John Harding Sheppard

Awarded with others the compensation for the enslaved people on Weyhill in St Mary as trustee of the marriage settlement of James and Lucy Sadler.

1. John Harding Sheppard was baptised 21/12/1777 in Christ Church, Swindon, Wiltshire, son of Samuel Sheppard and his wife Anne. He married Ann Holbrook of Pewsey in Swindon in 1807. Their daughter Martha Sheppard was baptised in Swindon in 1811 and son John Harding Sheppard junior in 1813. Another son, Henry, was baptised in the same place in 1815 and William in 1822. His daughter Martha Sheppard of Swindon married John Matthews in Swindon in 1843. Sheppard was the treasurer the Wiltshire Provincial Grand Lodge of Freemasons for thirty seven years prior to his death in 1868. Death of John Harding Sheppard aged 90 registered Q1 1868 Highwood Wiltshire. He was buried in Christchurch, Swindon, 15/02/1868 age 90.

2. Will of John Harding Sheppard late of Swindon Wiltshire who died 15/2/1868 proved 02/02/1870 by his sons John Harding Sheppard of Stoke-on-Trent and William Sheppard of Ashford Kent, effects under £4,000.

3. The family of Lucy Sadler nee Kibblewhite lived at Lydiard Millicent, a village west of Swindon, and presumably knew John Harding Sheppard through local connections.

4. Local history sources show him as  a brewer and maltster of Kingshill in Swindon. John Sheppard, age 60, farmer, was living at High Street, Swindon in 1841, born in county, with his wife Ann age 50 and three female servants. He has not been found in the 1851 census; his son Henry was living at High Street in Swindon with his wife Charlotte, daughter Ann, two female servants and two male servants. John H. Sheppard, age 83, gentleman, born in Swindon, was living at the High Street in 1861 with Maria Poulton, a boarder, William Sheppard, his grandson, and a female servant.

5. John Harding Sheppard was the son of Samuel Sheppard (1755-1807) and his wife Ann nee Brown. His grandparents were Samuel Sheppard senior (1712-1782) and his wife Ann nee Harding. Samuel senior was the sister of Hannah Sadler nee Sheppard, so John Harding Sheppard was the great-nephew of William Sadler and the second cousin of James Sadler (both q.v.), co-claimants in the slave compensation award for Weyhill in St Mary, Jamaica.

T71/856 St Mary no. 94 James Sadler St Mary claimed as owner-in-fee. 'John Sheppard Swindon Wilts' counterclaimed 'as Trustee by virtue of Indenture made on the marriage of James and Lucy Sadler 28 Jany 1818 for £10,000'.

1. Familysearch.org batch no. C01841-7. Email from William Norton 10/11/2016 sourced to Sarum Marriage Licence Bonds Transcription, Wiltshire Family History Society. Pall Mall Gazette 22/02/1868. Email from William Norton 10/11/2016 sourced to Wiltshire Memorial Inscription Index, Wiltshire Family History Society. Familysearch.org, England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database online].

2. National Probate Calendar 1870.

3. T71/1179.

4. E.g. Swindon in the past lane: Sheppard's Mansion House, http://www.swindonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/sheppards-mansion-house.html  accessed 21/08/2012; 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses online.

5. Email from Richard Carruthers-Zurowski 11/02/2021 sourced to Memorial Inscriptions inside St Mary the Virgin Church of England parish church at Purton, Wiltshire.

We are grateful to Richard Carruthers-Zurowski and William Norton for their assistance with compiling this entry.