Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/443

Shaw property in charge of the Goldsmiths' Company, producing an annual sum of 17l., to found a school ‘for all boys of the town of Stockport and its neighbourhood,’ in which place his parents were buried. This school was considerably developed and its advantages extended by the Goldsmiths' Company (, ii. 252–3). Shaa also directed by his will that sixteen gold rings should be made as amulets or charms against disease, chiefly cramp. One of these rings, found in 1895 during excavations in Daubeney Road, Hackney, is now in the British Museum. On the outside are figures of the crucifixion, the Madonna, and St. John, with a mystical inscription in English; the inside contains another mystical inscription in Latin.

The lord mayor's brother, or  (d. 1484), styled John by More and Holinshed, and Raffe by Hall and Fabyan, may without much doubt be identified with Ralph Shaw, S. T. B., who was appointed prebendary of Cadington Minor in the diocese of London on 14 March 1476–7, and was esteemed a man of learning and ability. He was chosen by the Protector (afterwards Richard III) to preach a sermon at St. Paul's Cross on 22 June 1483, when he impugned the validity of Edward IV's marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, and even asserted, according to More, that Edward IV and his brother Clarence were bastards. Fabyan states that he ‘lived in little prosperity afterwards,’ and died before 21 Aug. 1484 (, Life of Richard III, 1878, pp. 100–4; F, Chronicle, 1811, p. 669;, Life of Richard III, ed. Lumby, pp. 57, 70; , Chronicles, ed. Hooker, iii. 725, 729; , Chronicle, 1809, p. 365; , Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, ii. 372).

[Orridge's Citizens of London and their Rulers, pp. 116–20; Sharpe's London and the Kingdom, i. 320–2; Price's Historical Account of the Guildhall, p. 186; Watney's Hospital of St. Thomas of Acon, pp. 51–3; Sharpe's Calendar of Husting Wills, ii. 612–17; Prideaux's Memorials of the Goldsmiths' Company, 1896, passim; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. xii. 345.]

 SHAW, FREDERICK (1799–1876), Irish politician, born at Bushy Park, co. Dublin, on 11 Dec. 1799, was second son of Sir Robert Shaw, bart., by his wife Maria, daughter and heiress of Abraham Wilkinson of Bushy Park. The father, a Dublin banker, sat in the Grattan parliament (1798–1800) for Bannow Borough, co. Wexford, voting against the union, and was afterwards for twenty-two years (1804–26) member for Dublin city in the imperial parliament. He also served the office of lord mayor of Dublin, and was created a baronet in 1821.

Frederick, the second son, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1816, but shortly afterwards removed to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1819. In 1822 he was called to the Irish bar and quickly attained a considerable practice. In 1826 he was appointed recorder of Dundalk, an office which he vacated two years later on his nomination to the recordership of Dublin.

His father's influence, combined with his own abilities, soon led to his selection as one of the tory candidates for the representation of Dublin. In 1830 he successfully contested the city, defeating Henry Grattan's son. At the general election of 1831 he was unsuccessful, but was awarded the seat on petition, and held it for the brief remainder of the unreformed parliament. Each of his elections for the unreformed constituency of Dublin cost him 10,000l. At the election which followed the Reform Act he was returned in conjunction with Serjeant (afterwards Chief-justice) Lefroy for the university of Dublin; and between 1830 and his retirement from parliament in 1848 he was four times re-elected for the same constituency.

In the House of Commons Shaw rapidly acquired a reputation. Possessing debating talents of a high order, he became the recognised leader of the Irish conservatives, and was regarded as the most capable opponent of O'Connell, though he did not take the extreme tory view of any question, and had been a supporter of catholic emancipation before that measure was passed. His most considerable parliamentary achievement was in the debate on the charges brought by O'Connell against Sir William Cusack Smith [q. v.], one of the Irish judges. O'Connell had on 13 Feb. 1834 carried by a majority of ninety-three a motion for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the conduct of Baron Smith in introducing political topics in his judicial charges. A week later a motion to rescind this resolution was carried, notwithstanding ministerial opposition, as a result mainly of Shaw's eloquent vindication of the accused judge.

On the accession to office of Sir Robert Peel in 1834 Shaw declined on professional grounds all preferment beyond a seat in the Irish privy council. During this short administration he was, however, the chief adviser of Lord Haddington's Irish government, which was called by opponents the Shaw viceroyalty (, Ireland and its Rulers, ii. 245–65). On the return of the whigs to office Shaw became one of Peel's most active colleagues in opposition, being in the opinion of Mr. Gladstone ‘a ready, bold, and vigorous debater, able to hold his