[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Stanley; Dayes's Sketches of Modern Artists; Smith's Nollekens and his Times; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33404); Gent. Mag. 1790, ii. 866.]
SHERWIN, RALPH (1550–1581), Roman catholic divine, born at Radesley, near Langford, Derbyshire, in 1550, was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 22 Nov. 1571, and M.A. on 2 July 1574. He was made senior of the act celebrated in the latter year, ‘being then accounted an acute philosopher and an excellent Græcian and Hebrician’ (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 478). He left the university in 1575, and, proceeding to the English College at Douay, was ordained priest on 23 March 1576–7 (Records of the English Catholics, i. 8). Afterwards he proceeded to Rome, and his name stands as No. 1 in the diary of the English College in that city on 23 April 1579. He left it on 18 April 1580 for the English mission, in company with other priests, including Robert Parsons [q. v.] and Edmund Campion [q. v.], the first jesuits who came to this country. After exercising his priestly functions in London for a short time, he was arrested, and committed prisoner to the Marshalsea, being subsequently removed to the Tower, where he was several times examined and twice racked. He was a close prisoner for nearly a year, and during that time held several conferences with protestant ministers, sometimes in private, and at other times in public audience. In November 1581 he was arraigned before the queen's bench, with several other ecclesiastics, and charged with having conspired to procure the queen's deposition and death, and to promote rebellion at home and invasion of the realm from abroad. He was condemned to death, and executed at Tyburn, with Campion and Alexander Brian, on 1 Dec. 1581 (Stow, Annales, 1614, p. 694). He was beatified by Leo XIII on 29 Dec. 1886 (Tablet, 15 Jan. 1887, pp. 81, 82).
Peter White wrote ‘A Discouerie of the Jesuiticall opinion of Justification, guilefully vttered by Sherwyne at the time of his Execution,’ London, 1582, 8vo. To Sherwin has been erroneously attributed ‘An Account of the Disputations in Wisbech Castle between William Fulke of Cambridge and certain Roman Priests who were Prisoners there,’ a manuscript formerly in the possession of Richard Stanihurst (Dodd, Church Hist. ii. 131).
[Soon after his execution there appeared A true report of the death and martyrdome of M. Campion, Jesuite, & M. Sherwin & M. Bryan, preistes. … Observid and written by a Catholike preist which was present thereat [Douay? 1582], 8vo; another account was published by A[nthony] M[unday] [q. v.] , London, 1582, 8vo. See also Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), ii. 1171; Aquepontanus [Bridgewater] Concert. Eccl. Cathol. lib. ii. f. 87b; Catholic Spectator, 1824, i. 229; Challoner's Missionary Priests; Foley's Records, vi. 785; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, iv. 1349; Historia del Glorioso Martirio di diciotto Sacerdoti (Macerata, 1585); Lansdowne MS. 982, f. 25; Oxford Univ. Reg. i. 282; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 778; Records of the English Catholics, i. 440, ii. 477; Stanton's Menology, p. 577; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 667.]
SHERWIN, RALPH (1799–1830), actor, born in April 1799 at Bishop Auckland in Durham, received the rudiments of education in his birthplace, and subsequently at a school in Witton, presumably Witton-le-Wear. During five years he studied medicine in London and Edinburgh. His first appearance on the stage was made in York in July 1818, under Mansell. In the York company he remained two years, acting in Leeds, Hull, and Sheffield. He then went to Birmingham, under Bunn, losing his wardrobe when the theatre was burned down. At Brighton, under Brunton, he played low comedy and old men, subsequently rejoining Bunn at Leicester, and reappearing in the newly erected theatre in Birmingham. On 11 Feb. 1823, as Sherwin from York, he appeared at Drury Lane, playing Dandie Dinmont in ‘Guy Mannering’ to the Dominie Sampson of Liston. Engaged for three years, he acted Robin in ‘No Song no Supper,’ Paddock in ‘My Spouse and I,’ Diggory Delph in ‘Family Jars,’ and other parts. He was, on 12 Feb. 1825, the original Shock, a very poor shepherd, in Joseph Lunn's adaptation, ‘The Shepherd of Derwent Vale, or the Innocent Culprit;’ on 31 May Sam Sharpset in the ‘Slave’ to Macready's Gambia, and on 29 June Russet in the ‘Jealous Wife.’ Few opportunities were, however, given him, and at the end of the three years he seems not to have been re-engaged. Irregular habits were the reputed cause of his dismissal. He then took to driving a stage-coach, which he upset, returning for a short time to the stage. Sherwin had a fine face and figure, expressive features, and a voice smooth and powerful. He was a good mimic, could sketch likenesses with remarkable fidelity, and was an efficient representative of Yorkshire characters. His talent was, however, impaired by indulgence. He died in 1830, in Durham, at his father's house.
[Biography of the British Stage, 1824; Gent. Mag. 1830, ii. 376; Genest's Account of the English Stage.]
