A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Shaw, Mary

SHAW, Mary (Mrs. Alfred Shaw), daughter of John Postans, messman at the Guard Room, St. James's Palace, was born in 1814. She was a student at the Royal Academy of Music from Sept. 1828 to June 1831, and afterwards a pupil of Sir George Smart. Miss Postans appeared in public as a contralto singer in 1834, and at the Amateur Musical Festival in Exeter Hall in November of that year attracted great attention by the beauty of her voice and the excellence of her style. In 1835 she was engaged at the Concert of Ancient Music and the York Festival, and about the end of the year became the wife of Alfred Shaw, an artist of some repute. In 1836 she appeared at the Charing Cross Hospital Festival at Exeter Hall, and at the Norwich and Liverpool Festivals, at the latter of which she sang the contralto part in Mendelssohn's 'St. Paul' on its first performance in England. In 1837 she was engaged at the Philharmonic and Sacred Harmonic Societies and Birmingham Festival. In 1838, after fulfilling an engagement at Gloucester Festival, she quitted England and appeared at the Gewandhaus concerts, Leipzig, under Mendelssohn. A letter from him to the Directors of the Philharmonic Society—Leipzig, Jan. 19, 1839—speaks of Clara Novello and Mrs. Shaw as 'the best concert-singers we have had in this country for a long time.' From Germany she proceeded to Italy, and appeared at La Scala, Milan, Nov. 17, 1839, in Verdi's opera, 'Oberto.' She returned to England in 1842 and appeared at Covent Garden in opera with Adelaide Kemble, and in 1843 at the Sacred Harmonic Society in oratorio with Clara Novello, and afterwards at Birmingham Festival. She had now reached the zenith of her reputation, when her career was suddenly arrested by a heavy visitation. Her husband became deranged, and the calamity so seriously shocked her whole system that the vocal organs became affected and she was unable to sing in tune. She then resorted to teaching, for three or four years appearing in public at an annual benefit concert. After her husband's death she married John Frederick Robinson, a country solicitor, and retired from the profession. She died at her husband's residence, Hadleigh Hall, Suffolk, Sept. 9, 1876, after suffering for three years from 'malignant disease of the breast.'

[ W. H. H. ]