{"id":3249,"date":"2017-08-03T13:38:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T13:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=3249"},"modified":"2017-08-03T13:38:06","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T13:38:06","slug":"kildares-forgotten-poet-a-link-with-historic-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/kildares-forgotten-poet-a-link-with-historic-family\/","title":{"rendered":"KILDARE’S FORGOTTEN POET. A LINK WITH HISTORIC FAMILY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader<\/em>\u00a027 May 1933<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kildare\u2019s Forgotten Poet<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Link with Historic Family<\/strong><\/p>\n

Samuel Shepard, Kildare\u2019s forgotten poet, who at the beginning of the 18th century, 1731, was considered a poet of considerable genius \u2013 some of his writings are classed with that of Dean Swift, the writer and poet.\u00a0 He first began writing in 1727 and many of his poems refer to a woman named \u201cKitty,\u201d her other name not being revealed, whom he married in Dublin in 1730.\u00a0 Through his mother be was connected with the historic family of de Burgh, of Oldtown, Naas, his mother being a sister of Thomas de Burgh, Surveyor General of Ireland.\u00a0 Shepard wrote his first long series of poems in 1733 which he dedicated to this family.\u00a0 In the January of 1731 the magnificent library in Trinity College was opened by the Duke of Dorset, then Lord Lieutenant in Ireland at the time.\u00a0 Shepard\u2019s uncle, Thomas de Burgh, was the architect of the library, and his poetical nephew, Samuel Shepard, was asked to compose a poem suitable for the occasion to be recited at the opening ceremony.\u00a0 He composed a poem in keeping for the occasion which was recited by a fellow of the College named George Sackville.\u00a0 Apart from being a poet of considerable genius he was a clergyman of the Established Church and made a name for himself as a preacher of high standing.\u00a0 He preached before the Irish House of Commons at St. Andrew\u2019s Church, Dublin, in the autumn of 1737.\u00a0 In 1736 he was appointed to the parish of Celbridge, and six years later the livings of Ballymacwilliam and Timahoe were included with his Celbridge parish.\u00a0 His first sermon to be mentioned in the press was that preached at Lady Gore\u2019s funeral in the summer of 1745.\u00a0 Lady Gore was niece of Mrs. Conolly of Castletown.\u00a0 Shepard was chaplain to Lord Chesterfield during his period of Viceroy in Ireland.\u00a0 A poem of considerable beauty by Shepard is that entitled \u201cLeixlip\u201d in which he describes the scenery of Leixlip and its Castle; the poem he afterwards dedicated to the Right Honourable William Conolly, the owner of Leixlip Castle.\u00a0 By his marriage he had two sons \u2013 the elder he wished to enter religious orders like his father, but William as he was named had no taste for such a calling, and preferred military life to the church.\u00a0 Through the influence of the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Lieutenant, he became a Lieutenant in the East Indian Company.\u00a0 His father writes: –<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bishops and Deans,<\/p>\n

\u2018Tis nonsense to quote,<\/p>\n

For what\u2019s a cassock<\/p>\n

To a scarlet coat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the bygone days of the 18th century, 200 years ago, by a description we have from a poem of Shepard\u2019s women appear very much the same to-day for he writes: –<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Listen to the soft debates<\/p>\n

Which woman\u2019s fruitful tongue creates,<\/p>\n

Of fashion, officers and beaux<\/p>\n

Soft tragedies and gaudy clothes<\/p>\n

Matches broke off, young maids disgraced,<\/p>\n

Rich sauces and the art of paste.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the latter half of his years he suffered from ill-health and died at Celbridge in 1785.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader\u00a027 May 1933 Kildare\u2019s Forgotten Poet A Link with Historic Family Samuel Shepard, Kildare\u2019s forgotten poet, who at the beginning of the 18th century, 1731, was considered a poet of considerable genius \u2013 some of his writings are classed with that of Dean Swift, the writer and poet.\u00a0 He first began writing in 1727 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspaper-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}