William Shaw (Gaelic scholar)
William Shaw (1749–1831) was a Scottish Gaelic scholar, writer, minister and Church of England cleric. He is known also as friend and biographer of
Life
Shaw was born on 3 February 1749 at Clachaig in the parish of Kilmorie on the Isle of Arran. He was educated at Ayr and at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A. in 1772. On leaving university he went to London, where he was employed by a merchant as a tutor. He became acquainted with Dr. Samuel Johnson, and was one of the literary coterie which met at Bolt Court and Streatham Park.[2]
Entering the ministry of the Church of Scotland, Shaw was presented by the Duke of Gordon, in July 1779, to the parish of Ardclach in the presbytery of Nairn; but resigned the charge 1 August 1780. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 17 May 1781. Induced by Johnson, he took holy orders in the Church of England, and subsequently graduated B.D. from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1800.[2]
On 1 May 1795 Shaw was presented to the rectory of
Gaelic language and literature
Shaw's first work, published by subscription, was An Analysis of the Gaelic Language, London, 1778 (2nd edition Edinburgh, 1778). Part of the "Proposals" for this work was written by Johnson.[2] The Elements of Gaelic Grammar (1801) of Alexander Stewart later took its place.[3]
Shaw also planned to collect the vocabulary of
After having travelled in Scotland and Ireland, Shaw completed and published A Galic and English Dictionary, containing all the Words in the Scottish and Irish Dialects of the Celtic that could be collected from the Voice and Old Books and MSS., 2 vols. London, 1780. On 20 January 1786 he won an action in the
In the controversy with
- Macpherson's claimed manuscript sources did not exist;
- While there were Irish epic sources, there were none in the Scottish Highland oral tradition; and
- Macpherson's grasp of Gaelic was slight.
Other works
Shaw also published:[2]
- Memoirs of the Life and Writing of … Dr. Samuel Johnson, containing many valuable Original Letters, and several interesting anecdotes, both of his literary and social connections. The whole authenticated by living evidence (anon.), London, 1785. Shaw's sources included Thomas Davies, and Johnson himself on his dealings with Thomas Osborne.[6][7]
- Suggestions respecting a Plan of National Education, with Conjectures on the probable Consequences of non-descript Methodism and Sunday Schools; Bath, 1801.
- The Life of Hannah More, with a Critical Review of her Writings, London, 1802. Under the pseudonym "the Rev. Sir Archibald MacSarcasm, bart." Part of the "Blagdon controversy", the book suggested that some of Hannah More's work should be burned.[8]
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-521-40747-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25271. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Jeff Strabone, Samuel Johnson: Standardizer of English, Preserver of Gaelic, ELH Vol. 77, No. 1 (Spring 2010), pp. 237–265, at p. 260. Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40664630
- ^ Sebastian Mitchell, Ossian and Ossianic Parallelism in James Barry's Works, Eighteenth-Century Ireland / Iris an dá chultúr Vol. 23 (2008), pp. 94–120, at p. 101. Published by: Eighteenth-Century Ireland Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27806926
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7266. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20885. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 978-0-8131-3128-3.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Shaw, William (1749-1831)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.