William Shippen (MP)

Shippen was educated at Stockport Grammar School, and entered Brasenose College, Oxford on 16 July 1687.

[4] In the Commons Shippen often 'distinguished himself, speaking forcefully in debates...His purpose throughout was to advance the Stuart cause by any means that seemed likely to prove effective'.

The House resolved that Shippen had said words "highly dishonourable to, and unjustly reflecting on, his Majesty's Person & Government" and he was sent to the Tower of London on 4 December 1717.

[2] In March the next year he wrote to the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart, informing him that all his wishes would be obeyed "with the utmost pleasure as well as fidelity".

In mid-1721 Shippen, as the main go-between of English and Scottish Jacobites, met George Lockhart in Newcastle in order to come to an agreement on the best way to correspond.