Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/453

 the thirty-sixth canon. [q. v.], bishop of Lincoln, who admired Shaw's book on the plague, added his own license, on a subscription ‘dictated and inserted’ by Shaw himself. [q. v.], who succeeded Fuller as bishop of Lincoln, was his correspondent. His school was very successful, and his house was full of boarders, including several who became divines in the established church. He wrote comedies for his scholars, ‘which they acted for the entertainment of the town and neighbourhood at Christmas time.’ He rebuilt the schoolhouse, and erected a gallery in the parish church for his scholars. On the passing of the Toleration Act (1689), he licensed his schoolhouse for nonconformist worship, preaching only between church hours (at noon), and attending the parish church with his scholars.

Shaw was of medium height and poor presence, with a sparkling eye, and brilliant conversational powers. He ‘would droll innocently,’ and could pour forth extempore prayer for two or three hours together ‘without tautology.’ He died on 22 Jan. 1696. He married a daughter of Ferdinando Pool (d. 1676), ejected from Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire. His son, Ferdinando Shaw, M.A., was ordained 14 April 1698, became minister of Friar Gate chapel, Derby, on 25 March 1699, published several sermons, as well as ‘A Summary of the Bible,’ 1730, 12mo, and died in 1744.

He published, besides sermons: His farewell sermon at Long Whatton is the eighth in ‘England's Remembrancer,’ 1663, 12mo.
 * 1) ‘The Voice of One crying in the Wilderness,’ 1666, 12mo; 1674, 12mo (includes ‘A Welcome to the Plague’ and two other pieces).
 * 2) ‘Immanuel,’ 1667, 12mo (supplementary to No. 2); 4th edit. Leeds, 1804, 12mo (with memoir from Calamy).
 * 3) ‘The Great Commandment … annex'd the Spiritual Man in a Carnal Fit,’ 1679, 12mo.
 * 4) ‘Words made Visible, or Grammar and Rhetoric,’ a comedy, 1679, 8vo.
 * 5) ‘The True Christian's Test,’ 1682, 8vo (consists of 149 meditations in two parts).
 * 6) ‘Grammatica Anglo-Romana,’ 1687, 8vo.
 * 7) ‘Ποικιλοφρόνησις: or, The Different Humours of Men represented at an Interlude in a Country School,’ 1692, 8vo.
 * 8) ‘An Epitome of the Latin Grammar,’ 1693.



SHAW, STEBBING (1762–1802), topographer, son of Stebbing Shaw (d. 1799), rector of Hartshorn in Derbyshire, was born near Stone in Staffordshire, probably in the spring of 1762. His mother's maiden name was Hyatt, and she owned a small estate in Staffordshire, which passed to her son. He was educated at Repton school, and on 24 May 1780 was admitted as pensioner at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Egerton Brydges, who came up at the same time. He graduated B.A. 1784, M.A. 1787, and B.D. 1796, was elected scholar on 4 Feb. 1784, fellow on 13 Jan. 1786, and took orders in the English church.

About 1785 Shaw went to live at the house of (Sir) Robert Burdett at Ealing, to superintend the education of his son, the future Sir [q. v.] In the autumn of 1787 tutor and pupil made a tour together ‘from London to the western highlands of Scotland;’ Shaw kept a private diary of their proceedings, which he published anonymously in 1788. It was received with little favour. He made a ‘tour to the west of England in 1788,’ and published an account of his travels in the following year. On this occasion he had studied the history of the places which he purposed visiting, and had made a careful investigation into the working of the mines in Cornwall. The book soon became popular, and was reprinted in Pinkerton's ‘Voyages’ and in Mavor's ‘British Tourists’ (1798 and 1809).

Brydges and he spent the autumn of 1789 in visiting the counties of Derby and Leicester, and in the summer of 1790 Shaw was in Sussex. In every parish he sought for information on the church and its leading families, and supplemented his collections by researches at the British Museum. The results of his investigations were embodied in the four volumes of the ‘Topographer for 1789 to 1791’ which were edited by Brydges and himself, and the magazine contained many of his illustrations. A continuation, called ‘Topographical Miscellanies,’ appeared in 1792, but only seven numbers, forming one volume, were issued.

Shaw retired to his father's rectory at Hartshorn in the summer of 1791, and while there conceived the idea of compiling the history of his native county of Staffordshire. With great industry and ambition for authorship, he was possessed of good general knowledge and of considerable skill in drawing. The first volume of the ‘