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Sheffield on 13 Aug. 1697. He married, secondly, on 12 March 1699, Katherine, daughter of Fulke Greville, fifth lord Brooke, and widow of Wriothesley Baptist Noel, second earl of Gainsborough. On her death, on 7 Feb. 1703–4, he married his third wife, Catharine, illegitimate daughter of James II by [q.v.], formerly wife of James Annesley, third earl of Anglesey, from whom she obtained a divorce. By her he had three sons, of whom Edmund survived, and succeeded him as second duke of Buckingham; he died unmarried on 30 Oct. 1735, when all his titles became extinct.

Sheffield was the author of several poems and prose pieces. The best known of the former are his ‘Essay on Poetry,’ which received praise from and, and his ‘Essay on Satire.’ There is some doubt as to the authorship of the latter poem, and Rochester, who attributed it to Dryden, caused the latter to be chastised on account of it. But there seems no sufficient ground for disputing Sheffield's authorship, though Dryden may afterwards have revised the poem (Notes and Queries, I. ii. 422, 462, iii. 146, 162;, Works, ed. Scott, 1821, xv. 201). Sheffield was a munificent patron of Dryden, who dedicated to him his tragedy of ‘Aurengzebe’ and his translation of the ‘Æneis’ (ib. v. 174, ix. 304, xiv. 127). He was also the friend of Pope; but, notwithstanding his politics, had an aversion for him. Sheffield's most extraordinary feat was his revision of Shakespeare's ‘Julius Cæsar,’ which he broke up into two plays, ‘Julius Cæsar’ and ‘Marcus Brutus,’ and rewrote in accordance with his own theories of dramatic propriety, introducing several love scenes and omitting most of the citizen's parts (, History of the Drama and Stage, iii. 89; ‘Duke of Buckingham's Zweitheilung and Bearbeitung des Shakespeareschen Julius Cæsar’ in Jahrbuch d.deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, 1889, xxiv. 27–71).

Several of Sheffield's prose works are valuable historically, particularly his ‘Account of the Revolution;’ but his statements have to be received with caution when he is personally concerned. Immediately after his death [q.v.] endeavoured to publish his life with a pirated edition of his works, but he was restrained by the order of the upper house. In 1722 Pope edited a collected edition of his works at the request of his widow (Works of John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, &c., London, 1723, 4to). A license was granted Pope by government, but afterwards, having heard that some of Sheffield's works were Jacobite in tendency, the authorities sent for the impression, and cut out the ‘Account of the Revolution’ and the ‘Feast of the Gods,’ returning the mutilated copies. Another edition ‘without castrations’ was issued in 1726, 8vo; but in the so-called second edition of 1729, 8vo, the objectionable papers were again omitted. They were restored in the enlarged edition of 1740, 8vo, and retained in the fourth, issued in 1753, 8vo. The two suspected essays were published separately at The Hague in 1726, under the title of ‘Buckingham Restored.’

Sheffield was also the author of a manuscript pamphlet, not included in his works, entitled ‘Humanum est Errare, or False Steps on both Sides,’ a criticism on the conduct of James and William at the time of the revolution. A copy is in the British Museum (Add. MS. 27382, f. 77).

The first duke's portrait, painted by Kneller and engraved by G. Vertue, is prefixed to the collected edition of his works. The same portrait was also engraved by Isaac Beckett and by John Smith (, Mezzotinto Portraits, pp. 44, 1202, 1203).

[Buckingham's Works, ed. 1753; A Character of John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, 1729; Johnson's Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, ii. 191; Swift's Works, 1824, index, s.v. ‘Buckingham;’ Pope's Works, ed. Elwin, index, s.v. ‘Buckingham;’ Dunton's Life and Errors, p. 422; Macky's Characters of the Court of Great Britain, 1733, p. 20; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park, iv. 90; G. E. C.'s Peerage, ii. 69; Doyle's Official Baronage, i. 268; Jesse's Memoirs of the English Court, ii. 1; Dalton's Army Lists, vols. i. and ii., indexes; Macaulay's Hist. of England; Saintsbury's Dryden (English Men of Letters), p. 69.]

 SHEFFIELD, JOHN (1654?–1726), nonconformist divine, was born at Ibstock, Leicestershire, about 1654. His father, William Sheffield, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, was rector of Ibstock from 1644 to 1662, sustained a discussion with Samuel, father of Titus Oates [q. v.], and died at Kibworth, Leicestershire, in 1673. Sheffield, after passing through Kibworth grammar school, was put to trade; but his bent was to the ministry, for which he studied under [q.v.], following his tutor from one hiding-place to another. On 27 Sept. 1682 he was ordained by Shuttlewood and three other ejected ministers. He began his ministry as chaplain to Mrs. Palmer at Temple Hall, Leicestershire, where a small meeting-house was built for him, and another at Atherstone, Warwickshire (both, probably, in 1689). In 1697 he succeeded [q.v.] as pastor of the presbyterian congregation in St. Thomas Street, Southwark. He was a friend of Locke, who 