Career
He was probably born in Scotland and came to North America some time before 1786, when he is found at Montreal. This partnership traded in opposition to the North West Company and other companies on the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine Rivers of western Canada till 1788. The next year, Shaw became a clerk for the North West Company.
He established a trading post near Moose Lake, Alberta and then at Fort George and Fort Augustus on the North Saskatchewan River.
He established other posts on Lac la Biche and the Slave River. Shaw was made a wintering partner, with shares in the company, in 1791 or 1792.
In 1802, he was put in charge of the King"s Posts in Lower Canada on the lower north shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Later that year, he was elected to represent Effingham in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in a by-election held after Charles-Jean-Baptiste Bouc"s expulsion.
In 1803, Shaw led an expedition to James Bay, which established posts on the Moose and Eastmain Rivers.
In 1806, he became a partner in McTavish, McGillivrays and Company, affiliated with the North West Company, and travelled to Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario) several times. Shaw was named a justice of the peace for the Indian territory in 1810. He was a major in the Corps of Canadian Voyageurs during the War of 1812.
In 1815, he took part in the destruction of the Hudson"s Bay Company"s Red River Colony.
He was arrested by the HBC in 1816 and 1819 and later sent to London, where he was released. He died of a lung infection at New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1832.
