Background
He was the younger son of George and Catharine Carleton née Harrison of Huntercombe Oxfordshire and lived at Clerkenwell and Holcombe, Oxfordshire.
He was the younger son of George and Catharine Carleton née Harrison of Huntercombe Oxfordshire and lived at Clerkenwell and Holcombe, Oxfordshire.
He was sworn one of the clerks of His Majesty"s Council Extraordinary, 21 August 1623 and was knighted at Newmarket on 1 March 1629-1630, being the next knight made by Charles I after Sir Peter Paul Rubens. He acted as the King"s agent returning to and from the Hague, where he was joined with William Boswell in a special mission in August, 1632, and returned to England on 9 November following. Sir Humphrey Ferrers (1652–1678) of Tamworth Castle whose only child, Anne, took the Ferrers estates to the Shirley family.
Robert Shirley then obtained the termination of the abeyance of the title of Baron Ferrers of Chartley and in 1711 was created Earl Ferrers
Philip Vanbrugh (1681–1753) Registered Nurse, commodore governor of Newfoundland
Lieutenant General Edward Pearce (1658–1715), father of Edward Lovett Pearce
Lieutenant General Thomas Pearce (1670–1739), governor of the castle and city of Limerick
Elizabeth Pearce (1667–1740), wife of George Eglesfield of Queen"s College, Philadelphia and Cape May.