Shipman, Thomas

(1632-1680)

   Royalist poet, born at Scarrington, near Newark, Northamptonshire, he entered St. John's College, Cambridge in 1651. There is a hint that he was an economist and that he lived in London. He knew Thomas Flatman (see entry), who praised some of Shipman's poems. He died at Scarrington. His wife was Margaret Traffford, who brought him an estate at Bulcote, Nottinghamshire, and survived him until about 1696. Their third son, William, settled at Mansfield, and was high sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1730. Shipman produced two major collections. Henry the Third of France, Stabbed by a Fryer, with the Fall of Guise, 1678, was a rhymed tragedy that was performed at the Theatre Royal London. Carolina, or Loyal Poems, 1683, contains about two hundred poems, including a long piece on the Restoration, the Hero (1678), addressed to the Duke of Monmouth. Some of the poems criticize the morals of the Roundheads as well as their politics. Some of his poems: "Red Canary," "The Frost, 1654," "To Mr. W.L.," "The Heroine," "The Huffer," "The Kiss, 1656, To Mrs. C," "The Pick-Pocket," "Wit and Nature."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Erotic Poetry: The Lyrics, Ballads, Idylls, and Epics of Love - Classical to Contemporary. William Cole, ed. Random House, 1963. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Gambit Book of Love Poems. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Gambit, 1973. The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth Century Verse. Alastair Fowler, ed. Oxford University Press, 1991.