Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sheldrake, Timothy

by George Simonds Boulger

SHELDRAKE, TIMOTHY (fl. 1756), M.D., a native of Norwich, was descended from an old Norfolk family, a member of which, John Sheldrake, was mayor of Thetford in 1632, while William Sheldrake was rector of Barton in Charles II's reign. Timothy was author of:

1. ‘The Causes of Heat and Cold in all Climates, as read to the Royal Society,’ 1756, 8vo, ‘printed for and sold by the Author at the Black Boy in the Strand,’ pp. 42.
2. ‘The Gardener's Best Companion in a Greenhouse, or Tables showing the greatest Heat and Cold of all Countries … measured upon the Thermometer,’ London, 1756, folio, a quadruple folding folio-sheet, dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane, and stated to have the approval of Philip Miller [q. v.]
3. ‘Botanicum Medicinale; an Herbal of Medicinal Plants on the College of Physicians' List, with names in nine languages [and] 120 copper-plates, “from the exquisite drawings of the late ingenious T. Sheldrake,”’ London, 1759, folio. This work was issued at 3l. plain, and at 6l. coloured. Most of the plates are engraved by C. H. Hemerich. The ‘Gardener's Best Companion’ is added to it. A pamphlet on ‘Norwich Gothic Cross’ (with ‘a very good plate’), by the same author, is advertised in ‘The Causes of Heat and Cold’ (cf. Blomfield, Norfolk, iv. 235).

Sheldrake was doubtless related to the Timothy Sheldrake ‘of the Strand, truss-maker to the East India Company and the Westminster Hospital,’ who between 1783 and 1806 published several medical pamphlets on distortion of the spine, club-foot, and rupture.

[Biographical Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, and the works above mentioned.]

G. S. B.