SHERWOOD, ROBERT (fl. 1632), lexicographer, born in Norfolk, entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 4 July 1622, and graduated B.A. in 1626. He subsequently removed to London, where he set up a school in St. Sepulchre's churchyard. He possessed an intimate knowledge of the French language, which he utilised in 1622 by writing a French-English dictionary to be appended to the new edition of the English-French dictionary of Randle Cotgrave [q. v.] Sherwood also published ‘The French Tutour,’ London, 1634, 8vo. It is asserted that he translated John Bede's ‘Right and Prerogative of Kings’ from the French in 1612, but the date of publication appears to be rather too early to warrant the ascription of the book to him.
[Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iii. 167; Cole's Athenæ Cantabrigienses in Add. MS. 5880.]
SHERWOOD, WILLIAM (d. 1482), bishop of Meath, was an Englishman who was papally provided to the bishopric of Meath in 1460. In 1464 he had a quarrel with the deputy, d|Thomas|FitzGerald}}, eighth earl of Desmond [q. v.], some of whose followers were said to have been murdered at the instigation of the bishop. Desmond and Sherwood both went to England to lay the matter before the king, and the former was for the time successful. The bishop is said to have inspired the opposition which led to Desmond's attainder and execution on 14 Feb. 1468. In 1475 Sherwood was appointed deputy for George, duke of Clarence, but his rule excited much opposition, and in 1477 he was removed from office. He was also chancellor of Ireland from 1475 to 1481. Sherwood died at Dublin on 3 Dec. 1482, and was buried at Newtown Abbey, near Trim.
[Annals of Ireland, in Irish Archæological Miscellany, p. 253; Annals of the Four Masters, v. 1035, 1051; Register of St. Thomas's, Dublin, p. 423 (Rolls Ser.); Ware's Works, ii. 150, ed. Harris; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii. 114; Leland's History of Ireland, ii. 52, 62–3; Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland, pp. 380, 399, 407.]
SHEWEN, WILLIAM (1631?–1695), quaker, was born probably in Bermondsey, London, about 1631. In 1654 the quakers were meeting in the parlour of his house, in a yard at the sign of the Two Brewers in Bermondsey Street. Here he carried on his business of pin-maker. On 24 April 1674 he carried on a disputation with Jeremiah Ives [q. v.] in the market-place at Croydon. On 4 March 1683, Horselydown meeting having been closed by the magistrates' order, the quakers assembled in the street, whereupon Shewen and some others were committed to Tooley Street counter as rioters. He removed to Enfield in 1686, and died there on 28 May 1695, being buried at Bunhill Fields. He married, in 1679, Ann Raper, a widow (d. 1706). In 1696 she gave 100l. to build a new meeting-house at Enfield, on condition of receiving interest for her life.
Shewen's publications include:
- ‘The Universality of the Light … asserted,’ 1674, 4to; this refers to the Croydon address of Ives.
- ‘William Penn and the Quaker in Unity, the Anabaptist mistaken and in Enmity,’ 1674, 4to, also in answer to Ives.
- ‘The True Christian's Faith and Experience briefly declared,’ 1675, 8vo; reprinted (with 4) 1679; reprinted 1767, 12mo, 1772, 1779; a new edit. London, 1806, 12mo; another edit. 1840; translated into German, with ‘A Few Words concerning Conscience,’ 1676–8, 12mo; extracts from it published by the Friends' Tract Association, London, 1850, 12mo.
- ‘A Few Words concerning Conscience,’ 1675, sm. 8vo.
- ‘A Small Treatise concerning Evil Thoughts and Imaginations,’ 1679, 8vo; reprinted (with 4) 1684, 12mo; also London, 1861, 12mo.
- ‘Counsel to the Christian Traveller,’ London, 1683, 8vo; reprinted 1764, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1769, 8vo; 4th edit. revised and corrected, to which is added ‘A Treatise concerning Thoughts,’ Dublin, 1771, 12mo; reprinted in America, Salem, 1793, 8vo, 6th edit. Dublin, 1827.
- ‘A Brief Testimony for Religion. … Presented to the consideration of all, but more especially those that may be chosen Members of Parliament, that they may see cause to concur with the King's Gracious Declaration for Liberty of Conscience,’ 1688, 4to.
[Whiting's Persecution Exposed, p. 239; Whitehead's Christian Progress, p. 594; Besse's Sufferings, i. 462, 689; Beck and Ball's London Friends' Meetings, pp. 215, 235, 301; Hildeburn's Issues of the Pennsylvania Press, i. 38; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books, ii. 567; Richard Davies's Autobiography, 7th ed. 1844, p. 24; Registers at Devonshire House.]
SHIELD, WILLIAM (1748–1829), musical composer, was born at Swalwell in the parish of Whickham, co. Durham, on 5 March 1748. From his father, William Shield, a music-master, he learned the elements of music. On his father's death in 1757 he was apprenticed to a boat-builder named Edward Davison of South Shields;
