(John) was born at Bideford, a considerable sea-port and corporation town in Devonshire, in the year 1709. His father was an attorney; but having small practice and little fortune, he carried on also the business of a corn-factor. He had four children, two sons and two daughters. Of the sons, John, the subject of our present memoir, was the eldest. The other son was called Richard, and entirely the reverse of his brother in disposition; he was bred to the sea, and died young.

John received the rudiments of his education at the free grammar school of Exeter, then conducted by the learned Mr Zachary Mudge (author of an Essay for a new Version of the Psalms, and a volume of excellent Sermons), afterwards Rector of St Andrew in Plymouth. It has oftentimes been remarked, that the future life of a man may be nearly guessed at from his puerile character. Thus Shebeare, while a schoolboy, gave the strongest indications of his future eminence in philanthropy and literature, by the remarkable tenacity of his memory, and the readiness of his wit, and no less by the malignity of his disposition; being universally considered as a lad of surprising genius, while at the same time he was generally despised for his malicious and ungrateful temper. This may easily be believed, when it is said, that he formed not one connection, either at school or afterwards, with any person in the way of friendship, except with a young barber of an abandoned character, but whose soul was perfectly congenial to that of Shebeare's.

Such is the account of Shebeare's boyish years which we have in the 14th volume of the European Magazine. It is probably much exaggerated; for Shebeare continued through life a staunch Tory, if not a Jacobite; and it is well known that many of our journalists consider themselves as at liberty to give what characters they please of such men.

In the fifteenth or sixteenth year of his age, young Shebeare was bound apprentice to a very eminent and worthy surgeon in his native town; in which situation he acquired a considerable share of medical knowledge. His genius for lampoon appeared at this early period, and he could not forbear from exercising it on his master. No one indeed could give him the slightest offence with impunity; for which reason almost every person avoided his acquaintance, as we would avoid the carking of an adder. The chief marks, however, of the arrows of his wit were the gentlemen of the corporation: one or other, and sometimes all of them, were almost constantly exposed in a libel upon the public posts and corners of the streets. But though the wiser part of them only laughed at these harmless trifles, yet some were more irritable, and many a prosecution was commenced against, but not one could fix itself upon him, so artfully had he contrived to conceal himself. He Shebeare was also several times summoned to appear at the sessions, for daring to speak and write irreverently of the worshipful magistrates; but the laugh was always on the side of Shebeare, nor could they ever come at his back, so closely had he fitted on his armour, with the whip of authority.

When he was out of his time he set up trade for himself, and then showed a taste for chemistry; and soon after he married a very agreeable and amiable young woman, of no fortune, but of a genteel family. Whether his insuperable propensity to satire deprived him of friends and of business, or that he spent too much in chemical experiments, we know not; but failing at Bideford, he removed, about the year 1736, to Bristol, where he entered into partnership with a chemist, and never afterwards set his foot in his native town.

In the year 1739 he attracted the attention of the public, by an epitaph to the memory of Thomas Coote, Esq; member for Bristol; in which, it has been truly observed, that he has contrived to raise emotions of pity, grief, and indignation, to a very high degree. The next year he published a pamphlet on the Bristol waters; from which period there is a chasm in our author's life we are unable to fill up. In this interval may probably be placed his failure in business, and his effort to obtain a higher situation in his profession. It is certain that in the year 1752 he was at Paris, and there he obtained the degree, if he obtained it at all, which gave him the addition to his name which accompanied him during the rest of his life, that of Doctor. Until this time he appears to have lived in obscurity; but at an age when vigorous exertion usually subsides, he seems to have resolved to place himself in a conspicuous situation, whatever hazard might attend it, and commenced a public writer with a degree of celerity and virulence for which it would be difficult to find a parallel even in the most intemperate times. To read over his works now, when the passions they then raised have subsided, we feel surprise at the effect they produced; and it is within the memory of many yet living, that their influence was very considerable. In the year 1754, he began his career with The Marriage Act, a political novel; in which he treated the legislature with such freedom, that it occasioned his being taken into custody, from whence, however, he was soon released.

The performances, however, most celebrated, were a series of Letters to the People of England, which were written in a style vigorous and energetic, though slovenly and careless, well calculated to make an impression on common readers; and were accordingly read with avidity, and circulated with diligence. They had a very considerable effect on the minds of the people, and galled the ministry, who seem to have been at first too eager to punish the author. On the publication of the Third Letter, we find warrants, dated 4th and 8th of March, 1756, issued by Lord Holdernesse, to take up both Scott the publisher and the author. This prosecution, however, seems to have been dropt, and the culprit proceeded for some time unmolested, "having declared (says one of his answers) that he would write himself into a post or into the pillory; in the last of which he at length succeeded." On the 12th of January 1758, a general warrant was signed by Lord Holdernesse, to search for the author, printer, and publishers of a wicked, audacious, and treasonable libel, entitled, "A Sixth Letter to the People of England, on the progress of national ruin; in which it is shewn that the present grandeur of France and calamities of this nation are owing to the influence of Hanover on the councils of England;" and then having found, to seize and apprehend, together with their books and papers.

