Sir John Shelton (1476/7 – 1539) of Shelton in Norfolk, England, was a courtier to King Henry VIII. Through his marriage to Anne Boleyn, a sister and co-heiress of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire of Blickling Hall in Norfolk, he became an uncle of Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII. He was appointed comptroller of the joint household of Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, the king's daughters, and together with his wife was governor to the king's children.
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Life
John Shelton was the son of Ralph Shelton and Margaret Clere, daughter of Robert Clere. John had four siblings: Ralph, Richard, a priest, Elizabeth, and Alice. The family took its name from their Norfolk manor of Shelton, and held lands in East Anglia, including Shelton Hall, for three centuries before John's birth.
Before 1503, Shelton married Anne Boleyn, daughter of Sir William Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk, and Lady Margaret Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. Shelton was appointed High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1504 and 1522, and was a Justice of the Peace for Norfolk. At the coronation of Henry VIII, Shelton was created a Knight of the Bath.
Shelton and his wife rose to prominence when Henry VIII married, as his second wife, Lady Shelton's niece, Anne Boleyn, daughter of Lady Shelton's brother, Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire. After Queen Anne's coronation in 1533, Lady Shelton and her sister, Lady Alice Clere, were placed in charge of the king's daughter, Mary, at Hatfield Palace. According to Block, this was likely done to pressure Mary to recognise Anne as queen. The enmity and abuse meted out to Mary contributed to everlasting hatred between the Tudor court factions.