Background
Born on 16 June 1845, he was the eldest son of Thomas Selby of Whitley and Wimbush Hall, Essex, by his wife Elizabeth, youngest daughter and coheiress of Ralph Foster of Holderness, Yorkshire.
Born on 16 June 1845, he was the eldest son of Thomas Selby of Whitley and Wimbush Hall, Essex, by his wife Elizabeth, youngest daughter and coheiress of Ralph Foster of Holderness, Yorkshire.
He was educated at Brighton College, and Tunbridge School.
After leaving school he was placed with a Doctor Stromberg in Bonn, to learn German and French. In 1867 Selby became a junior clerk in the Public Record Office, where he ultimately became superintendent of the search-room. Selby cut his own throat while suffering from typhoid fever, dying at his residence, 9 Clyde Street, Redcliffe Gardens, London South.W., on 3 August 1889.
He was buried on 8 August in Kensal Green cemetery.
Selby once preferred a claim to the dormant peerage of Viscount Montagu. He abandoned it, not being able to prove beyond dispute a marriage on which the claim rested.