much to Shirley's honour that though no longer in supreme command, he strove loyally and energetically to further the operations against Canada. But in 1756 Lord Loudon, then commander-in-chief, holding Shirley responsible for the loss of Oswego, summarily and discourteously ordered him to England, and in the following year he was removed from his governorship. Shirley's conduct was vindicated in a pamphlet published in 1758 as ‘The Conduct of Major-general Shirley, late General of his Majesty's forces in North America, briefly stated.’
Shirley was meagrely compensated by the governorship of the Bahamas. In 1770 he resigned that post, and went to live as a private citizen at Roxbury in Massachusetts, where he built a mansion for himself with bricks imported from England at a vast expense, and where he died on 24 March 1771; he was buried in the King's Chapel, Boston. Shirley's schemes may have been at times in advance of his executive abilities and his resources. But he saw more distinctly than any other colonial statesman of his day that the issue in America between France and Great Britain was one which allowed of no compromise, and that in his own words ‘Delenda est Canada.’ He began as a place-hunter, but his after career was free from all tincture of intrigue or self-seeking, and he proved himself a strenuous patriot.
A portrait by Thomas Hudson was engraved by J. McArdell (J. C. Smith, Mezzotinto Portraits, p. 896); it forms a frontispiece to ‘Memorials of the History of Boston,’ vol. ii., and is reproduced in Winsor's ‘Hist. of America’ (v. 142). Besides inspiring the ‘Vindication’ of his conduct, mentioned above, Shirley was author of ‘A Letter to … the Duke of Newcastle, with a journal of the siege of Louisbourg’ (London, 1746, 8vo). The plays which have been attributed to him (in Appleton's and Allibone's Dictionaries) were the work of William Shirley (fl. 1775) [q. v.]
Of Shirley's four sons by his first wife, Sir Thomas Shirley (1769–1800) was the only one who survived his parents. He was born in the Bahamas, entered the army and rose rapidly. In 1781 he was appointed governor of the Leeward Islands and colonel of the 91st foot; and in 1798 he was advanced to the rank of general, having been created a baronet on 27 June 1786. He died at Bath on 11 Feb. 1800, and on the death of his son, Sir William Warden Shirley, second baronet, on 26 Feb. 1815, the ancient Sussex family of Shirley became extinct in the male line (Sussex Archæolog. Coll. xix. 61–70; Gent. Mag. 1800, i. 286).
[Colonial State Papers; Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts; Parkman's Half-Century of Conflict; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe; Shirley's Stemmata Shirleiana, 1873, p. 322.]
SHIRLEY, WILLIAM (fl. 1739–1780), dramatist, was a merchant who for many years was engaged in business in Portugal. In 1753 he had a violent dispute with the English consul at Lisbon, which resulted in his being ordered by the Portuguese government to quit the country within five days. From that time he resided in London, though he occasionally went abroad, and even revisited Portugal, where he narrowly escaped with his life in the great earthquake of 1755. He was esteemed an authority on affairs of trade and international commerce. He wrote several letters in the ‘Daily Gazetteer,’ signed ‘Lusitanicus,’ on the relations of Portugal and Great Britain, and was the author of some observations on the currency, printed in Sir William Browne's ‘Proposal on our Coin’ (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 328); and of ‘Observations on a Pamphlet lately published concerning a Portuguese Conspiracy,’ London, 1759, 8vo.
Shirley devoted some of his leisure to lighter literary work, and wrote many plays; but his dramatic talent was small. His earliest play was a tragedy called ‘The Parricide,’ which appeared at Covent Garden on 17 Jan. 1739. A preconcerted riot on the first night assured its failure. After another fiasco, he wrote ‘Edward the Black Prince,’ which appeared at Drury Lane on 6 Jan. 1750; Garrick took the part of Edward, but Barry, in that of Lord Ribemont, a French nobleman, gained for the piece what measure of success it attained. Shirley soon after quarrelled with Garrick, and revenged himself in 1758 by printing a pamphlet entitled ‘Brief Remarks on the original and present State of the Drama,’ with a humorous dialogue called ‘Hecate's Prophecy,’ in which Garrick was castigated under the name of Roscius.
He also published: 1. ‘King Pepin's Campaign,’ a burlesque opera, London, 1755, 8vo; acted at Drury Lane on 15 April 1745. 2. ‘Electra,’ a tragedy, London, 1765, 4to; prohibited by the lord chamberlain. 3. ‘The Birth of Hercules,’ a masque, London, 1765, 4to. The following plays by him were not printed: 1. ‘The Roman Sacrifice,’ a tragedy, acted at Drury Lane on 18 Dec. 1777. 2. ‘The Roman Victim,’ a tragedy. 3. ‘Alcibiades,’ a tragedy. 4. ‘Henry II,’ in two parts, historical tragedies. 5. ‘The Fall of Carthage,’
