author
Evelyn Philip Shirley
1812–1882
Remembered for turning family history, local history, and old records into lively works of scholarship, this Victorian writer brought a patient antiquarian's eye to places, lineages, and forgotten stories. He also moved in public life as a British landowner and Member of Parliament, giving his books a strong sense of the social world around them.
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About the author
Born in London on 22 January 1812, Evelyn Philip Shirley was a British antiquary, genealogist, and politician with strong ties to Warwickshire and County Monaghan. He was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, and became known for combining the interests of a landed gentleman with a deep enthusiasm for history, pedigrees, and archives.
Shirley wrote on family lineage, local history, and the English countryside. His books include The Noble and Gentle Men of England, The Sherley Brothers, Some Account of English Deer Parks, and The History of the County of Monaghan. Taken together, they show a writer fascinated by ancestry, estates, and the surviving traces of earlier centuries.
Alongside his writing, he served as a Conservative Member of Parliament for County Monaghan in the 1840s. Later accounts describe him as an able collector of manuscripts and books, and as a careful researcher whose work was valued by fellow historians and genealogists. He died on 19 September 1882.