Walter Shelley sailed to the English colony at

Jamestown, Virginia The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent British colonization of the Americas, English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about southwest of present-day Willia ...

before 1619. Walter Shelley was one of the original subscribers to the

London Company The Virginia Company of London (sometimes called "London Company") was a division of the Virginia Company with responsibility for colonizing the east coast of North America between latitudes 34° and 41° N. History Origins The territory ...

. He was a member of the First Legislative Assembly in America and sat for

Smith's Hundred Smith's Hundred or Smythe's Hundred was a colonial English settlement in the Province of Virginia, in the modern United States of America. It was one of the original James River plantations named after the treasurer of the Virginia Company, Sir ...

when they met at Jamestown on July 30, 1619.American Historical Association (1894)
'' Writings on American History''
pp. 307-08. Government Printing Office. His name appears on a monument to the first

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

which stands at Jamestown today. Shelley died of fever in 1619, very shortly after the Assembly began. It was thought by most scholars that he was related to the

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

family.

References

1619 deaths Year of birth unknown People from colonial Virginia People from Jamestown, Virginia {{Virginia-politician-stub