Biography

William Shield (1748 – 1829)

William Shield who was born in the village of Swalwell near Gateshead in County Durham is best known for his long career at London’s Covent Garden Theatre and as George III’s composer. However, Shield started his musical career as the Durham theatre company’s band leader. According to The Thespian Dictionary it was the actor John Cunningham who encouraged Shield to join the company, beginning his theatrical career at Scarborough where he “soon evinced his talents for musical composition.”

Shield developed his skill by adapting Cunningham’s pastoral verse into songs which were performed on the theatrical circuit. Shield was also a freemason and wrote the music to celebrate the opening of Sunderland’s new Masonic Hall in 1785. Shield’s time with the Durham company also led him to meet and befriend the antiquarian Joseph Ritson in Stockton-on-Tees. They later walked to post-revolutionary Paris together and Ritson relied upon Shield for his musical knowledge when working on his various collections of northern song. Shield also befriended the playwright and novelist Thomas Holcroft when performing in the Durham company.

Related Materials

More Biographies

Robert Tannahill (1774 – 1810)

Robert Tannahill was a Scottish laboring class poet from Paisley, near Glasgow, known as the 'Weaver Poet'

James Tate (1771 – 1843)

James Tate was a teacher and man of the church who was close friends with northern actors.

William Taylor of Norwich (1765 –1836)

William Taylor was a prolific critic and scholar based in Norwich.

Jane Wallis (1774-1848)

She was known as 'Miss Wallis of Bath' but Jane Wallis actually hailed from the north.

Ann Wheeler (1734-1804)

Ann Wheeler is a rare example of a Westmoreland dialect writer.

Tipping Brown (1758-1811)

Dr Tipping Brown was a distinguished freemason and influential literary figure during a significant period of Sunderland's development.

Robert Fergusson (1750-1774)

Edinburgh's late eighteenth-century poet laureate.

James Murray (1732–1782)

James Murray was a leading political radical in Newcastle upon Tyne during the turbulent 1770s.

Sarah Hodgson (née Slack) 1760-1822

Sarah Hodgson edited the Newcastle Chronicle for over twenty years. She also published the Bible in Arabic; Thomas Bewick's Memoirs; and the first volume of Archaeologia Aeliana, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

George Cuit the Elder (1743-1818)

George Cuit the Elder painted landcapes for gentry familes in the North Riding of Yorkshire.

John Christian Curwen (1756-1828)

John Christian Curwen was a significant figure in the agricultural enlightenment.

George Frederick Cooke (1756-1812)

Raised in Berwick-upon-Tweed George Frederick Cooke was “arguably the first true British romantic actor".

Mary O’Keeffe (1757-1813)

Mary O’Keeffe exemplifies the remarkable talent on display in northern theatres at the end of the eighteenth-century.

Robert Harrison (1715-1802)

Master of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Trinity School, Robert ‘Philosopher’ Harrison was a mathematician and linguist.

William Burdon (1764-1818)

The freethinking William Burdon who lived near Morpeth made significant and early contributions to the new idea of ‘liberality’. His 'Materials for Thinking' saw five editions between 1801 and 1820.

Thomas Slack (1723-1784)

The radical Newcastle printer Thomas Slack was a publisher of books and the proprietor of the Newcastle Chronicle.

George Greive (1748-1809)

Alnwick-born George Greive was a radical political agitator in England, America and France.

James Field Stanfield (1749-1824)

The Dublin-born actor, abolitionist and freemason James Field Stanfield spent most of his career performing in theatres in the north of England.

Thomas Spence (1750-1814)

As a political radical, Thomas Spence was the proponent of the only political ideology, "Spencerianism", to have ever been outlawed in Britain.

Anne Slack (née Fisher)(1719-1778)

Anne Slack was Britain's first modern English-language grammarian, an entrepreneur, and wife of Newcastle printer, Thomas Slack.

Joseph Ritson (1752-1803)

Joseph Ritson was an antiquary and historian of "the common people", a friend to actors who passed through his home town of Stockton, and the man who made Robin Hood a champion of the poor.

Tate Wilkinson (1739 –1803)

The Yorkshire company under Tate Wilkinson’s management from 1766 to 1806 had the best-known circuit in the North.

Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809)

The novelist and playwright Thomas Holcroft was a strolling player in the north of England in the 1770s and performed with the Durham company.

Ann Allan (1717-1785)

Ann Allan of Blackwell Grange was a prominent local philanthropist and friend to local personalities.

George Allan (1736-1800)

Antiquary and printer George Allan was an influential cultural figure in the Northeast

Robert Anderson (1770-1833)

Robert Anderson, known as the ‘Bard of Cumberland' was an English labouring class poet who wrote in Cumbrian dialect.

David Erskine Baker (1730-1767)

David Erskine Baker - actor, freemason and social mover

Susanna Blamire (1747-1794)

Susanna Blamire, posthumously dubbed the ‘Muse of Cumberland’ has been called "unquestionably the best female writer of her age”

Rowland Burdon (1757 – 1838)

Rowland Burdon was a Newcastle Banker, one time Mayor of Stockton and the first Durham MP not to have been an aristocrat.

James Cawdell (1749-1800)

James Cawdell was an actor and manager of the Durham theatre circuit.

Samuel Butler (1750-1812)

Samuel Butler managed one of the most successful northern theatre circuits of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

John Cunningham (1729-1773)

Although now forgotten, this Irish actor was the nation’s leading pastoral poet at mid-century.

West Digges (1720-1786)

West Digges was a popular actor in Ireland before working in Scotland and the north of England.

George Garbutt (1791-1859)

George Garbutt was from Sunderland and a local historian and freemason

Francis Gentleman (1728-1784)

Francis Gentleman was an Irish actor, poet, playwright and critic.

Francis Gibson (1753-1805)

The Whitby collector of customs Francis Gibson was a poet, playwright and fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

William Hutchinson (1732-1814)

William Hutchinson authored early histories of the Counties of Durham and Cumberland, topographies of Northumberland and the Lake District, plus novels, plays and the much reprinted "Spirit of Masonry" which saw five editions in his lifetime.

Stephen Kemble (1758 –1822)

Stephen Kemble was one of the greatest provincial theatre managers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

William Henry Lambton (1764-1797)

William Henry Lambton was the MP for Durham and installed as provincial Grand Master of Durham in 1788.

Charlotte Lowes / Deans (1768-1859)

Charlotte Lowes was a strolling player who worked across the north of England and left a valuable memoir of her career.

George W Meadley (1774-1818)

G.W. Meadley was a literary figure in eighteenth-century Sunderland.

William Newton (1730-1798) 

Newcastle-born William Newton exemplifies the new local builder-architect that catered to élite coal-rich clients