former he 'abused daily in the papers' (WALPOLE, Last Journals, 19 March 1777).

In 1774, in reflecting on some speeches lately delivered by Thomas Townshend (afterwards Lord Sydney) and Councillor Lee, he took occasion to cast aspersions on the character and reputation of William III, Algernon Sidney, and other whig heroes, as viewed in the light of the recently published Memorials' of Sir John Dalrymple (1726-1810) [q. v.] An answer appeared as an appendix to a Letter to Dr. Johnson on his late Political Publications,' 1775, by a 'Doctor of Laws' (Hugh Baillie). Despite a protest made by Fox in the House of Commons on 16 Feb. 1774 (Parl. Hist. xvii. 1058), the names of Johnson and Shebbeare were usually coupled in whig pasquinades. It was said that the king had pensioned both a He-bear and a She-bear (BOSWELL, Johnson, ed. Hill, iv. 113). In 1776 Wilkes spoke of them as the two famous doctors' who were 'the state hirelings called pensioners,' and whose names 'disgraced the civil list' (Parl. Hist. xix. 118). Mason the poet, writing under the pseudonym Malcolm Macgregor,' in 1777 addressed a scathing'epistle' to Shebbeare, as

The same abusive, base, abandoned thing When pilloried or pensioned by a king (cf. WALPOLE, Letters, vi. 453). Nor did Shebbeare's own political friends altogether spare him. His sudden transition from pillory to pension was glanced at in Humphry Clinker,' and he is the 'Ferret' of Smollett's 'Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves.' Shebbeare seems to have shared Johnson's dislike to Scotsmen. He criticised adversely Smollett's History,' and assailed the Scotch gentlemen criticks' of the 'Critical Review,' then conducted by Smollett (see the Occasional Critic, 1757). In the revised edition of the History,' however, the passage relating to Shebbeare's prosecution in 1758 is curiously laudatory (HUME and SMOLLETT'S Hist. of Engl., 1855, x. 186). Hogarth, also one of George III's pensioners, introduced Shebbeare as one of the figures in his third Election print. Frances Burney met him in 1774 at the house of Catherine Reid, a Scottish portrait-painter, and has recorded a specimen of his conversation in her 'Early Diary.' It was marked by extraordinary coarseness, and consisted chiefly of abuse of women and Scotsmen, whom he declared to be 'the two greatest evils upon earth.' The last production by Shebbeare was' The Pole Cat, or C. Jennings, the Renegade Schoolmaster... Detected,' 1783, 8vo.

Shebbeare died on 1 Aug. 1788 in Eaton

Street, Pimlico. He married young and unhappily. His son John, born in 1737, matriculated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford, on 28 Oct. 1758, and graduated B.C.L. in 1765. After having been incumbent of Caston, Norfolk, he died rector of East Horndon, Essex, on 7 Feb. 1794 (FOSTER, Alumni Oxon.) He wrote "The Ornaments of Churches considered, with particular view to the late Decoration of St. Margaret's, Westminster' (NICHOLS, Lit. Anecd. viii. 457).

Shebbeare's writings generally are vigorous and well informed, and in scurrility go little, if at all, beyond those of the chief polemical writers of the day. Walpole admitted that his pen was 'not without force,' and Boswell, who was introduced to him by General Oglethorpe, thought 'his knowledge and abilities much above the class of ordinary writers.' Besides the works mentioned, he published: 1. 'A Love Epistle in Verse found at Paris,' 1753, 4to; reissued in 1756. 2. Lydia, or Filial Piety: a novel,' 4 vols. 12mo, 1755; 2nd edit. 2 vols. 1769; another edit. 1786. 3. Authentic Narrative of the Oppressions of the Islanders of Jersey, to which is prefixed a succinct History of the Military Actions, Constitution, &c., of that Island,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1771. 4. Address to the Privy Council pointing out an effectual remedy to the Complaints of the Islanders of Jersey,' 1772, 8vo. 5. Tyranny of the Magistrates of Jersey ... demonstrated from Records of their Courts,' 1772, 8vo. 6. Answer to the Printed Speech of Edmund Burke, esq. in the House of Commons, April 19, 1774,' 1775, 8vo. 7. Essay on the Origin, Progress, and Establishment of National Society; in which the principles of Government . . contained in Dr. Price's observations are examined and refuted; together with a justification of the Legislature in reducing America to obedience by force; to which is added an appendix on the excellent and admirable in Mr. Burke's speech of 22 March 1775,' 1776, 8vo.

