on the monuments in this church: gone are the less refined whelk shells, substituted by scallops. The reason for this change is unclear. It may be a question of taste or possibly may be connected with John’s brother’s conviction for treason seven years before his death The shield is engraved on a separate, thicker piece of brass that is neatly inserted into the rectangular plate. Whether this was because of an error in engraving the arms, or because a thicker piece was required for resin colouring to be inserted into the shield, is a matter of conjecture. The rectangular plate is only 2mm. thick, with a dark patina, and is an example of the poor quality hammered plate produced for the brass workshops in England at this time. Before the late 1560s, most brass plate was produced overseas in the Low Countries and shipped into England for engraving. It was only at this time that a large-scale indigenous brass industry grew up in this country - one of the main centres was on the River Thames at Isleworth, Middlesex. The plate’s edges have been cut too closely to the figures. This may have been an error by the original workshop in Southwark,