Thomas Shepard I
Thomas Shepard I was a prominent Puritan minister born around 1604 in Northamptonshire, England. After studying at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he earned both a B.A. and M.A., he was ordained in 1627 but faced silencing due to his nonconformist beliefs. In 1635, he immigrated to New England with his wife, Margaret Tauteville, and their infant son. Settling in Massachusetts Bay, he became the pastor of the First Church of Newtown (now Cambridge). Tragically, Margaret died shortly after their arrival, and Shepard later married Joanna Hooker, with whom he had four sons.
Shepard's writings, including a private journal and the earliest surviving colonial autobiography, reflect his deep religious convictions and struggles with doubt regarding salvation. His sermons significantly influenced Puritan thought and were referenced by later theologians, including Jonathan Edwards. Shepard's notable works include "The Sincere Convert," which explored the challenges of genuine faith. He passed away in 1649 as his son began attending Harvard College, leaving behind a legacy that continued to impact religious discourse in New England.
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Subject Terms
Thomas Shepard I
Clergyman
- Born: November 5, 1604?
- Birthplace: Northamptonshire, England
- Died: August 24, 1649
Biography
Thomas Shepard I was born around 1604 in Northamptonshire, England, the son of a grocer’s daughter and a grocer’s apprentice. In 1620, he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, a Puritan stronghold. He completed his B. A. and M. A. degrees and took holy orders in 1627. Three years later, he was silenced as a lecturer because William Laud, bishop of London, disapproved of his nonconformity.
In 1635, he immigrated to New England with his wife, the former Margaret Tauteville, and his six-month-old son, Thomas Shepard, II. They settled on Massachusetts Bay, where Shepard was chosen as a pastor at the First Church of Newtown, later to be known as Cambridge. Only five months after their arrival, Margaret Shepard died of consumption. Shepard served as the chaplain of Harvard College, which was located in Newtown partly because of Shepard’s influence. In 1637, Shepard married his second wife, Joanna Hooker, a daughter of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, one of the great Puritan preachers of his generation. Joanna gave birth to four sons, two of whom lived to become adults.
The only surviving volume of Shepard’s journal records his experiences during the 1640’s. This journal was edited by Thomas Prince and first published in Three Valuable Pieces. . .; And a Private Diary, Containing Meditations and Experiences Never Before Published . . . , in 1747. The journal illustrates Shepard’s Puritan anxiety and doubt about salvation and shows that sainthood is a process rather than a state that is achieved and never doubted.
Shepard also produced the earliest surviving colonial autobiography, a retrospective that was written after 1647 but not published until 1832. Shepard dedicates his autobiography to his son, Thomas Shepard II, and includes in the introduction a narrative about God intervening to save his son’s life in 1634, when their ship was wrecked at sea. He also reports that late in her pregnancy, Margaret Shepard fell down a full flight of stairs, but her child was unharmed. Margaret died shortly after her son was born, and the baby was blinded by an eye disease that caused its eyes to be covered by a white film. God saved the child’s life, Shepard maintained, because Shepard repented his own sins and accepted God’s will. Shepard also celebrates God’s providence in preserving the community from the threats posed by Antinomians and Indians.
Shepard’s sermons, some of which were published near the end of his life, influenced later generations of Puritan clergymen. Jonathan Edwards is believed to have drawn more than one hundred different citations from Shepard’s The Parable of the Ten Virgins Opened and Applied: Being the Substance of Divers Sermons . . . (1660). Shepard’s The Sincere Convert, Discovering the Paucity of True Believers: And the Great Difficulty of Saving Conversion, initially published in 1640, went through twenty editions before 1742.
Shepard died in 1649, the year that his son matriculated at Harvard. His complete works were printed in three volumes in 1853.