Samuel Sheppard (–; ) was an English writer and poet of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

who sometimes published under the anagrammatic pseudonym Raphael Desmus.King 2004, n.p.

Life

Samuel Sheppard was the son of Harman Sheppard, physician, who died on 12 July 1639, aged ninety, by his wife Petronella née Parnell, who died on 10 September 1650. His parents married at

Christ Church, London Christ Church London (also commonly known as ''Christ Church''; and shorthand ''CCL''), founded 2004, is a Christian church that meets at several locations across London, United Kingdom. As Christians, Christ Church London has a large focus ...

, on 10 April 1623, and Sheppard seems to have grown up in London and its environs. He was related to Sir Christopher Clapham of

Beamsley Beamsley is a village and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is just within the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and about six miles east of Skipton and two miles north of Addingham. The village lies immedia ...

in Yorkshire, to whom he dedicated several of his books. No record of his education survives, though he appears to have taken

holy orders In certain Christian denominations, holy orders are the ordination, ordained ministries of bishop, priest (presbyter), and deacon, and the sacrament or rite by which candidates are ordained to those orders. Churches recognizing these orders inclu ...

and become a

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minister: John Hackluyt, a rival writer, called Sheppard a "blasphemous Cleargy-spot". Sheppard commenced his literary career about 1606 as

amanuensis An amanuensis ( ) ( ) or scribe is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. It may also be a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In some aca ...

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

, but wrote nothing himself till a later period. From 1646 to 1654 he wrote copiously, in news weeklies, prose reports, essays, poetry, and drama, about the events of the

. Like his connections the Claphams, Sheppard was an ardent

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

. He twice suffered imprisonment for his opinions, once in 1650 in

Whittington College St Michael Paternoster Royal is a church in the City of London. The original building, which was first recorded in the 13th century, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The church was rebuilt under the aegis of Sir Christopher Wr ...

, and again for fourteen months in

Newgate Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Mid ...

. His wife's name was Mary.Carlyle 1897, p. 63.

Works

He was the author of: # ''The Farmers Farmed'', London, 1646,

4to Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

. # ''The False Alarm'', London, 1646, 4to. 3. # ''The Year of Jubilee'', London, 1646, 4to. # ''The Times displayed in Six Sestyads'', London, 1646, 4to. # ''The Committee Man Curried'', London, 1647, 4to (two short farces almost entirely made up of plagiarisms from Sir John Suckling). # ''Grand Pluto's Progress through Great Britain'', 1647. # ''The Loves of Amandus and Sophronia'', London, 1650,

8vo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

.
''Epigrams''
London, 1651, 8vo. # ''The Joviall Crew'', London, 1651, 4to. # ''Discoveries, or an Explication of some Enigmatic Verities. Also a Seraphick Rhapsodie on the Passion of Jesus Christ'', London, 1652. # ''Parliament Routed'', London, 1653. Hazlitt also ascribes to him the preface to Captain Hobson'
''Fallacy of Infant Baptism Discovered''
London, 1645, 4to, together with ''God and Mammon'', 1646, 4to, ''The Weepers'', London, 1652, 4to, and a ballad, ''St. George for England'', London, 1650. All these pieces and items 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 above are in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. Some lines by Sheppard preface Thomas Manly's ''Veni, Vidi, Vici'', London, 1652, 8vo, and he left in manuscript (now in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

) ''The Faerie King'', a continuation of

Spenser Spenser is an alternative spelling of the British surname Spencer. It may refer to: Geographical places with the name Spenser: * Spenser Mountains, a range in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand People with the surname Spenser: * Dav ...

's ''Faerie Queene''.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * King, Andrew (2004)
"Sheppard, Samuel (''c''. 1624–1655?)"
In ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheppard, Samuel 1620s births 1655 deaths 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English poets