was restored to him before he died in 1517. In his Inquisition Post Mortem, held at Pershore, it was said that Sheldon owned Balford Hall and seven other houses and 460 acres (186 ha) of land in Beoley, and more elsewhere in Worcestershire and Warwickshire. In his will he made bequests to the churches at Beoley and Abberton and to Pershore Abbey. Sheldon was succeeded at Beoley by his son Ralph (died 1546), who was married to Philippa, daughter of Baldwin Heath of Ford Hall, Wootton Wawen. Ralph was imprisoned in the Marshalsea in 1580 for recusancy, but released on medical grounds. Ralph was succeeded at Beoley by his eldest son, William (c. 1500–1570), who possessed the manors of Weston, Warwickshire, Abberton (jointly with his brother Francis), and by then virtually the whole parish of Beoley: some 4000 acres (over 1600 ha). He was Receiver at the Court of Augmentations, Knight of the Shire for Worcestershire, and Sheriff of the same county. Around 1534, William Sheldon purchased 2,000 acres (809 ha) of land at Skilts, between Beoley and his mother's home Ford Hall – lands which had been a grange of Studley Priory. His magnificent tomb is in Beoley parish church. William Sheldon was succeeded by his son, another Ralph Sheldon (1537–1613), who was married to Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Throgmorton of Coughton, who had attended the reception of Anne of Cleves. A Roman Catholic, Ralph Sheldon was a courtier at the Court of Queen Mary, and for a time a courier for Mary Queen of Scots between her place of confinement and Scotland. He is frequently mentioned in State Papers as a recusant. In 1594 there is a reference to an alleged premeditated rebellion in North Wales, "the chiefest aid for which is to come from Ralph Sheldon," and to his sending an emissary to Louvain "with letters to Cardinal Allen". He is said to have been responsible for the construction of the manor house at Weston Park in Warwickshire, another Sheldon estate in Long Compton parish. He was succeeded by his eldest son and heir, Edward (1561–1643), also a Royalist. In August 1636, Charles I of England visited Warwick, and a day or two later went on "to Weston at Mr. Sheldon's house with great delight". Edward's son and heir, William Sheldon of Beoley (1589–1659), always resided at Weston Park, where he died. In 1611, he married