Laurence Shirley and Anne, daughter of Sir Walter Clarges, bart., he was born at Staunton Harold, Leicestershire, on 23 September 1725.
Robert Southey remarks that his intentions in his advocacy of Wesley were better than his judgment, since he belonged to the most dogmatic section of the movement.
The bishop of Clonfert censured him in June 1778 and advised him to drop his Methodism, while some clergymen petitioned the archbishop to reprimand him for preaching in Plunkett Street Chapel, Dublin.
In the Methodist controversy on justification by faith provoked by John Wesley's Arminianism and the proceedings at the conference of 1770, Shirley took an active part on the Calvinist side with his cousin, the Countess of Huntingdon, as whose chaplain he acted for a time, and Augustus Toplady.
A circular issued by him inviting the clergy and laity to oppose Wesley drew from John William Fletcher of Madeley his ‘Checks to Antinomianism,’ and Shirley's influence embittered the dispute.