Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/452

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Shaw
444
Shaw

ling as a merchant, but taking with him, besides such goods as seemed likely to find purchasers in Central Asia, a prismatic compass and Rawlinson's ‘Herodotus.’ He reached Yarkund on 8 Dec., Kashgar on 11 Jan. 1869; being the first Englishman to visit those places. At Kashgar, though not allowed to enter the city, he was treated with marked civility by Yakub Beg, the ruler of the country who, mainly in consequence of the advice given him by Shaw, despatched an envoy to India asking that a British officer might be sent to arrange a treaty. Shaw returned by the Karakoram Pass, and proceeded to England. While preparing an account of his journey for the press, he heard that Lord Mayo had decided to send an official mission to Eastern Turkestan. He at once telegraphed an offer of his services, which being accepted, he accompanied Mr. (afterward Sir Douglas) Forsyth on his first mission. Yakub Beg, when they arrived at Yarkund (3 Aug. 1870), was in another part of his dominions, and the mission came back with its principal object unachieved. Shaw returned to England, where in 1872 the Royal Geographical Society awarded him the patron's gold medal, Sir Henry Rawlinson stating that this distinction was given him ‘for the services he had rendered to the cause of geography in exploring Eastern Turkestan; and above all for his very valuable astronomical observations.’ In recognition of his service to government, Lord Mayo appointed him to the political department, and he was made British joint commissioner in Ladak. In 1875 he went to Yarkund in charge of the ratified treaty made by Sir Douglas Forsyth in 1874. In 1878 he was appointed resident at Mandalay in Upper Burma. During the troubles that ensued on the death of the king Mengdun (October 1878), his position at the residency was one of great danger; but throughout the crisis he acted with courage and discretion. He wrote to the king Thebaw, who was massacring kinsfolk and rivals wholesale, that if any further murders took place he should, without waiting for orders from Calcutta, at once haul down the British flag; and he sent at the same time his assistant to explain the consequences such a measure would involve. He died at Mandalay on 15 June 1879.

He published: 1. ‘A Visit to High Tartary, Yarkund, and Kashgar,’ London, 1871. 2. ‘A Sketch of the Turki Language as spoken in Eastern Turkestan,’ Lahore, 1875, 8vo. 3. ‘The Ghalchah Languages,’ Calcutta, 1876. He contributed to the Royal Geographical Society's ‘Proceedings’ ‘The Position of Pein, Charchand, and Lob Nor’ (xvi. 242); and ‘A Prince of Kashgar (Mirza Haidar, Doghlat) on the Geography of Turkistan’ (xx. 482); and to the Royal Asiatic Society's ‘Transactions’ ‘On the Hill Canton of Salar, the most easterly Settlement of the Turki Race’ (x. 305, new series).

[Obituary notice by Lord Northbrook in R.G.S. Proceedings (new series), i. 523; Parliamentary Papers, Burma, 1886; information supplied by Shaw's nephew, Major G. J. Younghusband, Queen's own corps of Guides.]

S. W.


SHAW, SAMUEL (1635–1696), nonconformist divine, son of Thomas Shaw, blacksmith, was born at Repton, Derbyshire, in 1635. From Repton grammar school he went to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted sizar, 23 Dec. 1650, and graduated B.A. In 1656 he was appointed master of the grammar school at Tamworth, Warwickshire. His first publication was a funeral oration (1657) for Thomas Blake [q. v.], vicar of Tamworth. Before 15 Sept. 1657 he was called to be curate of the chapelry of Moseley, under John Hall, vicar of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire [see Hall, Thomas, (1610–1665)]. There being no classis in Worcestershire, he was ordained by the presbyterian classis of Wirksworth, Derbyshire, on 12 Jan. 1658. Some months later he was presented by Cromwell to the sequestered rectory of Long Whatton, Leicestershire (a crown living). His approbation and admission by the ‘Triers’ are dated 28 May 1658, and he took possession on 5 June. Walker errs in affirming that the sequestered rector, Henry Robinson (half-cousin of Archbishop Laud), regained the living at the Restoration. His death enabled Shaw to obtain a crown presentation under the great seal (1 Sept. 1660), and the act of the Convention parliament passed in the same month made good his title without institution. Next year, however, Shaw was removed (1661) from the living at the instance of Sir John Pretyman; he obtained no other, and the Uniformity Act (1662) disqualified him, as he refused to submit to reordination. He removed to Coates, in the parish of Prestwould, Leicestershire. Some relatives brought the plague thither from London in 1665, and Shaw lost two children. At the end of 1666 he removed to Ashby-de-la-Zouche, Leicestershire, and was appointed master of the grammar school there in 1668. Through Edward Conway, earl of Conway, he obtained a license (26 Dec. 1670) from Archbishop Sheldon, on a modified subscription, namely to the first, third, and first half of the second article, specified in