to John Jackson, on the sale of whose library it was bought by the British Museum, where it now forms ff. 72–97 of Addit. MS. 5467. It was printed by Pinkerton in the appendix to vol. i. of his ‘Ancient Scotish Poems’ (1786), separately in 1818, and again in 1837 by the Maitland Club. The same manuscript contains two other translations by Shirley. 2. ‘De Bonis Moribus’ (ff. 97–210), translated out of the French of John de Wiegnay. 3. ‘Secreta Secretorum,’ or the ‘Governance of Princes’ (ff. 211–24), translated out of the Latin.
Shirley's main importance was as a transcriber of the works of Chaucer, Lydgate, and others. His collections of their poems, including one or two by himself, are extant in Harl. MSS. 78, 7333, Addit. MS. 16165, Ashmole MS. 59, Trin. Coll. Cambr. MS. R 3, 20, and the Sion MS. of Chaucer, and it is on his authority that the following works are attributed to Chaucer: the ‘A.B.C.,’ the ‘Complaint to Pity,’ the ‘Complaint of Mars,’ the ‘Complaint of Anelida,’ the ‘Lines to Adam,’ ‘Fortune,’ ‘Truth,’ ‘Gentilnesse,’ ‘Lak of Stedfastnesse,’ the ‘Complaint of Venus,’ and the ‘Complaint to his Empty Purse’ (Skeat, Chaucer, i. 25, 53–9, 73). Harl. MS. 2251, often ascribed to Shirley, was written in Edward IV's reign, parts of it being copied from one of Shirley's MSS.
[Cat. Harl. MSS. and Addit. MSS.; Black's Cat. Ashmole MS. cols. 95–104; Bernard's Cat. MSS. Angliæ; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.; Warton's Engl. Poetry, 1840, ii. 389; Ritson's Bibl. Anglo-Poet. pp. 101–2; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 22, vii. 30. See also arts. Chaucer, Geoffrey and Lydgate, John.]
SHIRLEY, JOHN (1648–1679), author, son of John Shirley, bookseller, of London, was born in the parish of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, on 7 Aug. 1648. He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 17 March 1665, became a scholar in 1667, graduated B.A. on 18 Feb. 1668 and M.A. on 28 Nov. 1671, and in 1673 acted as terræ filius. Soon after he was elected a probationary fellow, but was expelled for immoral conduct before his term of probation had expired. He returned to London, and, having married the daughter of an innkeeper of Islington, made a livelihood by correcting for the press. He died at Islington on 28 Dec. 1679. He was the author of ‘The Life of the Valiant and Learned Sir Walt. Raleigh, Kt., with his Trial at Winchester,’ London, 1677, 8vo.
He has been identified with one John Shirley, M.D. (fl. 1678), who wrote: 1. ‘A short Compendium of Chirurgery,’ London, 1678, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1683. 2. ‘The Art of Rowling and Bolstring,’ London, 1682, 8vo; though the two are more probably distinct (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1220).
A third John Shirley (fl. 1680–1702), miscellaneous writer, said, on very doubtful evidence, to be a son of James Shirley [q. v.], the dramatist (Hunter, Chorus Vatum, iii. 420), was the author of: 1. ‘An Abridgment of the History of Guy, Earl of Warwick,’ London, 1681, 4to, Brit. Mus. 2. ‘The History of Reynard the Fox; in heroic verse,’ London, 1681, 8vo. 3. ‘Ecclesiastical History Epitomised,’ London, 1682, 8vo. 4. ‘The Honour of Chivalry,’ London, 1683, 4to. 5. ‘The Illustrious History of Women,’ London, 1686, 12mo. 6. ‘A True Account of the Enterprise of the Confederate Princes against the Turks and Hungarian Rebels,’ London, 1686, 4to. 7. ‘The Accomplished Lady's Rich Closet of Rarities,’ London, 1687, 12mo. 8. ‘The Triumph of Wit,’ London, 1688, 8vo; 8th edit. 1724, 12mo. 9. ‘An Abridgment of the History of Amadis of Gaul,’ London, 1702, 12mo. 10. ‘Great Britain's Glory: an abridgment of the “History of King Arthur,”’ London, 4to.
[Lowndes's Bibl. Manual, ii. 2387; Gray's Index to Hazlitt; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]
SHIRLEY, LAURENCE, fourth Earl Ferrers (1720–1760), born on 18 Aug. 1720, was the eldest son of the Hon. Laurence Shirley, by his wife Anne, fourth daughter of Sir Walter Clarges, bart. His father was youngest son of Robert Shirley, first earl Ferrers. Walter Shirley [q. v.] was a younger brother. Laurence matriculated at Oxford from Christ Church on 28 April 1737, but left the university without taking a degree. He succeeded to the title as fourth earl on the death of his uncle Henry in August 1745, and took his seat in the House of Lords on 21 Oct. following (Journals of the House of Lords, xxvi. 510). No speech of his is to be found in the ‘Parliamentary History,’ but he entered a protest against the war in Flanders on 2 May 1746, and another against the bill for the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in Scotland on 21 May 1747 (Rogers, Protests of the Lords, 1875, ii. 45–51).
Though his behaviour was occasionally eccentric, Ferrers seems to have been quite capable of managing his own affairs. He married, on 16 Sept. 1752, Mary, youngest daughter of Amos Meredith, and granddaughter of Sir William Meredith, bart., of Henbury, Cheshire. She obtained an act of separation from him for cruelty on 20 June 1758, when the Ferrers estates were vested in trustees, a certain John Johnson, her husband's steward, who had been in the service
