The Reverend Augustus Shears (25 July 1827 - 25 May 1911) was the sixth and youngest son of Daniel Towers Shears (1784 1860), a partner of James Shears and Sons, and Frances Spurrell (1788 1834), daughter of John Spurrell of Bessingham, Norfolk.

Born on in Wimbledon, he was educated at Rugby and St John's College, Cambridge, and in 1851 was ordained a deacon in the Church of England.^[1]

After serving as Curate of the parishes of Lutterworth, Leicestershire (1851 1853), Escrick, Yorkshire (1853 1855), and Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire (1855 1859), he worked as a missionary in Moulmein, Burma (1859 1862), where he set up a school and translated part of the Book of Common Prayer into Burmese.^[2]

Having returned to England due to ill health, he became Curate of Ardingly, Sussex (1862 1864), Heathfield, Sussex (1864 1866), Southover, Sussex (1866 1868), and then St. Bartholomew's, Chichester, Sussex (1868 1873). He then went on to become Vicar of Sileby, Leicestershire (1873 1894), and later Rector of Black Notley, Essex (1894 1907).

He died at Southsea on 25 May 1911.

On 2 May 1861 Augustus Shears married Annie Williams, daughter of the missionary Rev. Jackson Muspratt Williams (who died in Madras in 1832 aged 30) and sister of Major General Jackson Muspratt-Williams (1831 1901), and had three children, the eldest of whom, Augustus Jackson Shears, went on to become a barrister at the Middle Temple.

Augustus Shears was a cousin of Rev. Ernest Henry Shears and Rev. Frederick Spurrell.

References