Also the following medical works: 1. 'The Practice of Physick, founded on principles in Physiology and Pathology hitherto unapplied in Physical Enquiries' (undated). 2. Candid Enquiry into the Merits of Dr. Cadogan's Dissertation on the Gout; with appendix containing a certain Cure for Gont,' 1772, 8vo.

The full list given in the 'European Magazine' numbers thirty-five pieces. Wadd (Nuga Chirurgica') wrongly attributes to Shebbeare Charles Johnstone's Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea.' "The Memoirs of a Lady of Quality' [see VANE, FRANCES, VISCOUNTESS VANE], which Smollett in

troduced into 'Peregrine Pickle,' has also been erroneously assigned to him.

His portrait, engraved by Bromley for the 'European Magazine,' depicts him in a fez

and loose coat.

[See European Magazine, 1788, ii. 83-7, 167, 168 (works), 244-5, 283-6 (character of Clarendon, now first published'); Gent. Mag. 1788, p. 753; Lowndes's Bibliogr. Manual; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Answer to the Queries contained in a Letter to Dr. Shebbeare, &c.; Boswell's Johnson, ed. Hill, iii. 315, iv. 112-13, 214, 318n.; Almon's Anecdotes, i. 373, 376; Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, iii. 54, 74, iv. 262; Memoirs of George II, pp. 153-4, and of George III (Barker), i. 1412. 262; Early Diary of Frances Burney, ed. A. R. Ellis, i. 275-9; Cunningham's Biogr. Hist. of Engl. v. 389-94; Chalmers's Biogr. Diet.; Wright's England under the House of Hanover, i. 284, 373.]

G. LE G. N. SHEDDEN-RALSTON, WILLIAM RALSTON (1828-1889), Russian scholar. [See RALSTON.]

SHEE, SIR MARTIN ARCHER (17691850), portrait-painter and president of the Royal Academy, born in Dublin on 20 Dec. 1769, was the younger surviving son of Martin Shee, a merchant in Dublin, and Mary, daughter of John Archer of Dublin, his wife. His grandfather, George Shee of Castlebar, co. Mayo, belonged to an old Irish catholic family claiming to be the same stock as the family of O'Shea. Shee lost his mother in his early infancy, and, as his father (who died in 1783) was afflicted by blindness, he was brought up chiefly by his maternal aunt, Mrs. McEvoy (afterwards Mrs. Dillon). He received a classical education in Dublin; but, displaying a strong inclination to drawing, he was allowed to enter as a pupil in the drawing academy of the Royal Dublin Society, under Robert Lucius West, where his rapid progress insured him permission to adopt painting as a profession. On leaving West's school he set up for himself as a portrait-painter, beginning in crayons, and afterwards in oils, and obtained some employment in fashionable circles at Dublin. He also had a predilection for the stage, which he maintained throughout life. In 1788 he was induced by Gilbert Charles Stuart [q. v.], the American portrait-painter, to go and seek his fortune in London, where he arrived on 29 June of that year. Though furnished with recommendations to Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Opie, and other notable people, Shee met with little success in London, and was reduced to making engravers' copies for Macklin the publisher. On the advent, however, in Londen of his cousin, Sir George Shee, a rich

