1893 text
Henry Sheres accompanied Lord Sandwich in his embassy to Spain, and returned to England in September, 1667, bearing letters from the ambassador (see September 8th, 22nd, 27th). He was an officer in the Ordnance, and served under Lord Dartmouth at the demolition of the Mole at Tangier in 1683. He was knighted about 1684. He translated Polybius (2 vols. 8vo., 1693), and also some of the “Dialogues” of Lucian, included in the translation published in 1711 (3 vols. 8vo.). Pepys bequeathed him a ring, and he died about 1713.
This text comes from a footnote on a diary entry in the 1893 edition edited by Henry B. Wheatley.
1 Annotation
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"SHEERES, Sir HENRY (d. 1710), military engineer and author, was son of Henry Sheeres of Deptford, a captain in the navy (Harl. Soc. Publ. viii. 516). In 1666 he accompanied Edward Montagu, first earl of Sandwich [q. v.], the English ambassador, to Spain in a diplomatic capacity. On his return in 1668 he became intimate with Pepys, who took a strong liking for him, but his attachment cooled owing to the advances which Sheeres, who was something of a poet, made to Pepys's wife. Sheeres left England for Tangier in May 1669, and resided in that colony as engineer for fourteen years (cf. A short Account of the Progress of the Mole at Tangier). He superintended the blowing up of the Mole in 1683, when the place was abandoned (Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. v. 102). He hastened to England in 1684 in order to defend, at court, George Legge, baron Dartmouth [q. v.], the admiral at Tangier, against accusations of peculation. Aided by Pepys, he was successful in this task, and thereby permanently established himself in Dartmouth's favour (ib. pp. 112–14). In 1685 he took part in the campaign against Monmouth as an officer of artillery, and was present at the battle of Sedgmoor (ib. pp. 126, 128). In July he was knighted for his services (Luttrell, Brief Relation, 1857, i. 355), and about the same time was made surveyor of the ordnance.....Sheeres, who was a member of the Royal Society, was the author of: 1. ‘A Translation of Polybius,’ 1693, 8vo. 2. ‘An Essay on the Certainty and Causes of the Earth's Motion,’ 1698, 4to. 3. ‘A Discourse on the Mediterranean Sea and the Streights of Gibraltar,’ 1703, 8vo. He also edited two pamphlets by Sir Walter Ralegh, ‘A Discourse on Seaports,’ 1700, and ‘An Essay on Ways and Means to maintain the Honour of England,’ 1701; and was part author of a translation of Lucian, published in 1711. A poem of his was prefixed to Southern's ‘Oronooko,’ 1696...." http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/She…