Harwich was a "Treasury borough", where the government candidate was certain of success, but Sewell had his own interest in the town as well, since his father-in-law, Thomas Heath had been its MP earlier in the century.
Sheppard was not unique in combining a civil service career with mathematical research; an almost exact contemporary was Thomas Heath, the historian of Greek mathematics, who went higher in the Civil Service and became much better known as an author.
Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Edison | Thomas | Thomas Hardy | Thomas Mann | Thomas Aquinas | Clarence Thomas | Thomas Gainsborough | Dylan Thomas | Thomas Pynchon | St. Thomas | Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands | Edward Heath | Thomas Carlyle | Thomas the Tank Engine | Thomas Moore | Thomas Cromwell | Thomas Becket | Thomas the Apostle | Thomas Merton | Thomas Tallis | Thomas Paine | Small Heath | Roy Thomas | Thomas Telford | Thomas More | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Ryan Thomas | C. Thomas Howell | Thomas Kean |
By Lord Luxborough, she had a son, Henry, who married, 21 June 1750, a daughter of Thomas Heath of Stanstead, Essex, and died without issue in the lifetime of his father.