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Taverner in the same set of part-books. As these are the only known instances of masses by English composers upon a secular theme, it is probable that they were composed at the same time and in friendly emulation. Another mass, ‘Cantate,’ is in the part-books at the music school, Oxford. All these masses begin with the ‘Gloria,’ and contain no ‘Kyrie eleison.’ A separate ‘Kyrie’ by Shepherd in Addit. MSS. 30480–4 is called by the copyist ‘the best songe in England.’ Addit. MSS. 15166, 29289, and 31390 contain Anglican church music by Shepherd. There are thirty-nine Latin motets and an anthem by Shepherd at Christ Church. Several others are in Baldwin's manuscript at Buckingham Palace, among them an anthem ‘Steven first after Christ,’ a very weak production, which Hawkins unfortunately selected for publication in his ‘History of Music.’ Burney naturally objected to such a misrepresentation of Shepherd's powers. But the worst faults which Burney adduced in the composition prove upon collation with Baldwin's manuscript to be due to a misprint in Hawkins. Burney by way of reparation printed an ‘Esurientes’ by Shepherd, from the Christ Church part-books, and on the strength of it pronounced Shepherd the best composer of Henry VIII's reign (cf. Ambros, Geschichte der Musik, ed. Kade, iii. 458, 460, who, however, did not notice that ‘Shephard,’ as Hawkins spelt the name, was the same as Shepherd). The appendix to Hawkins's ‘History’ contains a short but charming ‘Poynte’ by Shepherd, from the Mulliner manuscript.

Morley (Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, 1597, p. 151) reckons Shepherd with Fayrfax, Taverner, W. Mundy, Tye, Tallis, Whyte, and Byrd, as the ‘famous Englishmen nothing inferior to the best masters on the continent.’ Shepherd, who was probably born after 1520, must, however, be reckoned among the Elizabethan rather than the pre-Reformation musicians, and was hardly equal to several composers of the more advanced period.

[Bloxam's Registers of Magdalen College, vol. ii.; Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, col. 709; Hawkins's History of Music, c. 76, 113, and appendix; Burney's General History of Music, ii. 565, 587, iii. 4–6; Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ii. 422, iii. 271, 486; Weale's Descriptive Catalogue of the Music Loan Exhibition of 1885, p. 160; Davey's History of English Music, pp. 135, 148, 166; MSS. and works quoted.]


SHEPHERD, JOHN (1759–1805), divine, son of Richard Shepherd of Goderthwaite, Cumberland, was born in 1759 at Beckermet in Cumberland. He received his education at Arthuret, near Longtown, and in November 1777 matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1781 and M.A. in 1787. In 1782 he took deacon's orders, in 1783 was ordained priest, and early in 1785 obtained the curacy of Paddington, London. Through his exertions the church was rebuilt between 1788 and 1791. In 1797 he brought out the first volume of his ‘Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer.’ The first edition was exhausted before the second volume was ready for the press. A second edition of the first volume was prepared and issued with the first edition of the second in 1798. In 1799 Bishop Beilby Porteus [q. v.] conferred on him the perpetual curacy of Pattiswick in Essex. He died at Stisted on 2 May 1805. In 1783 he married Frances, niece of his guardian, John Benson of Egremont, Cumberland. At the time of his death he was engaged on a third volume of his ‘Elucidation,’ but it was never published. A fifth edition of the first volume and a fourth of the second appeared in 1836.

[Memoir by Eliza Shepherd in the 3rd edition of vol. i. of the Elucidation; Foster's Alumni Oxon. (later series); Gent. Mag. 1860, i. 491.]


SHEPHERD, LUKE (fl. 1548–1554), poet, born at Colchester in Essex, is called by Bale and others ‘Opilio,’ a latinised form of his surname. Bale considered his poetry, which was chiefly of a satirical character, not inferior to Skelton's (Scriptorum Illustrium Majoris Britanniæ Catalogus, ed. 1557–1559, p. 109). He may with great probability be identified with a certain ‘Doctor Luke,’ a physician of Colman Street, and a friend of Edward Underhill [q. v.] and other early reformers. According to Strype, Luke was imprisoned in the Fleet in Henry VIII's reign for some of his pamphlets (Ecclesiastical Memorials, 1822, II. i. 181–3). In 1548 he published a poem entitled ‘John Bon and the Mast Person,’ printed by John Day, an extremely powerful satire directed against the real presence. It was reprinted in facsimile, by J. Smeeton, in 1807 from the only copy extant, formerly in the possession of Richard Forster, and in 1852 it was edited for the Percy Society by William Henry Black (Early English Poetry, vol. xxx.). It is in the form of a conversation (in 164 rhyming lines) ‘more resembling the religious plays of John Bale than the poetry of Skelton.’ Sir John Gresham, lord mayor of London in 1547–8, was much incensed by the accounts given him of the book, and de-