The History of Wandsworth Common


Bloxam - Thomas Sheppard and Sophia Sheppard






Sheppard, Thomas. res. 1749. Matr. at Christ Church, 3 April, 1745, aged 17. Son of Thomas Sheppard of Amport, co. Southampton, Cler. B.A. 19 Oct. 1748. M.A. 7 June, 1751. B.D. 27 April, 1759. D.D. 27 May, 1762.

Prob. F. 1749-1770. Sen. D. of Arts, 1755, 1756. Bursar, 1757, 1766. Dean of Div. 1765. Vice-Pres. 1767.

Rector of Quarley, Hampshire.

Pres. to Ashbury, 21 Dec. 1758.

Pres. to Basingstoke, 21 Oct. 1768. Died 29 Jan. 1814, at Basingstoke, aged 86.

On a tombstone in Amport Churchyard is the following inscription:

Here lieth the body of Thomas Sheppard, D.D. son of Thomas and Sarah Sheppard, who died Jan. XXII, MDCCCXIV, aged LXXXVI. Also sacred to the memory of Sophia, widow of the Rev. Thomas Sheppard, D.D. Rector of Basingstoke and Quarley in this County. She died July 31, 1848, aged 79 years; for 50 years the unostentatious friend of the needy, and at her death the munificent Benefactress of Magdalen College, Oxford.

A.D. 1770. Jul. 14. Thomas Sheppard, S.T. P. Socius ad Ecclesiasticum Beneficium promotus a societate sponte recessit.

[PB:: A member promoted to the Ecclesiastical Beneficiary voluntarily withdrew from the society.]

V. P. Reg.

It is supposed that Dr. Sheppard was the last person who preached in the stone pulpit in St. John's Court.

This probably occurred in 1766.

In supremis tabulis Thomas Sheppard, S. T. P. olim Socius, necnon de Basingstoke in comitatu Hantoniensi, ita legavit, videlicet :

[PB: In the last tables, Thomas Sheppard, S. T. P. formerly Fellow, and also of Basingstoke in the county of Hampshire, bequeathed thus, viz.]

"I also do give and devise to my said wife (Sophia Routh) my copyhold estate at King's Sombornes during her natural • A.D. 1830. July 26. College Order. " That Mrs. Sheppard's offer of transferring the two Estates at Somborne, reserving to herself the

annual rents during her life, be accepted with best thanks of the Society."

270 D E M I E S . [1747.]

life, but upon condition that she shall renew and put in a life, if the College will permit, as often as one shall become vacant: and after the decease of my said wife, I give and devise the said copyhold estate to the President and Scholars of Magdalen College, Oxford, and their successors, in trust, for the benefit and annual increase of the Living Fund of the said College: and it is my wish that, as often as any life shall become vacant on the said copyhold estate, it shall be re- newed out of the Living Fund to which the profits thereof are to be appropriated.

"I also give ten pounds per annum out of the land tax of Basing, which I have purchased, in the name of the President and Scholars of Magdalen College, Oxford, for endowing a School at Basing on Dr. Bell's, or any other plan, to be approved of by the Vicar of Basingstoke, the said sum to be added to ten pounds per annum, already given, or to be given for the same purpose, by the President and Scholars of Magdalen College; and the Master or Mistress of the said School to be appointed by the Vicar of Basingstoke for the time being.

"I give also to the President and Scholars aforesaid, and their successors, sixty pounds per annum, to be given to three undergraduate Demies of the said College, the sons of Clergymen, whose fathers shall not be possessed of more than three hundred pounds per annum; and if there are no such undergraduate Demies, then to such as the President, Vice-President, and Dean of Divinity of the said College, shall in their discretion think most in want, and deserving for their good conduct and behaviour.

"I also give sixty pounds per annum to the President and Scholars of Magdalen College, Oxford, and their successors, upon trust, to dispose of the same in the education of sons of Clergymen, who are Choristers of the said College, till they are of standing for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, but not more than thirty pounds for the benefit of any one; and in case there are no sons of Clergymen to be educated for the University among the Choristers, then I desire the said sixty

[1747.] DEMIES. 271

pounds per annum to be applied in placing out any Chorister, the son of a Clergyman, an apprentice at the age of fourteen< or fifteen years, at the discretion of the said President and Scholars."

V. P. Reg.

His widow, Sophia, died at Amport, 30 July, 1848, aged 79, and was buried at Amport on the following Sunday.

"The Fellows of Magdalen College, deeply impressed with gratitude to Mrs. Sheppard for her repeated attention to the interests of their Society, beg leave to express their most sincere thanks for the same, and particularly for her recent munificence in adding to their patronage the Benefice of Ashurst." Oxford, Nov. 11, 1820. Signed in behalf of the College, T. N. Blagden, Vice-Pres.

A.D. 1820. Nov. 11. Domina Sheppard advocationem de Ashurst in comitatu Sussex largienti Magdalenensibus gratice sunt exsoluta.

V. P. Reg.

[PB: Mrs. Sheppard's advocacy of Ashurst, in the county of Sussex, was graciously discharged by the generous Magdalenians.]

A.D. 1830. Spectatissima et honestissima matrona, Domina Sheppard, Thoma Sheppard, S.T. P. olim Socii, vidua, Dni Presidis soror, propensam suam, quam (tum alias, tum prasertim anno 1820, Ecclesia de Ashurst Vicaria nobis largiendâ) anteà voluntatem declaraverat, novo adhuc beneficio in Collegium collato, vivens ultro cumulavit. Mancipato, scilicet, nobis libero quodam prodio suo (nostratibus freehold appellato) apud Kings-Somborne in comitatu Hantoniensi; cum omni etiam quod in servum, sive aliene ditioni obnoxium, alterum, (quale nos copyhold vocamus) ibidem loci situm, ipsa jus haberet; (hoc quidem ex Mariti testamento post suum tandem obitum nobis possidendum) reservatis tantum sibi quamdiu superstes fuerit amborum annuis reditibus

[PB:: AD 1830. The most respected and respectable mistress, Mrs. Sheppard, Thomas Sheppard, S.T. P. once a Fellow, the widow, the sister of the Lord President, had previously declared her will (both at other times, and especially in 1820, when the Vicar of Ashurst Church had given us a gift), she still accumulated a new benefice in the College, living on the other side. Freehold, of course, by giving us a freehold of his own (called by us freehold) at Kings-Somborne in the county of Hampshire; with every thing that is a slave, or subject to the dominion of another, another (such as we call a copyhold) situated in the same place, she herself would have the right; (this, indeed, from the will of the husband, after his death, to be ours at last) reserved for himself only as long as he survived the annual income of both.]

V. P. Reg.

A.D. 1838. June 19. That the warm and respectful thanks of the Society be conveyed to Mrs. Sheppard for her munificent benefaction to the Society in the payment of £4000, being the purchase money for the perpetual Presentation to East Bridgeford. College Order.


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