Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/445

Shaw to assist him in his ‘Cathedral Antiquities of England,’ and supplied most of the illustrations of Wells Cathedral and many of that of Gloucester. In 1823 he published ‘A Series of Details of Gothic Architecture,’ and in 1829, with plates drawn and engraved by himself, ‘The History and Antiquities of the Chapel at Luton Park,’ an exquisite specimen of the most florid style of Gothic architecture, destroyed by fire in 1843. These were followed by other antiquarian works of great interest, such as ‘Illuminated Ornaments of the Middle Ages, selected from Manuscripts and early printed Books,’ with descriptive text by Sir Frederic Madden, 1833; ‘Examples of Ornamental Metal Work,’ 1836; ‘Specimens of Ancient Furniture,’ with descriptions by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick [q. v.], 1836; ‘Ancient Plate and Furniture from the Colleges of Oxford and the Ashmolean Museum,’ also with descriptive text by Sir S. R. Meyrick, 1837; ‘Specimens of the Details of Elizabethan Architecture,’ with descriptions by Thomas Moule, 1839; ‘The Encyclopædia of Ornament,’ 1842; ‘Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages,’ 1843; ‘The Fishmongers' Pageant, on Lord Mayor's Day, 1616: Chrysanaleia, the Golden Fishing, devised by Anthony Munday,’ with introduction by John Gough Nichols, 1844; ‘Alphabets, Numerals, and Devices of the Middle Ages,’ 1845; ‘Decorative Arts, ecclesiastical and civil, of the Middle Ages,’ 1851; ‘The Hand Book of Mediæval Alphabets and Devices,’ 1853; ‘The Arms of the Colleges of Oxford,’ 1855; ‘Specimens of Tile Pavements,’ 1858; and ‘Handbook of the Art of Illumination as practised during the Middle Ages,’ 1866. Most of these are rendered of permanent value by the knowledge and taste displayed in the selection of the examples by which they are illustrated, and by the careful drawing and colouring of the plates.

Shaw was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1833, and contributed a few papers to its ‘Proceedings,’ of which the most important was an ‘Account of the Remains of a Tile Pavement recently found within the precincts of Chertsey Abbey, Surrey’ (Proceedings, 1856, iii. 269–77). He edited in 1848 a reproduction of Walter Gidde's ‘Booke of sundry Draughtes principally seruing for Glaziers, and not impertinent for Plasterers and Gardeners,’ originally published in 1615. He also designed or adapted, and drew on the wood, the initial letters and all the decorative portions of Longman's edition of the New Testament, published in 1864. He likewise executed some excellent work in the form of illuminated addresses and testimonials.

Shaw died at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, on 12 June 1873. His copy of ‘Illuminated Ornaments,’ highly finished by his own hand, is in the library of the British Museum.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists, 1878; Athenæum, 1873, i. 798; Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, ed. Bohn, iv. 2371; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

 SHAW, JAMES (1764–1843), lord mayor of London, son of John Shaw, an Ayrshire farmer, whose ancestors had occupied the property of Mosshead for three centuries, and of Helen, daughter of David Sellars of the Mains, Craigie, Ayrshire, was born at Mosshead in the parish of Riccarton in 1764. On his father's death, about five years later, the family moved to Kilmarnock, where James Shaw was educated at the grammar school. When seventeen years old he went to America to join his brother David, who held a position in the commissariat service, and by his interest was placed in the commercial house of Messrs. George and Samuel Douglass at New York. Three years later he returned to Britain, and was made a junior member of the firm in London. In 1798 he was elected alderman for the ward of Portsoken, in 1803 became sheriff of London and Middlesex, and in 1805 was chosen lord mayor. He distinguished himself in this office by reviving the right of the city to precedence on public occasions, and exercised his privilege at the funeral of Lord Nelson, when many of the royal family took part in the procession.

From 1806 to 1818 Shaw sat in parliament as member for the city of London as an independent tory (Official Returns of Members of Parliament, ii. 233, 247, 261). Having been created a baronet in September 1809, Sir James continued an alderman till 1831, when he was elected chamberlain of London. In this position he was threatened with a serious misfortune. He inadvertently invested 40,000l. held by him as banker to the corporation in the spurious exchequer bills with which the market at that time was flooded. On discovering his error he made immediate preparations to sacrifice almost his entire private fortune to make good the loss. A government commission, however, completely exonerated him, and he was repaid the full amount. In May 1843 he resigned the office of chamberlain, and on 22 Oct. of the same year he died, unmarried, at his house in America Square.

Sir James was peculiarly zealous in aiding his fellow-countrymen. Among other kindnesses he succeeded in procuring a provision for the widow of Robert Burns and commissions for her sons. In 1848 a statue