Sheepshanks, JOHN

Sheepshanks, JOHN, a munificent art-patron who left his priceless collection of pictures to the nation, was born at Leeds in 1787, and succeeded on his father's death to the management of an extensive and prosperous cloth manufacture. Retiring from business, he devoted himself to collecting the works of modern British artists, especially those of Landseer, Mulready, and Leslie. These in 1856 he presented to the nation; and his collection of over 230 oil-pictures and some 100 drawings and sketches were sufficient to furnish out three rooms at South Kensington. He died at London, 6th October 1863.—His brother, the Rev. Richard Sheepshanks (1794-1855), did valuable work as an astronomer, and in helping to restore the British standards of weights and measures, destroyed in 1834 by the burning of the Houses of Parliament.