Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw

Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw

Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court & father-in-Law of author Herman Melville

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 42435764
• Chief Justice Shaw's Papers
• Letters to Lemuel Shaw, Harvard Library

Chief Justice Shaw was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on January 9, 1781, the son of Rev. Oakes Shaw and Susanna Hayward Shaw. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1800, taught for a year at South Reading School in Boston, and, in the fall of 1801, entered the law office of David Everett. In 1804, he was admitted to the bar of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, and the bar of the Court of Common Pleas, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He opened a private practice in Boston in 1805 and joined the office of Thomas A. Selfridge later that year.

Shaw took a strongly Federalist position in politics and made several speeches in support of the candidacy of Christopher Gore for governor. From 1811 to 1815, Shaw served as a representative to the Massachusetts General Court and became a prominent leader in the community: he was a director (and later counsel) of the New England Bank and the first secretary of the Washington Benevolent Society, a Federalist political organization. He addressed the Humane Society of Massachusetts and delivered the 1815 Fourth of July oration in Boston. After his tenure at the General Court, Shaw returned to full-time practice of the law, partnering with Daniel Rockwood. Between 1818 and 1820, he was a selectman of Boston, a member of the Boston School Committee, and a fire warden of Boston.

In 1820, Shaw returned to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he was one of the managers of the impeachment proceedings against Probate Judge James Prescott. He also served as a member of the 1820 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. A state senator from 1821-1822, he worked with Asahel Stearns and Theron Metcalf on a commission to revise the laws of the Commonwealth and drafted the act of incorporation and the charter of Boston. Shaw resumed his law practice in 1822 with a new partner, Sidney Bartlett, but he continued to participate in local politics: he was a school committeeman from 1827 to 1831, a representative in 1829, and the head of a Boston committee opposing the tariff in 1829. An active participant in Harvard affairs, he served as a member of the Board of Overseers from 1831 to 1853 and a fellow from 1834 until his death.

As a young man, Lemuel Shaw had been engaged to Nancy Melvill, the daughter of Major Thomas Melvill, but she had died before the couple could marry. In 1818, Shaw married Elizabeth Knapp, the daughter of Boston merchant Josiah Knapp. She died in 1822, leaving him with two children: John Oakes Shaw and Elizabeth Shaw. (Elizabeth Shaw would later marry author Herman Melville.) Lemuel Shaw re-married in August 1827, and he and his second wife, Hope Savage Shaw, had two sons: Lemuel Shaw, Jr., and Samuel Savage Shaw.

When Chief Justice Isaac Parker of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court died in July 1830, Governor Levi Lincoln appointed Lemuel Shaw to the post. During his 30-year tenure on the bench, Shaw wrote approximately 2,200 opinions and presided over many cases dealing with emerging industry and public utilities. He had enormous influence in railroad and common-carrier cases. With Farwell v. Boston & Worcester R.R. (1842), he established the "fellow servant" rule in American law, which prevented an employee, injured through the negligence of a fellow employee, from bringing suit against his employer. Shaw's ruling in Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) repudiated criminal-conspiracy prosecutions of labor unions. And in the case of Commonwealth v. Alger (1850), he helped to delineate more clearly the police power of the state.

Though Shaw's reputation as chief justice is based primarily on his decisions related to problems of industry, he presided over many controversial cases, including cases of arson and murder. Commonwealth v. Buzzell (1834) involved the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Mass., by anti-Catholic rioters. In Commonwealth v. Rogers (1844), Shaw sought to broaden the tests for legal insanity by incorporating the doctrine of "irresistible impulse." His opinion in Roberts v. City of Boston (1850) was the first American ruling on the subject of segregation. And in Commonwealth v. Webster (1850), Shaw sentenced John White Webster, convicted of the murder of George Parkman, to hang. Shaw was also involved in various cases of freedom seekers, including that of Thomas Sims (1851), who was arrested in Boston and whom Shaw refused to release. Shaw's opinion in the Sims case was the first extensive sustention of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

Lemuel Shaw died on March 30, 1861.

SOURCES

• Adlow, Elijah. The Genius of Lemuel Shaw: Expounder of the Common Law. Boston: Massachusetts Bar Association, 1962.
• Chase, Frederic H. Lemuel Shaw: Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1830-1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918.
• Levy, Leonard W. The Law of the Commonwealth and Chief Justice Shaw. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957.
• Shaw, Samuel S. "Lemuel Shaw, Early and Domestic Life." Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. Vol. 4. Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Society, 1885. 200-229.

