she was a student at the Royal Academy of Music, and afterwards became a pupil of Sir George Smart. She made her first appearance in public as a contralto singer in 1834. At the amateur musical festival at Exeter Hall in the November of that year she attracted attention, and in 1835 she was engaged at the concert of ancient music and at the York festival. About the end of the year she married Alfred Shaw, an artist. In 1836 she sang at the Norwich and Liverpool festivals, at the latter taking the contralto part of Mendelssohn's ‘St. Paul’ on its first performance in England. In 1837 she appeared at the Philharmonic and Sacred Harmonic societies, and at the Birmingham festival. After singing at the Gloucester festival in 1838 she took part in the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig under Mendelssohn's direction. In a letter to the directors of the Philharmonic Society, dated 19 Jan. 1839, Mendelssohn speaks of Clara Novello [q. v.] and Mrs. Shaw as ‘the best concert singers we have had in this country for a long time.’ She next appeared at La Scala in Milan on 17 Nov. 1839 in Verdi's opera ‘Oberto.’ In 1842 she returned to England, and took part in operatic music at Covent Garden with Adelaide Kemble. In 1843 she sang at the Sacred Harmonic Society and at the Birmingham festival. Soon afterwards her husband became insane, and her distress of mind deranged her vocal organs so that she was unable to sing in tune. For three or four years she resorted to teaching, only appearing in public at an annual benefit concert. Eventually she married a second husband, John Frederick Robinson, a country solicitor, and retired from the profession. She died on 9 Sept. 1876 at her husband's residence, Hadleigh Hall, Suffolk.
[Grove's Dictionary of Music, iii. 485; Men of the Reign, p. 805; Athenæum, 1876, ii. 411.]
SHAW, PATRICK (1796–1872), legal writer, born at Ayr in 1796, was grandson of David Shaw, D.D., moderator of the general assembly in 1775, who is referred to by Burns in the ‘Twa Herds’ (Burns, Poetical Works, ed. Chambers, 1836, p. 56). His father was Charles Shaw, clerk of the county of Ayr. Alexander Shaw [q. v.], Sir Charles Shaw [q. v.], and John Shaw (1792–1827) [q. v.] were his brothers. In boyhood he lost his leg through an accident. In 1819 he was called to the Scottish bar, and in 1821 he commenced with his friend James Ballantine, and afterwards with Alexander Dunlop, a series of reports of the decisions in the court of session. In 1824 he commenced a similar series of reports of decisions in the House of Lords on appeal from the Scottish courts. These reports have been of great value to Scottish lawyers, and Shaw enhanced their usefulness by publishing supplementary digests of the decisions.
In 1848 Shaw was appointed sheriff of chancery, and he held the post till 1869, when he resigned owing to failing health. He died at 36 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, on 12 Feb. 1872. In 1860 he married the fourth daughter of William Fullarton of Skeldon, Ayrshire.
His publications are: 1. ‘Cases decided in the Court of Session,’ Edinburgh, 1821–1827, 5 vols. 8vo; new edition with notes, 1834, continued to 1838, vols. vi.–xvi., 1838–52. 2. ‘Cases decided in the House of Lords on Appeal from the Courts of Scotland,’ 1821–4, 2 vols. 8vo, 1824–6; from 1825 to 1834, 7 vols. 8vo, 1829–39; from 1835 to 1838, 3 vols. 8vo, 1836–9. 3. ‘Cases decided in the Court of Teinds from 1821 to 1831,’ Edinburgh, 1831, 8vo. 4. ‘Digests of Cases decided in the Courts of Session, Teinds, and Judiciary, and in the House of Lords from 1821 to 1833, and in the Jury Courts from 1815 to 1833,’ Edinburgh, 1834, 8vo; from 1832 to 1837, 2 vols. 1838, 8vo. 5. ‘Digest of Cases decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland from 1800 to 1842,’ 2 vols. 1843–4, royal 8vo; from 1842 to 1852, royal 8vo, 1852; new edition, 1868–9, 8vo. 6. ‘Forms of Process in the House of Lords, Court of Session, Privy Court, Court of Teinds, and Sheriff Court,’ Edinburgh, 1843, 2 vols. 8vo. 7. ‘Treatise on the Law of Obligation and Contracts in Scotland,’ 1847, 8vo. 8. ‘Principles of the Law of Scotland’ contained in Lord Stair's ‘Institutions,’ Edinburgh, 1863, 8vo. He also edited the sixth edition of Bell's ‘Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1858, 4to, and the fifth edition of Bell's ‘Principles of the Law of Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1860, 8vo.
[Private information; Scotsman, 16 Feb. 1872; Scott's Eccl. Fasti Scot. vol. ii. pt. i. p. 100; Allibone's Dict. of Authors.]
SHAW, PETER (1694–1763), physician and author, born in 1694, presumably at Lichfield, was the son of Robert Shaw, A.M., master of the grammar school at Lichfield, and the descendant of an old Berkshire family. After passing some years of professional life at Scarborough, he was practising physic in London in 1726, apparently without a degree or the licence of the College of Physicians, but did not permanently settle there until some years later. Meanwhile he was ‘usefully employed in facilitating the study of chemistry in England by his excellent