Indian nabob, and also with the assistance of Alexander Pope [q. v.], the actor, Shee obtained a second and more successful introduction to Burke, which led to another interview with Reynolds, and to Shee being entered as a student in the Royal Academy in March 1790. From this time his career was one of steady progress in his art, that of portrait-painting, to which he almost entirely devoted himself. The quality of his work was quickly recognised, and he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy on 3 Nov. 1798, and a full academician on 10 Feb. 1800. His sitters were drawn from the royal family and every rank of society, and his education and literary accomplishments obtained him an entry into the most select circles of culture and fashion. In 1802 he visited Paris, where his knowledge of the French language was of great use to him. In 1805 Shee published a poem of a Painter,' which reached three editions, entitled 'Rhymes on Art, or the Remonstrance and in 1809 a sequel to it, entitled 'Elements in Art,' a poem in six cantos, in which his very conservative views upon painting are set forth. In 1807 he was largely concerned in the foundation of the British Institution. Among his acquaintances was Lord Byron, who in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers' paid a tribute (perhaps in a satirical vein) to Shee in the lines:

And here let Shee and genius find a place,
Whose pen and pencil yield an equal grace;
To guide whose hand, the sister arts combine,
And trace the poet's, as the painter's line;—
Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow,
And pour the easy rhyme's harmonious flow,
While honours, doubly merited, attend
The poet's rival, but the painter's friend.

During the first half of his life Shee's fame was overshadowed by that of his more brilliant rival, Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. Although Shee's numerous portraits lack the grace and vigour of Lawrence's, they are often more solidly painted and more estimable as works of art, being impressive rather than interesting. On the death of Lawrence in 1830, the coveted post of painter-in-ordinary to the crown was conferred upon Sir David Wilkie, but Shee was elected by a large majority of votes to be president of the Royal Academy, for which, besides his sound qualities as a painter, his dignified demeanour and his social and literary gifts rendered him well fitted. He received the honour of knighthood shortly after. During his tenure of office the academy was removed from the apartments which had been granted to it by the king in Somerset House to what

proved to be a temporary residence in Trafalgar Square. Frequent attacks of a very violent nature were made during this time in the press and in parliament upon the Royal Academy and its administration, throughout which Shee acted with great dignity and determination as defender and spokesman in support of the academy and its privileges. Although Shee cannot be said to have assisted the progress of art, the Royal Academy owes to him a great debt for his conduct as president, both in internal as well as external affairs. Among other services to the academy Shee introduced the practice of giving a written discourse to the students at the biennial distribution of medals, and of inviting distinguished guests to attend this ceremony. When, at the age of seventy-six, in 1845 he resigned the presidential chair, a unanimous address was presented to him by the academicians and associates to continue in office, which he felt unable to refuse. He continued therefore to hold the office until his death at Brighton on 19 Aug. 1850. A public funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral was desired by the royal academicians, but at Shee's own request he was buried in the cemetery at Brighton. Shee married, on 19 Dec. 1796, at Paddington church, Mary (d. 1846), eldest daughter of James Power of Youghal, by whom he left three sons and three daughters. His wife received, on 30 Sept. 1845, a civil list pension of 2007. which was settled jointly on her death on her three daughters.

In addition to the poem mentioned above Shee published Commemoration of Reynolds, and other Poems' (1814) and two novels'Oldcourt' (1829) and 'Cecil Hyde' (1834). In 1823 Shee completed a tragedy entitled 'Alasco,' based on the partition of Poland, which was accepted by Charles Kemble and put in rehearsal at Covent Garden Theatre; but, to everybody's surprise, the play was prohibited in the following year by the examiner of plays, George Colman the younger [q. v.] The inoffensive play was published in 1824. Among the learned and cultured societies of which Shee was a member were the Royal Society and the Society of Dilettanti. He was elected a member of the latter on 4 July 1830, when he succeeded Sir Thomas Lawrence as painter to the society. In that capacity he painted the portrait of John B. Sawrey Morritt [q. v.], in his robes as archmaster of the ceremonies to the society, which may be regarded as one of his best works. In the National Gallery there is a portrait by Shee of William Thomas Lewes the comedian as the Marquis in the Midnight Hour,' painted in 1791; and in the National

