[1] Sheppard was baptised at Whitminster, Gloucestershire, at the end of 1595, and entered the Middle Temple in 1620; he was called to the bar in 1629.
[2] About 1653 Sheppard was invited to London by Cromwell, and made one of the clerks of the upper bench.
[2] In September 1659 he was appointed chief justice in North Wales, by the Rump Parliament.
[2] Sheppard wrote legal and religious works:[2] He also published the Touchstone of Common Assurances (1641); tradition said he had found it in manuscript in Sir John Doddridge's library, but a connection with Doddridge is no longer accepted.
[2][6] A Collection of Choice Declarations (1653), attributed to Sheppard in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography, was by William Small.