[1625-62.] Took up his freedom June 9th, 1623. [Arber, iii. 685.] He appears to have had shops in various parts of London, and was the publisher of much of the best literature of the period, including Alexander Brome's Cunning Lovers, 1654; John Cleveland's Poems, 1659; Phineas Fletcher's Sicelides, 1631; Thomas May's version of Lucan's Pharsalia, 1651; Quarles' Divine Fancies, 1632. Sheares was suspected of having had a hand in printing Leicester's Commonwealth, a notorious satire on the House of Lords. [Domestic State Papers, Chas. I, vol. 484 (75).] He died September 21st, 1662. [Smyth's Obituary, p. 56.]
SHELMERDINE (RALPH), bookseller in Manchester, 1661-3. Son of William Shelmerdine, bookseller in Manchester. [Fishwick, Lancashire Library, p. 398, n.] His name occurs in the imprint to the Rev. R. Heyrick's Sermon, 1661. [E. 1088 (9).] Also mentioned as a bookseller in an advertisement of patent medicines in The Intelligencer and Newes of 1663.
SHEPERD, see Shepheard.
SHEPHEARD, or SHEPERD (HENRY), bookseller in London, (1) Bible, Chancery Lane [Sayle, 1149]; (2) Bible in Tower Street [on Tower Hill]. 1635-46. Took up his freedom September 15th, 1634. [Arber, iii. 687.] Publisher of plays and political tracts. Associated with W. Lee.
SHERLEY, see Shirley.
SHIRLEY, or SHERLEY (JOHN), bookseller in London; Golden Pelican in Little Britain, 1644-66. His name is found on the following among other books: W. Lilly's Prophecy of the White King, 1644, and Saml. Parker's Tentamina Physico-Theologica, 1665. [Ames Collection, 3267.] Smyth in his Obituary (p. 71), has this record, January 23rd, 16656, "Mr. John Shirley, bookseller in Little Britain, hora 10 sub nocte, died."
SHIRLEY, or SHERLEY (REBECCA), bookseller in London; Little Britain (? Golden Pelican), 1666. Probably the widow of John Shirley. Mentioned in the Hearth Tax Roll for the half-year ending Lady Day, 1666, as a bookseller in Little Britain [P.R.O. Lay Subsidy, 25232.]
