Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shuckford, Samuel
SHUCKFORD, SAMUEL (d. 1754), historian, son of Samuel Shuckford of Palgrave, Suffolk, gent., was born at Norwich about 1694, and educated at the grammar schools of Norwich and Botesdale, Suffolk. From 1712 to 1719 he was scholar of Caius College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1716 and M.A. in 1720, and subsequently obtaining the Lambeth degree of D.D. (Graduati Cantabr. 1823). He was ordained deacon on 16 June 1717, and priest on 28 Oct. 1718. In 1722 he was presented to the rectory of Shelton, Norfolk, which he resigned in 1746 (Blomefield, Hist. of Norfolk, v. 272). He held with it the living of Hardwick, and was also vicar of Seething and Mundham, Norfolk. He was instituted to the tenth prebend in the cathedral church of Canterbury on 21 March 1737–8 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 59). Subsequently he obtained the living of All Saints, Lombard Street, London; and it is said that he was one of George II's chaplains. He died on 14 July 1754, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.
He was author of: 1. ‘The Sacred and Profane History of the World, connected from the creation of the world to the dissolution of the Assyrian empire at the death of Sardanapalus, and to the declension of the kingdom of Judah and Israel, under the reigns of Ahaz and Pekah,’ 2 vols. 1728, 8vo. This work was intended to serve as an introduction to Prideaux's ‘Connection;’ it was reprinted, 3 vols., London, 1731–40; 4 vols. London, 1743 seq.; London, 1754, 8vo; 4 vols. 1808, 8vo, edited by Adam Clarke; new edition, with ‘The Creation and Fall of Man,’ 2 vols. Oxford, 1810, 8vo; and another edition of both works with notes and analyses, by James Talboys Wheeler [q. v.], 2 vols. London, 1858, 8vo. 2. ‘The Creation and Fall of Man,’ London, 1753, 8vo.
‘A Connection of Sacred and Profane History, from the death of Joshua to the decline of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah (intended to complete the works of Shuckford and Prideaux), by the Rev. Michael Russell, LL.D., Episcopal minister,’ appeared in 3 vols. London, 1827, 8vo.
[Gent. Mag. 1754, p. 340; Jones's Life of Bishop Horne, 1795, p. 113; Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, i. 58; Nichols's Illustr. Lit. viii. 588; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 287, 335; information kindly supplied by Dr. John Venn, F.R.S., of Caius College, Cambridge.]