John Sheppard

John Sheppard (c.1515-c.1558) was an English composer, much of whose life is unknown. His birth date is estimated from Sheppard's own claim in 1554 that he had been composing for twenty years. Much of Sheppard's music has been lost, with his works mostly surviving in two partbooks at Christ Church, Oxford, copied in the 1570s. Sheppard's life spanned a turbulent period in England's political and religious history: his Latin compositions are datable from their style to the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary; his much smaller English output was likely composed during the reign of the Protestant King Edward VI, though his famous Second Service may date from the very start of Elizabeth I's reign. Sheppard is buried at St Margaret's Church, Westminster.