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SEE OXFORD DNB: Shepard, Thomas (16051649), minister in America [also known as Shepard, Thomas]; also T. Shepard, Autobiography, God's plot: puritan spirituality in Thomas Shepard's Cambridge, ed. H. McGiffert, rev. edn (1994).
Oxford DNB notes that Shepard, ' accepted the invitation of the people of Earls Colne, near Coggeshall, Essex, to serve as their minister in a three-year lectureship endowed by a Dr Wilson and originally intended for the town of Coggeshall.' Although in 1630 the parishioners pledged £40 to maintain the lectureship, Laud silenced Shepherd the same year for nonconformity.