Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Land surveyor, of Dublin. Thomas Sherrard, who was born in Dublin in about 1750, was a pupil of BERNARD SCAL BERNARD SCAL É in Dublin. He was admitted to the Dublin Society's School of Figure Drawing in 1766 and again in 1770 and to the school of Landscape and Ornament Drawing in 1768.(1) In 1773 he exhibited 'Drawing of a survey' at the Society of Artists in Ireland,(2) and in March of the same year he placed a notice in the Hibernian Journal advising the public that he had set up in business as a land surveyor. However it seems that soon afterwards he and JOHN BROWNRIGG  JOHN BROWNRIGG were taken into partnership by Scalé, who left them in charge of his business in Ireland when he returned to live in England. An advertisement placed in Faulkner's Dublin Journal for 24-29 September 1774, announced that 'instructions fom persons residing in England or Foreign parts, will be received by Mr Scalé, at Mangrove near Burnwood [Brentwood], Essex; Domestic Commands as usual by Mssrs Brownrigg and Sherrard at their house, Lower Abbey-Street'. Scalé appears to have withdrawn from the Irish end of the business altogether in about 1777.

Entries in Wilson's Dublin Directory give some idea of Sherrard's business career after Scalé's departure for England. They indicate that Sherrard and Brownrigg parted company in 1778. Sherrard then practised alone for many years, building up what was to become the leading land surveying business in Ireland. Andrews notes that he had learned from his master, Scalé, the importance of keeping himself in the public eye by means of advertisements and announcements in the newspapers. In about 1800 he took his assistant RICHARD BRASSINGTON  RICHARD BRASSINGTON into partnership; in 1812 or 1813 Sherrard & Brassington were joined by a new partner in the person of their assistant CLARGES GREENE CLARGES GREENE , and when Greene left to set up his own business in the late 1820s, his place was taken by Samuel Gale (see GALE FAMILY GALE FAMILY ). Gale joined Brassington, who had for many years been running a second business in Dominick Street, in about 1832, when Brassington's association with Sherrard seems finally to have ceased. According to Bendell, pupils in the office of Sherrard, Brassington & Gale included JOHN BALL GREENE  JOHN BALL GREENE and ALEXANDER HARRISON. ALEXANDER HARRISON.

From the late 1770s Sherrard was employed by the Dublin Wide Streets Commissioners as a surveyor, and in 1789 he was appointed to the salaried post of clerk/secretary and surveyor to the Commission. His plan for widening Trinity Lane and College Green was approved by the Commissioners in February 1785, for Conyngham Road in 1786,(3) for Westmoreland Street in 1793;(4) other proposals by him are among the Wide Streets Commissioners maps in the National Archives.(5) Between 1791 and 1797 he produced a very large map of the city at the scale of eighty feet to an inch. By 1810(6) he was sharing the position of secretary and surveyor with his son DAVID HENRY SHERRARD.& DAVID HENRY SHERRARD.& #160;

Thomas Sherrard died on 11 March 1837 in his eighty-seventh year.(7) His wife, Mary, came from Drogheda. The baptisms of five daughters are recorded in the registers of St Thomas's' church, Dublin, between 1774 and 1781.(8) One of these daughters, Mary, married the secretary of the Irish Linen Board in 1796.  In 1833 he  married Jane Hill of Mountjoy Place, Dublin.(9)  He lived latterly at Coolock Lodge, Coolock, and was a chruchwarden of St John the Evangelist parish church, Coolock..(10)

'Mr Thomas Sherrard, Surveyor' was a subscriber to Thomas Malton's The Seats and Demesnes of the nobility and gentry of Ireland (Dublin, 1783-1794).   He gave his name to Upper and Lower Sherrard Streets, which were laid out in 1828.

Addresses: Work: 'At Mr William Sherrard's, Cork Hill, Dublin', 1773; 123 Abbey Street Lower, 1774-1776; 138 Abbey Street, 1779-1782; 60 Capel Street, 1782-1800; 1 Blessington Street, 1801-1828; 72 Blessington Street, 1829->1833.
Home: Coolock Lodge, Co. Dublin, 1832.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from J.H. Andrews, Plantation Acres (Ulster Historical Foundation, 1985), 278-284, and Wilson's Dublin Directory.


(1) Gitta Willemson, The Dublin Society Drawing Schools 1746-1876 (2000), 88.
(2) IALE II, 659.
(3) Niall McCullough, ed., A vision of the City: Dublin and the Wide Streets Commissioners (Dublin Corporation, 1991), 6,
(4) E. McParland, 'The Wide Street Commissioners', BIGS 15 (Jan-Mar 1972), 18.
(5) McCullough, op. cit., 9(illus.),17,18,20.
(6) Wide Streets Commissioners minutes, 2 May 1810 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(7) A transcript of his will of 1837, which was proved in the Prerogative Court, is in the National Archives (Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858 (Eneclann CD-ROM), Document ID 60012).
(8) R. Refaussé, ed., Register of the Parish of St Thomas, Dublin, 1750-1791 (1994), 60,62,63,66,67.
(9) The Warder, 7 Dec 1833 (information from Douglas Appleyard, Artane, Dublin, Aug 2019).
(10) Freeman's Journal, 6 Sep 1820, 19 Sep 1821 (information from Douglas Appleyard, as above).


4 work entries listed in chronological order for SHERRARD, THOMAS


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, WESTMORELAND STREET
Date: 1785;1793
Nature: TS instructed by Wide Streets Commissioners to consult James Wyatt about creating thoroughfare between Carlisle Bridge and Trinity College, 1785. TS instructed to prepare plans (unexecuted) for same, 1793.
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 420.


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, MOUNTJOY SQUARE
Date: 1787
Nature: Proposal (unrealised) for laying out square, with site in middle of square for rebuilding St George's church.
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 200-201


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, FREDERICK STREET NORTH, NO. 035 (LSE MOTOR CO)
Date: 1789
Nature: TS surveys fields to N of Cavendish Row with a view to laying out Frederick Street North. Plan of street laid before Wide Streets Commissioners (by TS?), 1790.
Refs: Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005), 206.


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, DRUMCONDRA ROAD UPPER, BELVIDERE HOUSE
Date: 1790
Nature: Bolger measures painting for Lord Primate (Robert Fowler?) by order of TS.
Refs: NA/PRO, Bolger MSS., 1A/58/125