SHEE, SIR WILLIAM (1804-1868), judge, born at Finchley, Middlesex, on 24 June 1804, was the eldest son of Joseph Shee of Thomastown, co. Kilkenny, and of Laurence Pountney Place in the city of London, merchant, by his wife Teresa, daughter of John Darell of Scotney Castle, Kent. He was sent at a very early age to a French school at Somers Town, kept by the Abbé Carron, the friend and early counsellor of Lamennais. Thence he went in 1818 to St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, near Durham, where his cousin Nicholas (afterwards Cardinal) Wiseman was then a student. He subsequently attended lectures at the university of Edinburgh, and became a member of the Speculative Society. He was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 31 May 1823, and studied law in the chambers of Mr. Chitty, the wellknown special pleader. On 19 June 1828 he was called to the bar, where he gradually acquired an extensive practice. He led with great power and success the Maidstone sessions, and on taking the coif 'obtained a considerable lead upon the home circuit' (BALLANTINE, Some Experiences of a Barrister's Life, 1882, p. 171). He took the degree of serjeant-at-law on 19 Feb. 1840, received a patent of precedence in Trinity vacation 1845, and was appointed queen's serjeant in 1857.

Shee was a moderate and consistent liberal throughout his life. Soon after his call to the bar he distinguished himself by an eloquent speech in favour of catholic emancipation, at the great protestant meeting held on Pennenden Heath, near Maidstone, on 24 Nov. 1828. He unsuccessfully contested the borough of Marylebone at the general election in July 1847. In July 1852 he obtained a seat in the House of Commons for the county of Kilkenny, which he continued to represent until the dissolution of parliament in March 1857. Shee spoke in the house for the first time on 12 Nov. 1852, during the debate on the report on the address (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. cxxiii. 139-41). In the absence of William Sharman Crawford [q. v.] from parliament, Shee took charge of the Tenant Right Bill, which he reintroduced on 25 Nov. 1852 (ib pp. 529, 530). On 7 Dec. following he made a long and exhaustive speech on Napier's Tenants' Im

provement Compensation Bill (ib. pp. 10891123). On the same day the Tenant Right Bill was read a second time, but it was subsequently condemned by the select committee, to which it and Napier's scheme of Irish land reform had been referred. On 16 Feb. 1854 Shee brought in a bill which, with the exception of three clauses, was the exact counterpart of Sharman Crawford's bill of the previous session (ib. 3rd ser. cxxx. 770-7), but it met with little encouragement. On 13 June in the same year Shee moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the laws relating to the temporalities of the church of Ireland, and to increase the means of religious instruction and church accommodation in that country. This motion was, however, rejected after a debate of three nights by a majority of eighty-six votes (ib. 3rd ser. cxxxiv. 116–36). Convinced of the impossibility of carrying Sharman Crawford's bill through parliament, Shee, with Sharman Crawford's concurrence, on 20 Feb. 1855 brought in a Tenants' Improvement_Compensation Bill, founded on two of Sir Joseph Napier's bills as amended by the select committee of 1853 (ib. 3rd ser. cxxxvi. 1634-44). This bill also met with but little success, and was ultimately dropped. Owing to the unpopularity which he incurred by the abandonment of Sharman Crawford's measure, Shee lost his seat for Kilkenny county at the general election in April 1857, and he was again defeated there at the general election in May 1859. In 1860 he refused the offer of the chief-justiceship of Madras. He was nominated as a candidate at the by-election for Stoke-upon-Trent in September 1862, but he only received thirty-two votes.

Shee was an earnest and conscientious advocate, and an able though somewhat heavy speaker. He possessed an extensive knowledge of the law, as well as a large share of sound common-sense, and his genial manners made him very popular with all those who came into contact with him. He was counsel in most of the famous trials of his day. He conducted the defence of William Palmer (1824-1856) [q.v.], and he appeared on behalf of the plaintiff in the famous Roupell case. In the former case he incurred considerable blame for avowing in his speech his own belief in Palmer's innocence. On 19 Dec. 1863 he was appointed by Lord Westbury a justice of the court of queen's bench in the place of Sir William Wightman, and on 10 June 1864 he received the honour of knighthood (London Gazette, 1863 p. 6645, 1864 p. 3072). He was the first Roman catholic who had been promoted to the English bench since the Revolution. After sitting on the bench

for little more than four years, he died from an attack of apoplexy on 19 Feb. 1868, at his residence in Sussex Place, Hyde Park Gardens, London, aged 63.

