presented with a gold medal by the society in 1758. But it is probable that he was less interested in the society as its sphere gradually became more technical and industrial. At any rate, he resigned his post as registrar of the society in 1760, and he seems to have retired to Maidstone about 1768, and there, under the auspices of Lord Romney, to have founded a local institution, ‘the Kentish Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge,’ on the lines of the Society of Arts. In 1783 the society was instrumental in improving the sanitation of Maidstone gaol, and so effectually rooting out the gaol fever, which had committed terrible ravages in the county. In the following year the grand jury publicly thanked Shipley and his coadjutors for their humane exertions (cf. J. M. Russell, Hist. of Maidstone, 1881). Shipley died at Manchester, aged 89, on 28 Dec. 1803 (European Mag. 1804, i. 78). A monument was erected to his memory in the north-west corner of All Saints' churchyard, Maidstone. A fine oil portrait by Richard Cosway is in the rooms of the Society of Arts, and a portrait, drawn and engraved by William Hincks, was prefixed to the Society's ‘Transactions’ (vol. iv. 1786). There is a mezzotint by Faber of a painting by Shipley of a man blowing a lighted torch.
[Roget's Hist. of the ‘Old Watercolour’ Soc. i. 138, 360; Foster's Alumni Oxon. s.v. ‘Shipley, Jonathan;’ Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Thornbury and Walford's Old and New London, iii. 133; Wheatley and Cunningham's London; Penny Cyclopædia, s.v. ‘Society;’ European Mag. November 1813; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 275; Rowles's Hist. of Maidstone, 1809, p. 85; Soc. of Arts Journal, 18 Aug. 1882 (paper by Mr. H. B. Wheatley).]
SHIPLEY, WILLIAM DAVIES (1745–1826), dean of St. Asaph, born 5 Oct. 1745, at Midgeham, Berkshire, was son of Dr. Jonathan Shipley [q. v.], bishop of St. Asaph, and nephew of William Shipley [q. v.] He was educated at Westminster and Winchester successively, and matriculated 21 Dec. 1763, at Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1769 and M.A. in 1771. Though liberal-minded churchmen, both father and son were great pluralists, and the former immediately after being made bishop of St. Asaph appointed his son vicar of Ysgeifiog, 19 March 1770. He was also made vicar of Wrexham 6 Feb. 1771, sinecure rector of Llangwm 11 April 1772, which he exchanged first for Corwen (1774–82), and subsequently for Llanarmon yn Ial (1782–1826), having meanwhile been also made chancellor of the diocese in 1773 and dean of St. Asaph 27 May 1774, all of which preferments, subject to the two exchanges mentioned, he held until his death. While he was dean the fabric of the cathedral at St. Asaph was repaired, the choir rebuilt (1780), and a reredos erected (1810).
Shipley appears to have early imbibed his father's principles of political freedom. In 1782 William (afterwards Sir William) Jones [q. v.], published a political tract of pronouncedly liberal tone, entitled ‘The Principles of Government, in a Dialogue between a Gentleman and a Farmer.’ Shipley, whose eldest sister had long been engaged to Jones and was married to him in April 1783, brought it to the notice of a county committee for Flint (a branch of one of the reforming associations of the day), who made it the subject of a vote of approbation. He also gave instructions for having it translated into Welsh (though he had not yet read it himself), but on hearing that its contents might be misinterpreted, he resolved to proceed no further in the business. The tory party in the county, led by the sheriff, the Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice, violently attacked him for his abandoned project at a county meeting on 7 Jan. 1783, whereupon Shipley caused a few copies of the tract to be reprinted at Wrexham, adding a brief preface in his own defence. At the instigation of the sheriff—the treasury having declined to prosecute—Shipley was indicted at the Wrexham great sessions in April 1783 for publishing a seditious libel, and the case came on for hearing on 1 Sept. before Lloyd Kenyon and Daines Barrington. In March 1784 it was removed by certiorari to the king's bench, and then remitted for trial at Shrewsbury, where it was finally heard before Mr. Justice Buller on 6 Aug. 1784. Buller directed that the jury was merely to find the publication and the truth of the innuendoes as laid; whether the words constituted a libel or not was for the court. Erskine, who had appeared for the dean from the first, vigorously resisted this view, and the verdict given was ‘Guilty of publishing, but whether a libel or not the jury do not find.’
In Michaelmas term Erskine, in an eloquent speech, argued for a new trial, which Lord Mansfield refused. Having down to this point fought the case chiefly on the lines of vindicating the rights of juries, Erskine now moved the court for arrest of judgment on the ground that no part of the publication was really criminal, a view which the court accepted, and the dean was at length discharged from the prosecution, which had lasted nearly two years. The news was received with great rejoicings, and bonfires were lit and houses illuminated as the dean