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"... Shaw was an American jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court (1830–1860). He also had served for several years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as a state senator..."

"...Shaw was born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, the second son of Oakes Shaw and his second wife Susanna, who was a daughter of John H. Hayward of Braintree. The Shaws were descendants of Abraham Shaw, who left Halifax, England in 1636 and settled in Dedham. Oakes Shaw, a Congregationalist minister, was pastor of the West Church in Barnstable for forty-seven years. Lemuel was named for his uncle, Dr. Hayward of Boston, father of George Hayward, the surgeon..."

"...On January 6, 1818, he married Elizabeth Knapp, daughter of Josiah Knapp of Boston. She died in 1822, leaving a son and a daughter, Elizabeth, who became the wife of author Herman Melville..."

"...On August 29, 1827, Shaw married Hope Savage, daughter of Dr. Samuel Savage of Barnstable; they had two sons..."

"...His exceptionally long judicial career coincided with the development of many important industries, so that he made law on such matters as water power, railroads and other public utilities. Probably no other state judge has so deeply influenced commercial and constitutional law throughout the nation. Almost all the principles laid down by him have proved sound, although his remarkable skill in expounding the fellow-servant rule considerably delayed the replacement of that rule by workmen’s compensation..."

"...In politics he was a Federalist and a Webster Whig, but remained all his life a free-trader. He attended Unitarian services, though he was never a communicant. Fond of entertaining and dining out, he was simple and affectionate in his home life, his interest in the social events of his household extending to the minutest details. After his resignation from the bench, his health failed, and he died within a few months. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery..."

Name Samuel Shaw
Gender Male
Residence Date About 1860
Residence Place Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Will Date 19 June 1860
Probate Date 19 June 1860
Probate Place Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States
Inferred Death Year 1860
Inferred Death Place Massachusetts, United States
Case Number 43419
Others Listed (Name) Relationship

Samuel Shaw
Hope S. Shaw Wife
John Oakes Shaw Son
Joseph W. Clark Relative (Other Relative)
Elizabeth Shaw Melville Daughter
Herman Melville Relative (Other Relative)
Lemuel Shaw, Jr. Son
Samuel Savage Shaw Son
Lucia A. Blish Nephew
Ariadne Shaw Daughter
Benjamin R. Curtis Relative (Other Relative)
Elizabeth Craigie Relative (Other Relative)
Deborah Hastings Relative (Other Relative)
Catherine Lawless Relative (Other Relative)

Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991

SOURCE: Wikipedia contributors, 'Lemuel Shaw', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 June 2011, 11:39 UTC, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lemuel_Shaw&oldid=434571985> [accessed 15 September 2011]

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Lemuel Shaw was Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1830-1860.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Lemuel Shaw (January 9, 1781 - March 30, 1861), was a United States jurist.

He was born at West Barnstable, Massachusetts, son of the minister of the West Parish there. He graduated from Harvard College in 1800, and was admitted to the bar (of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts) in 1804. In 1805 he began to practice law in Boston. He was a prominent Federalist and was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1811-1814, in 1820, and in 1829, and of the state Senate in 1821-1822, a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1820-1821, and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state from 1830 to 1860.

As justice Shaw maintained the high standard of excellence set by Theophilus Parsons. He presided over the trial in 1850 of Professor John White Webster (1793-1850) for the murder of Dr George Parkman.

His work in extending the equity, jurisdiction and powers of the court was especially notable. He was also largely instrumental in defeating an attempt (1843) to make a reduction of salary apply to judges already in office, and an attempt (1853) to abolish the life term of judges. His opinion in Cary v. Daniels (8 Metcalf) is the basis of the present law in Massachusetts as to the regulation of water power rights of riparian proprietors. His ruling in favor of the constitutionality of school segregation in Roberts v. City of Boston (1849) established "separate but equal" as a legal doctrine.

His daughter Elizabeth was married to the author Herman Melville.

See the address by BF Thomas in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, x. 50-79 (Boston, 1869); and the sketches by Samuel S Shaw and P Emory Aldrich in vol. iv. pp. 200-247, of Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, 1885).

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Dec 28 2021, 5:49:25 UTC