Shapard Origins and William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine: One Hundred Years of Misinformation and Confusion

          What if I told you that everything you thought you knew about the origin of the Shapard family history was wrong!

          The year was 1926 and a social interest in knowing one’s family pedigree was on the rise. Tired of being “painfully uncertain” of his ancestry, a gentleman from Virginia named William Shepard wrote the first pedigree of the Shepard family which was published in William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, under the title of “Shepard and Other Buckingham Families.” This article was significant, due to the fact that the Shepard family of Virginia resided in “burned counties,” of which, the majority of the records were destroyed during the Revolutionary War, Civil War and in subsequent courthouse fires; thus, to obtain information on the oldest generations, Mr. Shepard claimed that he gathered what little scraps remained and interviewed the older inhabitants for his research.

           After the article was published, Mr. Shepard reported that he was flooded with additional information regarding the Shepard family by the local inhabitants, in the form of letters dating from the 1780s-1812, documents, family bible entries, diary, stories, etc. - all of which were compiled in the publication of his second article, a year later, entitled, “Shepard and Other Buckingham Families, Part II.” The significance of his research for our family (being the ShApard family – spelled with an “A”) has always been the shadowy revelation of how the ShApard branch evolved from the ShEpard family tree. Within the pedigree of names listed in the article, a glimpse of “A”s began to appear in the spelling of the surnames that the author dismisses as, “clerical errors” in writing the name Shepard. As a result, this 1927 family history by William Shepard (which henceforth shall be referred to as the “W.S. history”) became the unquestioned cornerstone upon which all further Shapard research would be based for the next 87 years! It has been used ‘as gospel’ in the two books published about our family: A Shapard Family by Sarah Marsh Shapard (1980) and Shapard, A Family History by the Shapard Family Association (2004) and has been referenced in countless articles since 1927, regarding the numerous other surnames mentioned. Even today, these letters and articles are prevalent and referenced as "factual credible sources" on nearly all the genealogical websites (Ancestory.com, Worldfamilies.net, Geni.com, Wikitree.com, Findagrave.com, etc.). They are passed on from one source to the next, becoming interwoven in the fabric of every history about our family, without any regard to their veracity.    

               At first glimpse, the “W.S. history” is a wonderland of genealogical excitement, just the stuff one hopes to find in their family history. It is interlaced with letters from the demigod patriarchs of the early Shepard family discussing their Revolutionary War experiences, their pedigree with the powerful families of early Virginia and their personal stories and beliefs. The "W.S. history" also offers us a spoon-fed pedigree of forefathers via the "found" letters and diary entries: Samuel Shepherd I (1695 - 17??) who married Mary Kavanaugh beget; Samuel Shepherd II (1730 - 1794) who married Anne Burwell beget; “Lewis Thomas Shepard” (1759 - 1833), being rumored (by later researchers) to be the first to use the magic “A” in his name, thus the first true Shapard. The “W.S. history,” constructed the initial framework of our modern beliefs about our lineage and especially about "Lewis Thomas Shapard," in that: (1.) He was born in 1759, in Gloucester, Virginia. (2.) He was the son of Samuel Sheppard. (3.) He fought in the Revolutionary War. (4) In writing, he often dropped his first name ‘Lewis’ and used the name “L. Thomas Shepard.” (5.) He married Martha Paine (their children all used the Shapard surname) and moved to Tennessee. For 87 years this has been our family lore, the bedrock upon which we have built our lineage beliefs.

           In 2006, I began to pursue my family history with the dedication and passion of an Olympic athlete. Having literally ‘written the book’ on other Shapard patriarchs, I was thrilled, in 2013, to finally focus my research on Lewis Thomas Shapard. As I approached learning about Lewis, I decided to use only primary sources and forgo any assumptions or non-substantiated lore. An important source of information on Lewis Thomas Shapard was the “W.S. history” of 1926 and 1927. A major change in the approach that I took, compared to past historians, was to initially completely disregard the old letters published in the article and see if other sources would support or deny their claims. The old letters never felt ‘right’ to me and honestly I came to doubt their veracity based on their over emphasis on family lines within the play of the words. In addition, ALL of the records found by William Shepard to write his articles have mysteriously been LOST, thus there is no way to verify his information. This was a huge "red flag" of potential deception or fakery that I could not overlook.  His pedigree lines, however had a slightly better feel, possibly being recorded from a jumble of early court document or family Bibles. He listed the children of Samuel Shepard II as: “James Booker Shepard, Robert Shepard, William Shepard, b. 1758, Edward Shepard, Jacob Shepard, Susanna Shepard, Priscilla Shepard, Mildred Shepard, m. Anderson Williams, Samuel Shepard III, b. 1762, d. 1840, m. Susanna Holman, Lewis Thomas Shepard, lived in Tennessee , married Martha Paine.”

