His father, Joseph, was a merchant from Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, his mother, Teresa née Darell.

He was initially educated at the school for French refugees founded by the Abbé Carron in Somers Town and where Hughes Felicité Robert de Lamennais taught.

[1] Shee enjoyed a successful career as a barrister, being made serjeant-at-law in 1840, receiving a patent of precedence in 1845, and being appointed queen's serjeant in 1857.

[1] Shee was a champion of Catholic Emancipation and addressed a protestant rally held on Penenden Heath, Maidstone as early as 24 November 1828.

William Sharman Crawford having failed to be re-elected in 1852, Shee took charge of, and reintroduced, his Tenant Right Bill on 25 November 1852.

In 1855, discouraged in his exertions as to reform, Shee consulted with Sharman Crawford and drafted a new Tenants' Improvement Compensation Bill, addressing some of the objections of the select committee.