Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/68

Sheppard bust portrait, life-size, by a local artist, had a large sale.

Apart from the works noticed, pamphlets, and sermons, Shepherd's chief publications were: 1. 'Every Man his own Parson,' 12mo, Liverpool, 1791. 2. 'The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan,' in 'Liverpool Mercury,' 1813. 3. 'Paris in 1802 and 1814,' 8vo, London, 1814; 2nd ed. 8vo, London, 1814. 4. 'Systematic Education, written in conjunction with J. Joyce and L. Carpenter,' 8vo, London, 1815; 2nd ed. 8vo, London, 1817; 3rd ed. (with plates) 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1823. 5. 'The Fatal Effects of Religious Intolerance,' 8vo, Liverpool, 1816. 6. 'Poems original and translated,' 12mo, London, 1829.

[Miss Joyce's Memoir of Shepherd, privately printed; Imperial Mag. 1821, p. 378; Masson's De Quincey, 1889, ii. 128; information in the hands of the writer, his great-nephew.]

 SHEPPARD, ELIZABETH SARA (1830–1862), novelist, daughter of a clergyman of the church of England who was on his mother's side of Jewish descent, was born at Blackheath in 1830. Her father soon died, without leaving provision for his family. Her mother opened a school. An accomplished linguist in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and German, Elizabeth was also a capable musician, and taught music in her mother's school. At the age of sixteen she began her novel, 'Charles Auchester.' She sent the manuscript to Benjamin Disraeli, who forwarded it to his publisher, and wrote to the author, 'No greater book will ever be written upon music, and it will one day be recognised as the imaginative classic of that divine art.' It was published in 1853 in three volumes, with a dedication to the author of 'Contarini Fleming.' No name appears on the title-page. The story is crude, and Disraeli's eulogistic prophecy was not fulfilled. Miss Sheppard modelled herself on Disraeli, and, like him, portrayed real characters in her novels. In 'Charles Auchester' Seraphael is supposed to represent Mendelssohn. Another novel, 'Counterparts, or the Cross of Love,' published in three volumes in 1854, was dedicated to Mrs. Disraeli. A second edition appeared in 1866.

Miss Sheppard died at Brixton on 13 March 1862.

Other works by her are: 1. 'My First Season,' by Beatrice Reynolds, edited by the author of 'Charles Auchester,' 1855; 2nd edit. 1864. 2. 'The Double Coronet,' 2 vols. 1856. 3. 'Rumour: a Novel,' 3 vols. 1858. 4. 'Almost a Heroine,' 1859. Allibone also mentions 'Round the Fire' (a collection of children's tales) and some poems by her. She is said to have sometimes employed the pseudonym of E. Berger, a French rendering of her own surname.

[Allibone's Dict. ii. 2075. The articles in the Atlantic Monthly, June and October 1862, contain a few facts, but are absurdly eulogistic in tone.]

 SHEPPARD, FLEETWOOD (1634–1698), poet and courtier, born 1 Jan. 1633–4 and baptised on 20 Jan., was second son of William Sheppard, esq., of Great Rollright, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, by Maria (or Mary), daughter of Sir Fleetwood Dormer of Grange, Buckinghamshire. His father (the son of William Sheppard and Dorothy, sister of Sir John Osborne, remembrancer of the exchequer) was in 1644 'slain by one of the king's soldiers,' as the parish register—or satellitibus as the 'Alumni Oxonienses'—has it; he was buried at Rollright on 2 Oct. 1644, leaving his wife with seven children. She died in January 1647.

Fleetwood matriculated at Oxford on 19 Nov. 1650, and entered as a commoner at Magdalen Hall; but soon after migrated to Christ Church, where he was nominated to a studentship, probably through the interest of the Carnarvon family, to whom he was doubly related: his mother's brother, Peter Dormer, married his father's sister, Ann Sheppard, on 17 May 1637.

He graduated B.A. on 10 May 1654, and M.A. on 11 June 1657, and, declining to take orders, entered as a student at Gray's Inn on 14 Oct. 1657. He did not apparently leave Oxford until after the Restoration. Then, according to Wood, he 'retired to London, hanged on the court, became a debauchee and an atheist, a grand companion with [Charles Sackville] Lord Buckhurst [afterwards Earl of Dorset] [q. v.], Henry Savile, and others.' He satirised in verse contemporary follies, and soon acquired considerable reputation as a critic and a wit. In 1678 [q. v.] addressed to him in the form of a letter his critical essay on 'The Tragedies of the Last Ages.'

To Lord Buckhurst, whose acquaintance he probably first made about 1664, Sheppard seems to have owed such success in life as he achieved. It is doubtful if his virtue was superior to his patron's. A satirical Latin epitaph (Gent. Mag. 1778) describes Sheppard as an ardent votary of Apollo, Bacchus, and Venus. Wood tells us that Dorset often accompanied Sheppard on visits to his brother at Great Rollright. In 1674 Dorset established his protégé at Copt Hall, where he passed much time thenceforth. Buckhurst