SHERWIN, WILLIAM (1607–1687?), divine, born in 1607, was appointed to the sequestered living of Wallington, Hertfordshire, shortly before October 1645. In that month the sequestered minister, John Bowles, was summoned before the committee for plundered ministers for assaulting Sherwin. Sherwin also acted as lecturer or assistant to Josias Bird at Baldock. He was either silenced at Wallington in 1660 or ejected in 1662. He died at Fowlmere, Cambridge, in the house of his son-in-law, aged about 80. Sherwin married, on 11 Sept. 1637, Dorothea Swan, described as ‘generosa.’ His son, William Sherwin (fl. 1670–1710) [q. v.], the engraver, prefixed an engraved portrait of his father to several of his works.
Most of Sherwin's works are anonymous, and they were sometimes reprinted with titles differing from the originals. He wrote:
- ‘A Covenant to walk with God. … Solemnly entered into by certain persons resolving to live according to and in the power of the life of Christ in them,’ London, 1646, 12mo.
- ‘Πρόδρομος,’ London, 1665, 4to.
- ‘Eἰρηνικόν,’ London, 1665, 4to.
- ‘Λόγος περὶ Λόγου, or the Word written concerning the Word Everlasting,’ London, 1670, 4to.
- ‘Ίερo-μητρόπολις, or the Holy, the Great, the Beloved New Jerusalem … made manifest,’ London, 1670 (?), 4to.
- ‘Ἐκκλησιαστης, or the first and last preacher of the Everlasting Gospel,’ &c., London, 1671, 4to.
- ‘Xλεῖς [sic] εὐαγγελίου τοῦ μυστικοῦ or a key of the doctrines,’ &c., 1672; contains a reprint of fourteen separate tracts of Sherwin's dating 1671–4.
- ‘Oἰκουμένη μέλλουσα: the world to come, or the doctrine of the Kingdom of God,’ 1671–4, 4to; a general reprint of several treatises, like No. 7.
- ‘The doctrine of Christ's glorious Kingdom now shortly approaching,’ 1672, 4to.
- ‘Ἐξαναστασις, or the Saints rising … at the first blessed resurrection,’ &c., London, 1674, 4to.
- ‘Xρόνοι αποκαταστασέως πάντων, or the times of restitution of all things,’ &c., London, 1675, 8vo.
- ‘Eὐαγγέλιον αἰώνιον, or the Saints first revealed and covenanted mercies,’ &c., London, 1676, 4to.
[Addit. MS. 15669, ff. 186, 365; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 201; Calamy's Account, p. 361; Urwick's Nonconformity in Herts, pp. 568–9.]
SHERWIN, WILLIAM (fl. 1670–1710), engraver, son of William Sherwin (1607–1687?) [q. v.], the nonconformist divine, was born at Wallington, Hertfordshire, of which place his father was rector, about 1645. Between 1670 and 1711 he engraved in the line manner a number of portraits, of which the best have considerable merit, and all are interesting on account of their scarcity and their subjects. These comprise large plates of Charles II, Queen Catherine, Prince Rupert, Lord Gerard of Brandon, the Duchess of Cleveland, and Slingsby Bethell; and various small ones prefixed to books. He engraved the title to Reynolds's ‘Triumphes of God's Revenge against Murder,’ 1670, several of the plates in Sandford's ‘History of the Coronation of James II,’ 1687, and the portraits of Dr. William Sermon [q. v.], prefixed to his works. Sherwin was one of the first workers in mezzotint, being instructed in the practice by Prince Rupert, to whom he dedicated a pair of large portraits of Charles II and his queen engraved in that method; the former of these bears the date 1669, the earliest found on an English mezzotint. Among his other mezzotint plates are portraits of the Duke of Albemarle, Elizabeth Cavendish, duchess of Albemarle, Adrian Beverland, and several royal personages. Sherwin seems to have worked mainly from his own drawings. On his print of his father, dated 1672, he styles himself engraver to the king by patent. He married Elizabeth Pride, great-niece and ward of George Monck, duke of Albemarle, whose heir-at-law she eventually became, and there exists a pedigree of the Moncks of Potheridge engraved by Sherwin expressly to show his wife's claim to that position. He is supposed to have died about 1714.
[Strutt's Dict of Engravers; Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Dallaway and Wornum; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Museum (Add. MS. 33404).]
SHERWOOD. [See also Shirwood.]
SHERWOOD, MARY MARTHA (1775–1851), authoress, born at Stanford, Worcestershire, on 6 May 1775, was the elder daughter and second child of George Butt, D.D. [q. v.], by his wife Martha, daughter of Henry Sherwood.
Mary, a beautiful child, was educated at home, and subjected to a rigorous discipline. In 1790 she was sent to the abbey school at Reading, under the direction of M. and Mme. St.-Quentin. The school, which was afterwards removed to London, numbered among its pupils Mary Russell Mitford and L. E. Landon. As a schoolgirl Mary Butt acquired a good knowledge of Latin, and composed many stories and plays. Her first published tale, ‘The Traditions,’ appeared in 1794; the proceeds were destined to assist an old friend.
After Dr. Butt's death, on 29 Sept. 1795,
