Shirley is a town in Piscataquis County, incorporated on March 4, 1834 from the township T3 R4 BKP, EKR. It annexed part of the town of Wilson in 1848, the year before that town was dissolved and its remains parceled out to Greenville and Elliottsville.
The town was named for the Massachusetts hometown of Joseph Kelsey, the local Representative to the Legislature at the time of incorporation.
Shirley is the birthplace of American humorist and poet Edgar Wilson Nye (1850-1896), popularly known as Bill Nye.
Located just south of Greenville on Maine combined Routes 6 and 15, its main village, Shirley Mills, grew up around early 19th century clapboard and saw mills.