At this juncture government seem to have been effectually roused; for having received information that a seventh letter was printing, by virtue of another warrant, dated January 23, all the copies were seized and entirely suppressed. In Easter Term an information was filed against him by Mr Pratt, then attorney general, afterwards Lord Camden; in which it is now worthy of remark, that the crown officer, in his application to the court, in express terms admitted a point, since much disputed, that of the jury's right to determine both the law and the fact in matters of libel.

"What I urge (says the advocate) to the court, is only to show there is reasonable ground for considering this publication as a libel, and for putting it in a way of trial, and therefore it is pray to have the rule made absolute; for I admit, and your lordship well knows, that the jury in matters of libel are judges of the law as well as the fact, and have an undoubted right to consider whether, upon the whole, the pamphlet in question be, or be not, a false, malicious, and scandalous libel."

On the 17th of June, the information was tried, when our author was found guilty; and on the 28th November, he received sentence, by which he was fined five pounds, ordered to stand in the pillory December 5, at Charing Cross, to be confined three years, and to give security for his good behaviour for seven years, himself in 50l. and two others in 20l. each.

On the day appointed, that part of the sentence which doomed him to the pillory was put in execution, amidst a prodigious concourse of people assembled on the occasion. The under sheriff, at that time, happened to be Mr Beardmore, who had sometimes been assisted by the Doctor in writing the Monitor, a paper in its principles of the same tendency with the writings of the culprit, who consequently might expect every indulgence from the officer to whom the execution of his sentence was committed. The manner in which it was conducted may be learned from the affidavits on which afterwards the under sheriff's conduct became the subject of animadversion in the court of King's Bench, and which assert, "that the defendant only stood upon the platform of the pillory, unconfined, and at his ease, attended by a servant in livery (which servant and livery were hired for the occasion only) holding an umbrella over head all the time: but his head, hands, neck, and arms, were not at all confined, or put into the holes of the pillory; only that he sometimes put his hands upon the holes of the pillory in order to refresh himself." For this neglect of duty, Beardmore was fined 50l. and suffered two months imprisonment.

Some time before he was tried for the obnoxious publication already mentioned, the Duchess of Queensbury, as heir of Lord Clarendon, obtained an injunction in the Court of Chancery to stop the publication of the continuation of that nobleman's history; a copy of which had got into the hands of Francis Gwyn, Esq.; between whom and the Doctor there had been an agreement to publish it and equally divide the profits.

The care and expenses attending the ushering this work into the world were to be wholly Dr Shebbeare's, who performed his part of the agreement, and caused it to be handsomely printed in quarto, with a Tory preface, containing frequent reflections on, and allusions to recent events, and to living characters, which gave it the appearance rather of a temporary pamphlet than of a work calculated for posterity. On the injunction being obtained, Dr Shebbeare was under the necessity of applying to the aid of law to recover the money expended by him in printing, amounting to more than 500l. Of that sum more than half had been waited on his side in the courts of law and equity. And some years afterwards, speaking of the situation of his affairs, he says, "It may be easily imagined, that my circumstances were not improved by three years imprisonment. I had no club of partizans to maintain me during that time, to discharge my debts, nor even the fine, which I was obliged to pay after a three years confinement for a single offence. Notwithstanding the difficulties which inevitably arose from these particulars, and although an insolvent act was passed soon after his Majesty's accession to the throne, and my circumstances might have apologised for my taking that opportunity which it offered; I nevertheless declined from availing myself of that occasion to evade the payment of my debts. I preferred the labour of endeavouring to pay them, and the risk of being again imprisoned if I did not succeed. But, thank Heaven, I am in no danger of a second imprisonment on that account." During his confinement, he declares he never received as presents more than twenty guineas from all the world.

