Lemuel Shaw
| Lemuel Shaw | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 19th Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | |
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In office August 30, 1830 – August 21, 1860 |
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| Appointed by | Levi Lincoln, Jr. |
| Preceded by | Isaac Parker |
| Succeeded by | George Tyler Bigelow |
| Personal details | |
| Born | January 9, 1781 West Barnstable, Massachusetts |
| Died | March 30, 1861 (aged 80) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Federalist, Whig |
| Spouse(s) | Hope Savage (m. 1827-1861, his death) Elizabeth Knapp (m. 1818–1822, her death) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University Harvard College |
Lemuel Shaw (January 9, 1781 – March 30, 1861) was an American jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1830–1860). Prior to his appointment he also served for several years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as a state senator. In 1847 Shaw became the father-in-law of author Herman Melville.
Shaw was born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, the second son of Oakes Shaw and his second wife Susanna, who was a daughter of John H. Hayward of Braintree. The Shaws were descendants of Abraham Shaw, who left Halifax, England in 1636 and settled in Dedham. Oakes Shaw, a Congregationalist minister, was pastor of the West Church in Barnstable for forty-seven years. Lemuel was named for his uncle, Dr. Hayward of Boston, father of George Hayward, the surgeon.
Educated at home by his father except for a few months at Braintree, he entered Harvard in 1796. There, he taught school in winter vacations. After graduating with high honors in 1800, he taught for a year in a Boston public school, and wrote articles and read proof for the Boston Gazette, a Federalist newspaper.
In August 1801, he began studying law in Boston under David Everett. Meanwhile, he learned French proficiently from a refugee, Antoine Jay, afterwards a founder in France of the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel. In 1802, he moved with Everett to Amherst, New Hampshire, where besides doing legal work he contributed a poem on dancing and translations from French to the Farmers' Cabinet, a local newspaper. He became engaged to Nancy Melvill, daughter of Maj. Thomas Melvill of Boston (the subject of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.'s poem "The Last Leaf") but she died soon afterward.
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