CHARLES SHEPHARD. ATTORNEY, SOLICITOR AND NUMISMATIC ESSAYIST

Dykes focuses on Charles Shephard, an attorney, solicitor, and numismatic essayist. Nothing is known of the younger Shephard's early life although, judging by the contents of his library, he must have had a very good classical grounding that inculcated a surprisingly deep and abiding interest in Greek and Roman history and literature. In the Michaelmas Term of 1774, he was admitted an attorney of the Court of King's Bench and, in the following Hilary Term, a solicitor of the High Court of Chancery, his address being then recorded as Bartholomew Close, his parental home. In any case Shephard's numismatic consequence lies not in any coin collection he may have had but in his brief literary excursion in the Gentleman's Magazine. Much of what he has to say, especially in his general remarks, is commonplace and derivative.