Richard Shelley (d. in Marshalsea prison, London, probably in February or March, 1586) was an English recusant who presented to Elizabeth I of England, or her Parliament, a petition drawn up to request greater religious tolerance for Roman Catholics.
The third son of John Shelley of Michelgrove, Clapham, Sussex, he was for some time abroad in attendance on his uncle Sir Richard Shelley, the last Grand Prior of England of the Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem.
Two accounts are extant of the petition he presented on behalf of his fellow Catholics, at that time severely limited by legislation in the practice of their religion.
So Penkevel must be wrong in his dates, and all that he knows about the petition, which was presented (as he says, to the queen) nearly a year previously, is mere hearsay.
He was sick when Peter Penkevel came to him, and "shortly after died, a constant confessor in the said prison".