William Shaw

William Shaw (c1720-after 1777) was a Scot captured at the Battle of Culloden and deported to Virginia following the collapse of the Jacobite Rising of 1745 in favor of the Stuart dynasty. After the Battle of Culloden, 3,470 people were prisoners of the English. Of these, 936 were transported to the colonies, 222 were banished, 120 were executed, 88 died in prison, 58 escaped from prison, 76 received a conditional pardon, and 1,287 were released or exchanged. The fate of the remaining 684 is unknown. Those who were transported spent nearly two years in miserable conditions in English jails while the government negotiated with merchants. Finally, in the spring of 1747 the prisoners were taken from the jail in Liverpool, handcuffed in pairs, and locked in the holds of ships bound for America. The voyage took two months. The ships entered Chesapeake Bay on July 18th, and the merchants auctioned the prisoners as indentured servants.

The first reference to William Shaw is the Augusta County Fee Book under 1747, where he was mentioned as servant of Cornelius Murley (Chalkey 2:396). On 20 August 1748, the Augusta County Order Book, shows that the local court ordered "Iron collar about neck of William Shaw, servant of Daniel Morley to be taken off" (Chalkey 1:37). The timing of this order, less than a month after Jacobite prisoners were auctioned, strongly suggests that William Shaw was one of those prisoners.

He appears on Capt. Smith's 1766 list of tithables in Augusta County, with one tithable and a notation that he had no estate (Chalkey 2:419).

"Wm. Shaw of Capt. Stephens' Compy." appears on James McCorkle's list of those who took the Oath of Allegiance to the American cause in Montgomery County, Virginia on 5 December 1777.

In addition to his daughter Dorcas, he was probably the father of the James Shaw, who was surety for Dorcas' marriage in 1775. A William Shaw, Senior gave land to William, David and James Shaw, children of James Shaw, in 1790 in Nashville, Tennessee (Michael).

He might also have been father of the Barbara Shaw, born about 1749-1753, who married James Logan, later of Washington County, Virginia. They had a daughter, Dorcas Logan. James Logan was son of Robert Logan and Bethiah Shaw, married about 1739 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (Honneger).

From the book Scots Banished to the American Plantations: Margaret Shaw, 15, Spinner, Perthshire. and Mary Shaw, 40, Inverness, both Jacobites, prisoners at Carlisle and Lancaster. Transported from Liverpool on the Johnson, master William Pemberton. Landed at Port Oxford, Maryland 5 August 1747 (P) (PRO).

A different William Shaw, captured at Preston after the '15, was transported from Liverpool to Virginia on the Godspeed, master Arthur Smith, 28 July 1716, and sold to John Hawkins in Maryland 17 October 1716. James Shaw, whose labor contract was sold at Annapolis, Maryland, left descendants there. He might have been a relative of William Shaw.

Sources

• Justin Swanström, An Iron Collar Around His Neck, at SwanKnight.com, visited Mar. 22, 2019.