John Sheppard

English composer and singer of the Renaissance period (c. 1515 – December 1558).

Very little is known about Sheppard's life. He claimed to have been composing music (not just singing it) as early as 1534, indicating a birth year somewhere in the mid-1510s. Some of his Anglican music survives with indications of being written during the reign of King Edward, and he did compose a Mass in the tradition of John Taverner's Western Wynde. By 1557, the composer was well enough respected in the English court to present Queen Mary with a roll of songs on New Years' Day of that year.