He married at Paris, on 26 Dec. 1837, Mary, second daughter of Sir James Gordon, bart., of Gordonstown and Letterfourie, Banffshire, by whom he had, with other issue, two sons, viz. George Darell Shee [see below], and Henry Gordon Shee, Q.C., recorder of Burnley, and judge of the Salford Hundred court of record. Lady Shee died on 11 Oct. 1861, aged 45.

He edited several editions of Lord Tenterden's Treatise of the Law relative to Merchant Ships and Seamen' [see ABBOTT, CHARLES, first LORD TENTERDEN], and Samuel Marshall's Treatise on the Law of Insurance.' He was the author of: 1. 'Reflections on the Trial of the Prince de Polignac and his Colleagues before the Chamber of Peers of France in 1830... In a Letter addressed to an Advocate of the Cour Royale at Paris,' London, 1836, 8vo. 2. The Act for the more effectual Application of Charitable Donations and Bequests in Ireland (7 & 8 Vict. cap. xcvii.), with Notes explanatory of the alteration introduced by it into the Law of Ireland, and some notice of the Law of England and Scotland relating to the same subject,' London, 1845, 8vo. 3. 'Three Letters addressed to the Rev. J. Fitzpatrick on the Justice and Policy of appropriating a portion of the Revenues of the Irish Protestant Church to the Increase and Maintenance of Church Accommodation for the Catholic People of Ireland,' London, 1849, 8vo. 4. 'The Church of Rome in Ireland in its relation to the State, with Remarks on the Question of the Endowment of the Roman Catholic Clergy,' London, 1849, 8vo. 5. A Letter to the Hon. A. Kinnaird [on Church of England] Missions to the Roman Catholics of Ireland," London, 1852, 8vo. 6. The Irish Church; being a Digest of the Returns of the Prelates, Dignitaries, and Beneficed Clergy,' &c., London and Dublin, 1852, 8vo; a second edition, the preface of which is dated 5 Sept. 1863, was published in that or the following year. 7. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 104, and the Merchant Shipping Repeal Act, 1854, 17 & 18 Vict. cap. 120, with a Notice explanatory of the principal alterations made by them in the Statute Law now in force relating to Merchant Shipping, being a Supplement to the ninth edition of Abbott on the Law of Merchant Ships and Seamen,' London, 1854, 8vo. 8. 'The Tenants' Improvements Compensation (Ireland) Bill,' London, 1855, 8vo. 9. A Proposal for Religious Equality in Ireland, and for a charitable

6

Settlement of the Irish Church Question,' Dublin, 1857, 8vo. 10. Papers and Letters on Subjects of Literary, Historical, and Political Interest, and Speeches at Public Meetings, in Parliament, and at the Bar,'vol.i., London, 1862, 8vo, privately printed. 11. 'Papers, Letters, and Speeches in the House of Commons on the Irish Land Question, with a Summary of its Parliamentary History from the General Election of 1852 to the close of the Session of 1863,' London, 1863, 8vo. This is practically the second volume of Shee's Papers and Letters,' but though 'vol. ii.' appears on the original cloth cover, it is absent from the title-page.

GEORGE DARELL SHEE (1843-1894), eldest son of the above, born on 12 July 1843, was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated LL.B. in 1866. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 6 Nov. 1862, and was called to the bar on 30 April 1867. He joined the south-eastern circuit, became district probate registrar for East Suffolk, and in July 1883 was appointed recorder of Hythe. He married, on 14 Oct. 1873, Jane, eldest daughter of Harry Innes of Thomastown, and died at Landguard Lodge, Felixstowe, on 15 Dec. 1894. He was the author of A Remonstrance,' Dublin, 1886, 8vo, which was addressed to Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, in reply to his attack on Sir W. Shee, in a book entitled 'The League of the North and South.'

