Stebbing Shaw (1762 – 28 October 1802) was an English cleric, local historian and topographer. He is remembered as a

county historian English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or " chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was variable: m ...

of Staffordshire

Life

Stebbing Shaw was born in about the spring of 1762 near

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Borough of Stafford ...

. His father, also named Stebbing Shaw (died 1799), was rector of

Hartshorne, Derbyshire Hartshorne is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 3,888. It is north of the town of Swadlincote. The name is pronounced Harts-horne; the sh is not a digra ...

. His mother's maiden name was Hyatt, and she owned a small Staffordshire estate, which passed to her son. He was educated at

Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, independent, day and boarding school in the English public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school ...

, and on 24 May 1780 was admitted as pensioner at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, c ...

, where he made the acquaintance of

Sir Egerton Brydges Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet (30 November 1762 – 8 September 1837) was an English bibliographer and genealogist. He was also Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818. Educated at Maidstone Grammar School and The Kin ...

, who came up at the same time. He graduated B.A. 1784, M.A. 1787, and B.D. 1796, was elected scholar on 4 February 1784, fellow on 13 January 1786, and took orders in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. About 1785 Shaw went to live at the house of

Sir Robert Burdett, 4th Baronet Sir Robert Burdett, 4th Baronet (28 May 1716 – 13 February 1797) was a British politician and member of the English gentry. Burdett was the posthumous son of Robert Burdett, son of Sir Robert Burdett, 3rd Baronet of Bramcote, Warwickshire. His ...

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was hi ...

, to superintend the education of his grandson

Francis Francis may refer to: People *Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State and Bishop of Rome * Francis (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Francis (surname) Places *Rural ...

. Brydges and he spent the autumn of 1789 in visiting the counties of Derby and Leicester, and in the summer of 1790 Shaw was in Sussex. He retired to his father's rectory at Hartshorne in the summer of 1791. Shaw was elected fellow of the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

on 5 March 1795, and on 27 April 1799 he succeeded his father in the rectory of Hartshorne. At the end of his life he was examining the topographical and genealogical manuscripts in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. When he died in London on 28 October 1802 he is said to have been insane.

Works

In the autumn of 1787 Shaw and his pupil Francis Burdett made a tour to the western Highlands of Scotland. Shaw kept a diary, and he published it anonymously in 1788. He made a tour to the west of England in 1788, and published an account of his travels in the following year, having studied the mines in Cornwall. The book became popular, and was reprinted in

John Pinkerton John Pinkerton (17 February 1758 – 10 March 1826) was a Scottish antiquarian, cartographer, author, numismatist, historian, and early advocate of Germanic racial supremacy theory. He was born in Edinburgh, as one of three sons to J ...

's ''Voyages'' and in William Fordyce Mavor's ''British Tourists'' (1798 and 1809). The results of research by Shaw with Brydges appeared in the four volumes of the ''Topographer for 1789 to 1791'' which they edited, and the magazine contained many of his illustrations. A continuation, called ''Topographical Miscellanies'' appeared in 1792, as seven numbers, forming one volume. The first volume of Shaw's ''History and Antiquities of Staffordshire'' came out in 1798, and a fragment of the second volume was published in 1801. It contained many of his own illustrations, some of which had already appeared in the ''

Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term ''magazine'' (from the French ''magazine'' ...

''. A letter by Shaw was printed in John Pinkerton's ''Correspondence'', and he assisted John Nichols in his ''History of Leicestershire''.

Notes

Attribution

Life

Works

Notes

Further reading