University of Virginia Library

57. Boyhood of a Famous Colonist
BY THOMAS SHEPHARD (1605-1620)

I WAS born on the fifth day of November in the year 1605, in Lancaster, some six miles from the town, of Northampton in Old England. My father's name was William Shephard. As one of my older brothers had been called William he gave the name of Thomas to me.

I remember my father well and have some little remembrance of my mother. My father was a wise and prudent man, the peace-maker of our town. My mother had a great love for me, perhaps because I was the youngest; but she died when I was about four years old. Later my father married another woman who let me see the difference between my own mother and a step-mother. She did not seem to love me and turned my father against me. Then my

father sent me to school to a Welshman, Mr. Rico, who kept the free school in the town of Lancaster. He was exceedingly cruel and dealt unjustly with me. This discouraged me so about school and lessons that I remember wishing often times that I might take care of pigs, for once when I was a little fellow on a visit at my grandfather's, he had let me take care of the geese and do other farm-work. I still had a memory of it and thought I should like it better than I did to go to school and learn. My father died when I was about ten years of age, so I was left to the care of my step-mother who neglected my education very much, although my father had left a hundred pounds[210] to pay for my schooling. When John, an older brother, decided to take me out of this mother's hands, he was granted the right, and my portion was paid over to him. So I lived with this brother who showed much love for me and to whom I owed much, for he seemed to be a brother, father, and mother to me.

Just about this time the cruel schoolmaster died, and another came to take his place. This man stirred up in my heart a desire of learning, and I told my friends I would be a scholar. I studied Greek and Latin; and finally I could take notes of the sermons on Sundays.

So I continued at my studies until I was about fifteen years of age and was considered ripe for the University at Cambridge, in England.[211]