ALS, DLC:GW.

This is probably the James Shaw (c.1747–c.1795) who immigrated to Maryland from Glasgow around 1769 and settled in Vienna, Dorchester County. Shaw built up modest holdings as a merchant in Vienna and served a number of terms in the state legislature. In 1788 he represented Dorchester County in the Maryland Ratifying Convention. John Shaw (1745–1829), the prominent Annapolis cabinetmaker, was his brother. Shaw presented no letters of recommendation and apparently did not receive the post he sought. It might well have been an unpopular appointment since he seems to have invoked considerable animosity from his fellow Marylanders. His appointment in January 1776 as a lieutenant in the Dorchester County militia was protested to the council of safety on the grounds that he was “a man odious to the people,” and he apparently engaged in a number of questionable mercantile practices during the Revolution. At the time of his death, Shaw was deeply in debt and accused of what amounted to fraud in his handling of several estates for which he was responsible (Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, description begins Edward C. Papenfuse et al., eds. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635–1789. 2 vols. Baltimore, 1979–85. description ends 2:728–29).