While he was confined in the King's Bench, he solicited subscriptions for the first volume of a History of England, from the Revolution to the then present time. But at the persuasion of his friends, he was induced to alter his design, and receipts were issued for a first volume of the History of England, and of the Constitution thereof from its origin. That volume he wrote, and had transcribed. "But as it was impracticable (to use his own words), whilst I was in confinement, to procure that variety of books, or to apply to manuscript authorities, for all that was requisite to the completing of this first volume, I found on being released from my imprisonment, and on application to the former only, that the volume which I had written was incorrect, insufficient, and erroneous, in too many particulars, to admit of its being published, without injustice to my subscribers, and reprehensions on myself. Into this displeasing situation I had been misled by relying on the authorities of modern historians, who pretend to cite the authors from whence their materials are taken, many of whom appear never to have seen them, but implicitly to have copied one another, and all of them manifestly defective; not only in the authorities they should have sought, but in their omissions and misrepresentations of those whom they had consulted; more especially respecting those parts of the old German codes, on which our constitution is erected, and without which it cannot be properly explained or understood. Such being the real situation of things, I perceived that more time than I could expect to live would be necessarily required for so extensive a work as In consequence of this alteration, I resolved to exert my best abilities, not only to trace the constitution of England from its origin in the woods of Germany, as M. de Montesquieu expresses it, but from the first principles of human nature, from which the formation of all kinds of government is derived. With this view, I have attempted an analysis of the mental and corporeal faculties, in order to shew in what manner they reciprocally influence each other in the various actions of man, not only as an individual, but as a gregarious being, impelled by nature to associate in communities. From hence I have attempted to delineate in what manner legislature sprung and proceeded from its source, through that variety of meanders which it hath formed in its current, both before and since the introduction of one common sign, whereby to express the intrinsic value, not only of all the productions of nature and of art, but even of the human faculties, as they are now estimated; to compare the constitutions of those different states which have been, and are the most celebrated in ancient and modern history, with each other, and with that of England; and then to derive some reasonable grounds for the determination of that which seems to be the most confentaneous with the primogenial institutes of nature, and the happiness of human kind. In consequence of this intent, the manners that successively arose and prevailed in such states, the benefits and mischiefs which ensued from them, are delineated, in order to explain on what foundation the welfare of national communities may most probably be established.

This plan, thus delineated, he at times employed himself in filling up; but on being rudely attacked for not performing his promise with his subscribers, he, in 1774, observed—“From the inevitable obligations, not only of supporting my own family, but those also whom as son and brother it was my duty to sustain for forty years, and which, respecting the claims of the latter, still continues; it will be easily discerned that many an avocation must have proceeded from these circumstances, as well as from a sense of gratitude to his majesty, in defence of whose government I have thought it my duty occasionally to exert my best abilities.” He adds, however, that he did not intend to die until what he had proposed was finished; a promise which the event has shown he was unable to perform.

In prison he was detained during the whole time of the sentence, and with some degree of rigour; for when his life was in danger from an ill state of health, and he applied to the court of King’s Bench for permission to be carried into the rules a few hours in a day, tho’ Lord Mansfield acceded to the petition, yet the prayer of it was denied and defeated by Judge Potter. At the expiration of the time of his sentence, a new reign had commenced; and shortly afterwards, during the administration of Mr. Grenville, a pension was granted him by the crown. This he obtained by the personal application of Sir John Philips to the King, who, on that occasion, was pleased to speak of him in very favourable terms, which he promised undeviatingly to endeavour to deserve by allegiance and gratitude.

From the time of that event we find Dr. Shebbeare a uniform defender of the measures of Government, and the mark against whom every opposer of administration considered himself at liberty to throw out the grossest abuse. Even the friends of power were often adverse to him. Dr Smollet introduced him in no very respectful light, under the name of Ferret, in the novel of Sir Launcelot Greaves, and Mr Hogarth made him one of the group in the third election print.

Scarce a periodical publication was without some abuse of him, which he seems to have in general had the good sense to neglect. In the year 1774, however, he departed from his general practice, and defended himself from some attacks at that time made upon him. In this pamphlet he represented the conduct and character of King William in such a light as to excite the indignation of every Whig in the kingdom; he treated him in print with as great severity as Johnson used to do in conversation.

Early in life he appears to have written a comedy, which in 1766 he made an effort to get represented at Covent Garden. In 1768 he wrote the Review of Books in the Political Register for three months, and was often engaged to write for particular persons, with whom he frequently quarrelled when he came to be paid. This was the case with Sir Robert Fletcher, and we think of others. His pen seems to have been constantly employed, and he wrote with great rapidity, what certainly can now be read with little satisfaction, and must soon be forgotten. Though pensioned by government, he can scarce be said to have renounced his opinions; for in the pamphlet already mentioned, his abuse of the Revolution is as gross as in that for which he suffered the pillory. His violence defeated his own purpose, and made those who agreed in party with him revolt from the virulence with which he treated his adversaries. During the latter years of his life he seems to have written but little. He was a strenuous supporter of the ministry during the American war, having published, in 1775, An Answer to the printed Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., spoken in the House of Commons, April 19, 1774. In which his knowledge in policy, legislature, human kind, history, commerce, and finance, is candidly examined; his arguments are fairly refuted; the conduct of administration is fully defended; and his oratorical talents are clearly exposed to view.—And An Essay on the Origin, Progress, and Establishment of National Society; in which the principles of Government, the definitions of physical, moral, civil, and religious Liberty contained in Dr Price’s Observations, &c., are fairly examined, and fully refuted; together with a justification of the Legislature in reducing America to obedience by force. To which is added, an Appendix on the Excellent and Admirable in Mr Burke’s second printed Speech of the 22d of March 1775, both 3vo.

His publications, satirical, political, and medical, amount to thirty-four, besides a novel, entitled Lydia, or Filial Piety; in which religious hypocrisy and flattering courage are very properly chastised. He died on the 11th of August 1788, leaving, among those who knew him best, the character of a benevolent man; a character character which, from the manner in which he speaks of his connections, he probably deserved.