Born in 1780,[1] in Maryland,[2] Shields read law[2] with Caesar Augustus Rodney.
[2] He was a United States agent to adjust land claims west of the Pearl River in 1804.
[2] He was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 20, 1818, and received commission the same day.
[2] Shields obituary in the Natchez Gazette of April 23, 1823, describes his last days and death thus; "On the morning of the 16th inst.
he had a severe attack of Apoplexy, which was followed by a severe derangement of his mind which continued in violent paroxyms, with intervals of apparent rationality, until the evening of the 18th when in a most agonizing exacerbation he relieved himself of sufferance by suddenly terminating his existence.