Dr. David Shepard (October 23, 1744 – December 12, 1818) was an American doctor and soldier. He was an early proponent of inoculation to prevent small pox.[1]
David Shepard was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, to John and Elizabeth (Noble) Shepard. David attended Yale, graduating (B.A.) in 1766 and then returning to Westfield. The next year he married Margaret Clap, daughter of Ezra Clap (Yale, 1740) on December 3, 1767. She died in 1769, leaving him with one daughter: Margaret. He removed to Chester, Massachusetts (then called Murrayfield) and married a second time to Lucinda Mather on January 7, 1773. They had six children: Mather, David, Lucinda, Harriet, Fanny and Horace.
As Boston's conflict with the royal government came to a head in 1773-75, Shepard was appointed to the Chester Committee of Correspondence. He responded to the Lexington Alarm as captain of a Company of Minutemen in the Regiment commanded by Col. Seth Pomeroy, and was appointed Surgeon on April 28, 1775. He continued in that capacity in 1775 and 1776, and served with a detachment of the Third Hampshire County Regiment which marched to Ticonderoga to reinforce the army by order of General Schuyler.[2]
In January 1788, Shepard was at Boston, Massachusetts were he served as representative of the town of Chester at a Constitutional Convention to consider a constitution reported by the Philadelphia Convention of 1787.[3]
In 1802 he purchased a farm near Amsterdam (town), New York, and resided there until his death. This farm later became the Fairview Cemetery (Amsterdam, New York).