He entered Parliament as a supporter of the Exclusion Bill, and was one of the Whigs purged from county offices in 1688 over James' policy of religious tolerance.
He supported James' overthrow in the Glorious Revolution, and was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Rutland, offices he held until his death in 1700.
He was educated at St John's College, Oxford in 1639, succeeded his father in his (Irish) barony in 1640, and took a Grand Tour in Italy from 1641 to 1644, where he was enrolled at the University of Padua in 1642.
[1] He first stood for Parliament as a candidate for Leicestershire in the March 1679 English general election, alongside Lord Roos, one of the incumbent MPs.
However, the controversy over the Exclusion Bill led Sir John Hartopp, 3rd Baronet, a zealous Whig, to stand for the county as well.
During the polling at Market Harborough, rioting broke out; Roos and Sherard were returned by a large margin, but Hartopp lodged an election petition against the result, alleging malpractice by the Sheriff.
Sherard's election was admitted, but that of Roos voided; he was granted a peerage and moved to the House of Lords, while Hartopp was returned at the ensuing April by-election.
When it appeared that the Earl of Rutland (the former Lord Roos) would give up the lord-lieutenancy of Leicestershire in the summer of 1690, Sherard wrote to the Marquess of Carmarthen offering to take up the post and raise a new regiment of volunteers.