          In an effort to test the veracity of the William & Mary College Quarterly articles, I traced Lewis Shapard to Caswell County, North Carolina, where he appears in numerous sources beginning in 1795 through 1812. It was true that he married Martha Paine, as their marriage bond was located in Caswell County from 1796. Lewis had numerous interactions with his brother-in-law, Anderson Williams, who married, Mildred Shapard. There also were numerous interactions between Lewis and James Shapard and Booker Shapard. James died in Caswell County in 1836, and in his will he mentions his sister Mary. In 1802, Booker Shapard died in Caswell County and Lewis was the executor of his property and settled his debts. A search for Booker Shapard in the Estate Files of Caswell County yielded numerous documents of interest. In particular there was a receipt from “Thomas Shapard of Granville County, North Carolina” who paid a debt for his brother Booker Shapard in Caswell County. This evidence then led me to Granville County to find out how all these Shapards were related to Lewis Thomas Shapard.

           Granville County produced numerous Shapard documents which predated all others known from Caswell County by about 10 years, taking us to the 1780s. There I located the Rosetta Stone of documents, a diamond in the rough in the form of a court document from Deed Book T, page 49; whereby William Shapard, Sr. on February 2, 1807, deeded of all his property to trustees Thomas Shapard and Francis Royster in return for an annuity to be provided each Christmas by his children: “Samuel, Mildred, William, Elizabeth Royster, James, William Lewis, Thomas, Mary, John, Anne, Barnett and Robert.” Notice how in the punctuation there is “Mildred, William,” and also a “William Lewis” and “Anne, Barnett.” By altering the commas, we now have: Samuel, Mildred William(s), Elizabeth Royster, James, William, Lewis, Thomas, Mary, John, Anne Barnett and Robert.

           Further research has shown that “Samuel” was Samuel Booker Shapard who was an attorney, “Mildred” married Anderson Williams in 1786, “Elizabeth Royster” married Francis Royster in 1789, “James” died in 1836 and his sister “Mary” never married and died in Person County in 1829, “William” (b. 1771) moved to Richmond Virginia where he died in 1843, “John S. Shapard” married Elizabeth Vass and died in 1857 in Halifax County, Virginia, “Anne” married Joseph Barnett in 1804, “Robert” was born about 1786, “Thomas” married Francis (Fanny) Bailey in 1811, and “Lewis” was living in Caswell County as proved by another document from Granville County Deed Book S, whereby in 1806, William Shepherd, Sr., of Granville County gave property to his son Lewis Shepherd of Caswell County.

           So what are the implications of this discovery? All of the above evidence without a doubt proves that Lewis was the SON of William Shapard, Sr. (and not the son of Samuel Shepard II as stated by the letters of the W.S. history), thus a misplaced paternal patriarch has reassumed his rightful place within our family lines. It is known that William Shapard, Sr. used the magic “A” in the spelling of his name, thus Lewis was NOT the origin of the spelling of our name, and it now appears that his grandfather may hold that distinction, having used the Shapard spelling as early as 1739. William Shapard, Sr. married Mary Booker in 1762, therefore Lewis cannot have been born in 1759, but was born about 1773, as suggested by his birth order from the court documents. Due to his birth date, he would have been born in Cumberland County, Virginia (where his parents lived at the time) and not in Gloucester County, Virginia. Due to his birth date, it would have been impossible for him to have fought in the Revolutionary War (as portrayed in the letters of the W.S. history). In all of the documents regarding Lewis, he is never referred to as “L. Thomas Shepard" (as stated by the letters of the W.S. history), he only signs “L. Shapard” or “Lewis Shapard.” It is now proved how a grammatical error, made eighty-seven years ago, by the author of the “W.S. history” created the fictitious “James Booker Shapard” and “Lewis Thomas Shapard”. Clearly, these were FOUR brothers and not TWO… their names were joined due to a missing comma when listing the birth order of children: James, Booker, Lewis, Thomas…!

              Upon reflection of the articles authored by William Shepard and published about the Shepard family in the William and Mary College Quarterly from the 1920s through the 1940s, I have come to conclude that the contents of the letters are an absolute forgery and do not hold veracity when compared against other independent factual sources. I believe that the author had a collage of bits and pieces of information and invented a means for them to assimilate together, to create an impressive pedigree. I conclude that he dramatically altered the context of any original sources and fabricated later documents to “fit” the pedigree he had manufactured in 1927. As stated earlier, NONE of the "found" documents he claims he used to write his article have ever been located in any historical society archives, libraries, etc.

          We are now living in a “Lewis Shapard Era,” and leave the mistaken “Lewis Thomas Shapard Era” to the past. We are one step closer to TRUTH IN HISTORY. I urge all future Shapard research genealogists to not fall victim to the fictitious articles authored by William Shepard and published about the Shepard family in the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. They have done irreparable damage to the truth of our family's past and will no doubt continue to plague future historians. To restore our family tree to its most accurate representation I hope we, as a family, will unite and do everything we can to eradicate these letters from our histories and enlighten future generations on this matter.

1. “Shepard and Other Buckingham Families” by William Shapard, William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Second Series, 6, 1926, p. 148-145.

2. “Shepard and Other Buckingham Families, Part II” by William Shapard, William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Second Series, 7, 1927, p. 174-180.

3. Shapard, A Family History (Shapard Family Association, 2004).

4. Cumberland County Virginia Marriage Records, December 18, 1786, Mildred Shapard and Anderson Williams.

5. Caswell County North Carolina Marriage Bonds 1741 – 1868, Nov. 22, 1796- Lewis Shapard and Martha Paine.

6. Caswell County, North Carolina Estate Records, 1802 for Shepard, Booker.