John Shaw was an American naval officer during Quasi-War with France and War of 1812.
Background
He was born in 1773 at Mountmellick, Queen's County, Ireland, the son of John and Elizabeth (Barton) Shaw. His paternal grandfather was an English army officer who entered Ireland on service in 1690 and later married and settled there.
His father also became an army officer and served in Ireland and Germany. In 1763 he returned from the Continent, married Elizabeth Barton, a member of an English family which had become established in Kilkenny, and in 1779 retired to a farm where he subsequently eked out a meager livelihood and reared a large family.
Career
Poverty ultimately led to the emigration of two sons, John and an elder brother, to America. Reaching New York in December 1790, they soon proceeded to Philadelphia to seek employment. Apparently in consequence of his recent voyage, John immediately began a seafaring career. Between March 1791 and the autumn of 1797 he made four voyages to the East Indies.
He also was employed in Philadelphia counting-houses and served with the Macpherson Blues, a volunteer military organization which in 1794 helped to suppress the insurgents in western Pennsylvania. Becoming master of a brig in 1797, he spent the next year in making a voyage to the West Indies and in trying to evade French privateers.
Immediately after returning to Baltimore he entered the United States navy and on August 3, 1798, was commissioned lieutenant. Until October 1799 he served aboard the Montezuma, which was engaged in convoying merchantmen throughout West Indian waters, and displayed such marked abilities that he soon received command of the schooner Enterprise. With her Shaw made a brilliant record; within a few months the Enterprise captured eight French privateers and fought five sharply-contested actions, of which two were "with vessels of superior force".
In 1801 he commanded the George Washington on a voyage to Algiers with tribute to that regency; the following year, having been placed on half pay, he obtained a furlough that enabled him to make a voyage as master of a merchantman to Canton. In 1804, while he was absent, he was promoted to the rank of commander and upon his return volunteered to lead a flotilla of gunboats against Tripoli.
In 1805 he was placed in command of the frigate John Adams and, accompanied by three gunboats, sailed to the Mediterranean but soon returned to America, peace with Tripoli having been declared in the meantime. He was ordered to New Orleans in 1806 to construct gunboats for coastal defense, and August 27, 1807, he was promoted to the rank of captain.
From May 1808 until August 1810 he was in charge of the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia; from 1811 until the spring of 1814 he was actively engaged in fortifying New Orleans and in helping to capture Mobile. In 1814 he took command of the naval squadron which was being blockaded by the British in the vicinity of New London, Connecticut, and there remained until the end of the war. After December 1817, when he returned to America, he did not go to sea.
During his last years he was for a time in charge of the Boston navy yard and later of the naval station at Charleston, South Carolina.
Achievements
John Shaw made his schooner Enterprise one of the most famous vessels of the Navy during Quasi-War with France as he captured seven armed French vessels and recaptured several American merchantmen. During the War of 1812, Shaw sucessfully commanded the New Orleans naval post as well as the frigate United States and in the result was promoted to the rank of captain.
Connections
He was twice married. His first wife was Elizabeth Palmer, a Philadelphia Quakeress; she bore him a number of children, but only two daughters reached maturity. His second wife, whom he married October 13, 1820, and by whom he had no issue, was Mary Breed of Charlestown, Massachussets.
