John Sheppard (writer)

John Sheppard (1785–1879) was an English religious writer.

Life

Born on 15 October 1785 at Frome, Somerset, where the family had resided for a century, he was son of John Sheppard by his wife Mary Kelson, daughter of John Banger of Puddletown, Dorset. He left school in 1800 to enter the woollen trade, in which most of the family were engaged. In 1806, after his father's death, he and his mother joined the Baptists, to which many of his relatives belonged. With John Foster, a Baptist minister in Frome for a period from 1804, Sheppard developed a close friendship.^[1]

The death of his uncle, Walter Sheppard, who made him his heir, allowed Sheppard to retire from business. He matriculated at Edinburgh University, as a medical student, towards the end of 1812, but switched to the study of philosophy and Hebrew. During two years' residence at Edinburgh he formed friendships with Thomas Chalmers and John Pinkerton. In 1816 and 1817 he made tours through France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and studied for some months at Göttingen. In 1823 Sheppard published his Thoughts preparative or persuasive to Private Devotion, which went through five editions in as many years. Then for the rest of his life he concentrated on religious authorship, lay preaching, and foreign travel.^[1]

Sheppard died at Frome on 30 April 1879, and was buried in the dissenters' cemetery. He was twice married.^[1]

Works

Sheppard wrote:^[1]

• Athaliah, translated from Racine, 1815.
• Letters on a Tour in France, London, 1817.
• Thoughts preparative or persuasive to Private Devotion, 1823.
• An Autumn Dream, poem, London, 1837; 2nd edit. 1841.
• Cursory View of the State of Religion in France, London, 1838.
• On Dreams, London, 1847.
• On Trees, their Uses and Biography, London, 1848.
• The Foreign Sacred Lyre, London, 1857.
• The Christian Harp, London, 1858.

Notes

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Sheppard, John (1785-1879)". Dictionary of National Biography 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.