Richard Sherry

Richard Sherry was an English schoolteacher and author active in the mid-16th century. He is chiefly remembered for A Treatise of Schemes and Tropes (1550), often described as an early English guide to rhetorical figures and expressive style.

Sources also connect him with Magdalen College, Oxford, and with school teaching, which fits the strongly practical tone of his writing. His work aimed to make ideas from classical grammar and rhetoric more accessible to English readers at a time when such material was still often taught through Latin.

Very little biographical detail seems firmly documented, so his life is usually sketched only in outline. What has lasted is the usefulness of his writing: his books offer a glimpse of how Renaissance educators tried to train clear, persuasive readers and speakers in English.