Shepard, Thomas (1605-1649) English-born, American clergyman and
diarist. Shepard came to America in 1635 and became pastor at
Cambridge, Massachusetts. A friend of John Harvard, Shepard was
influential in the establishment of Harvard College at Cambridge.
A Character of Mistress Joanna Shepard (1647) Shepard's wife died three
weeks after giving birth to the couple's second son, John in April,
1646. Here Shepard recounts her final illness and remembers his wife
as "a woman of incomparable meekness of spirit... and very loving." He
admits in the end that he has "ever found it a difficult thing to
profit even but a little by the sorest and sharpest afflictions."
