Highland Scots - Inverness & area:
Edward Shaw

For family tree see Shaw (Demerara and Berbice) on Ancestry (subscription required)

When Roderick Macdonell arrived in Demerara from Inverness in 1809 he wrote to his father, referrring to two Shaw brothers, sons of a ‘carrier’ in Inverness. They were both overseers on the Golden Fleece plantation (NAS GD128/9/2).

One of these was ‘Edward Shaw Esq’, commemorated in the Chapel Yard, Inverness, where he is described as ‘for many years of the colony of Demerara’. He had returned to Inverness before 1830 when he married Marjory Mackintosh Lee [1803-72]. In 1834 he wrote his will before returning to Demerara to wind up his affairs there and in 1835 he received compensation of £1382 19s 4d for the emancipation of 25 slaves [LBS BG 920]. He returned to Inverness where he lived as a prominent member of society, supporting many good causes, and died at 60 Academy Street, Inverness in 1869, aged 79, described as a 'West India planter' [GROS 098/00 0027]. His estate was valued at £4623 4s 4d, including an investment of £790 in the Great Western Railway Company [Will SC29/44/14].

The other brother was probably David Shaw, who 'got out to Berbice and found James [Baillie Fraser], who took him into his service – and behaves with all industry and modesty remarkably well – so that James now has a good overseer' [Fraser of Reelig papers].

Their father (commemorated on an adjoining stone in the Chapel Yard) was ‘David Shaw, farmer, Inverness’, who in his will (SC29/44/2) is described as ‘farmer and horse hirer in Inverness’. Their mother, Ann Fraser, had been a nurse to some of the Fraser of Reelig children [Fraser of Reelig papers].