Introduction

Biography

A weav­er and po­et, Thomas was the son of Sam­uel Sho­el and Mi­ri­am Hann. He mar­ried three times, to Phyl­lis Bool (May 3, 1782, Mon­ta­cute), Ma­ry Taun­ton, and Uni­ty Mur­ley (1773–1848).

Works

He com­posed se­ven books of psalm­ody.

William Lisle Bowles was a pa­tron of his mu­sic­al work. The sub­scrib­ers to Sho­el’s se­cond mu­sic­al col­lect­ion, Twenty-Four Psalm Tunes, in­clude com­pos­er Will­iam Gifford of near­by South Pe­ther­ton.