Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sherry, Richard

by Edward Irving Carlyle

SHERRY or SHIRRYE, RICHARD (fl. 1550), author, was born about 1506 in the neighbourhood of London. In 1522 he became a demy of Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. on 21 June 1527 and M.A. on 10 March 1531. Whether he was a fellow is uncertain, but in 1534 he was appointed headmaster of Magdalen College school. He held this post until 1540, when he was succeeded by Goodall. Subsequently he established himself in the neighbourhood of London, and devoted himself to literary work both in the shape of original writings and of translations. He died shortly after 1555.

He was the author of:

1. ‘A very fruitfull Exposition upon the Syxte Chapter of Saynte John. Written in Latin by … John Brencius and translated by Richard Shirrye,’ London, 1550, 8vo.
2. ‘A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes gathered out of the best Grammarians and Oratours. … Whereunto is added a declamation … written fyrst in Latin by Erasmus,’ London, n.d. 16mo; 1550, 8vo.
3. ‘St. Basill the Great his letter to Gregory Nazaanzen translated by Richard Sherrie,’ London, n.d. 8vo.
4. ‘A Treatise of the Figures of Grammer [sic] and Rhetorike,’ London, 1555, 8vo.

Richard Sherry has sometimes been identified with John Sherry (d. 1551), who was in 1541 archdeacon of Lewes and rector of Chailey in Sussex; he became precentor of St. Paul's, London, in 1543, and died in 1551 (Le Neve, Fasti Eccles. Angl. ed. Hardy, ii. 350; Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 189).

[Bloxam's Magdalen College Register, iii. 88, iv. 51; Bale's Scriptt. Mag. Brit. p. 107; Warton's Hist. of Engl. Poetry, ed. 1840, iii. 281; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Ames's Typogr. Antiq., ed. Herbert, pp. 624, 625, 675, 677, 810.]

E. I. C.