author
H. Fleetwood (Henry Fleetwood) Sheppard
1824–1901
An English clergyman with a strong ear for traditional song, this little-known Victorian writer helped preserve folk music from Devon and Cornwall for later generations. He is best remembered for his collaborations with Sabine Baring-Gould on hymn and song collections.
1 Audiobook
Songs of the West Folk Songs of Devon & Cornwall Collected from the Mouths of the People
by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould, F. W. (Frederick William) Bussell, H. Fleetwood (Henry Fleetwood) Sheppard
About the author
Born in London in 1824, Henry Fleetwood Sheppard was an Anglican clergyman who studied at Cambridge and was ordained in the 1850s. Alongside his church work, he became closely involved with music, especially hymnody and the collecting and editing of traditional songs.
Sheppard is most often linked with Sabine Baring-Gould. Together they worked on Church Songs and on Songs and Ballads of the West, an important collection of folk material from Devon and Cornwall. That work helped carry regional oral tradition into print, giving many older songs a wider audience.
Although he is not a widely famous literary figure today, Sheppard remains an interesting presence in the history of English folk-song collecting: a practical editor, church musician, and collaborator whose efforts helped preserve music that might otherwise have been lost. He died in 1901.