not prosecuted but instead confirmed as a new judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta. Shipley was indicted at the Wrexham great sessions in April 1783 for publishing a seditious libel, and the trial was scheduled to be heard at the Denbighshire grand sessions in Wrexham that September, with judge Lloyd Kenyon presiding. The Society for Constitutional Information retained the barrister Thomas Erskine to act as Shipley's defence counsel. The trial was postponed, and finally heard by a jury at the Shrewsbury Assizes in August 1784, with Mr Justice Francis Buller presiding. Buller followed a submission of the prosecution—which accorded with general legal practice at the time—and directed that the jury was merely to reach a finding on whether the words were in fact published and on the meaning of the words (the innuendoes) as laid; but ruled that whether the words constituted a libel or not was a question of law for the court (i.e. the judge) to decide. However, the jury gave a verdict which stated that Shipley was guilty of publishing only, not of libel. Buller intervened to ask them to deliver a verdict on whether the pamphlet was libellous, but they refused, insisting that Shipley was guilty of "publishing only". Nevertheless, Buller held that the charges were made out, and convicted Shipley. Erskine brought an appeal to the Court of King's Bench in November 1784, arguing for a new trial on the grounds that the jury had been misdirected by Buller. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, turned down the request, but ruled that no part of the publication was criminal, and Shipley was discharged, to great public celebration in London and in north Wales. The case was instrumental in advancing the cause to return the decision of whether a publication is a libel to the jury, rather than being decided by the judge, finally enacted in Charles James Fox's Libel Act 1792 (32 Geo. III c. 60). Later life Although Shipley was discharged, his notoriety ended his chances of emulating his father by becoming a bishop, and he remained Dean of St Asaph until his death over 40 years later. He busied himself in arranging for repairs and alterations to the structure of St Asaph Cathedral. During his term in office, the chapter house was demolished in 1779, the choir was rebuilt, and a new episcopal throne, pulpit and reredos