[1] He and his elder brother, Hugh, moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in John's twenties, and the first real mention of him was in 1800 when they were running the family's large wholesale/grocery business, which they had built up.
The business was in Middle Street, facing the Cloth Market and opposite where the "White Hart"[clarification needed] stood.
Shield had a free and easy nature, was remarkably quiet and inoffensive, and, it seems, wrote dialect materials as a hobby.
John Shield was married with a family and moved to a property near St. Andrew's Church,[2] Newgate Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.
[3] His works include:[clarification needed] "The Pitman's Revenge (against Bonaparte)" was erroneously credited to John Shield in many early manuscripts.