[Authorities in text; R. B. O'Brien's Parl. Hist. of the Irish Land Question, 1880, pp. 91102; T. P. O'Connor's Parnell Movement, 1886, pp. 188-94; Ewald's Life and Letters of Sir James Napier, 1892, pp. 70-82; Sir C. G. Duffy's League of North and South, 1886; Foss's Judges of England, 1864, ix. 265-6; Serjeant Robinson's Bench and Bar Reminiscences, 1891, p. 63; Wills's Irish Nation, 1875, iv. 48-9; Law Mag: and Review, new ser. i. 304-25; Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, viii. 121-2, 247, xii. 344-5; Law Journal, iii. 139; Journal of Jurisprudence, xii. 222-4; Law Times, 22 Feb. 1868 pp. 303, 317318, 22 Dec. 1894 p. 192; Illustrated London News, 2 Jan. 1864 (with portrait), 29 Feb. 1868; Annual Register, 1868, pt. ii. pp. 171-2; Walford's County Families, 1894, p. 918; Foster's Men at the Bar, 1885; Official Return of Lists of M.P.'s, ii. 428; McCalmont's Parl. Poll Book, 1879, pp. 132, 170, 238; Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1890; Lincoln's Inn Registers; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

G. F. R. B.

SHEEHAN, JOHN (1812-1882), miscellaneous writer, was the son of an hotelkeeper at Celbridge, co. Kildare, where he was born in 1812 (he states that he was eighteen years old in 1830). He was sent to the jesuit college at Clongoweswood, where Francis Sylvester Mahony [q. v.], better

6

known as 'Father Prout,' was his tutor for a time. About 1829 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, but did not graduate. In 1830 he joined the Comet Club, which was formed by a party of young Irishmen, including Samuel Lover [q. v.], Joseph Stirling Coyne [q. v.], Robert Knox, subsequently editor of the Morning Post,' and Maurice O'Connell, son of The Liberator.' The club had literary aims. At first its members prepared and issued pamphlets attacking the tithe system; the first, The Parson's Horn Book,' which appeared in two parts, with etchings by Lover, met with extraordinary success. According to Sheehan (Gent. Mag. 1874), it had a greater circulation and caused more sensation than any book issued in Ireland since the days of Swift. The club then issued the 'Comet,' a satirical weekly paper directed against the established church in Ireland, the first number appearing on 1 May 1831. Sheehan was appointed sub-editor. In a few weeks it had reached a circulation of many thousand copies, and until its cessation at the end of 1833 exercised considerable influence. The government in the autumn of 1833 ordered the arrest of Thomas Browne, the editor, and Sheehan for libel. They were defended by Daniel O'Connell and Robert Holmes, but were each sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of 1007. The fine was, however, remitted, and the term of incarceration was only partly served (cf. Sheehan's articles on the 'Comet' in Gent. Mag. 1874-5).

Sheehan, on his release, studied for the Irish bar, to which he was called in 1835. He shortly afterwards came to London, where he was admitted a member of the English bar, and for a time went the home circuit. But he quickly abandoned his profession, took to journalism, and in 1836 and the following year was in Paris and Madrid as representative of the 'Constitutional'newspaper. He next became parliamentary reporter of the Morning Herald,' contributing poems and sketches meanwhile to 'Bentley's Miscellany' and other magazines. In 1852 he was proprietor and editor of the 'Independent of London and Cambridge. Subsequently in Temple Bar' and elsewhere he often wrote under the signatures of 'The Irish Whiskey-Drinker' and 'The Knight of Innishowen.' Thackeray knew Sheehan well, and he is believed to be the original of Captain Shandon in 'Pendennis,' while two other Irish friends, William John O'Connell and Andrew Archdeckne, suggested Costigan and Foker respectively.

Shortly after 1868 Sheehan married the widow of Colonel Shubrick, a wealthy