Background
He was born on March 13, 1779 at Middleboro, Massachussets, United States, one of eight children of Hannah (Heath) and John Shaw. As a young boy, he lost the sight of his right eye through an accident.
He was born on March 13, 1779 at Middleboro, Massachussets, United States, one of eight children of Hannah (Heath) and John Shaw. As a young boy, he lost the sight of his right eye through an accident.
When he was seventeen he attended the Bristol Academy at Taunton, Massachussets. He first studied with John L. Berkenhead, a blind organist of Newport, Rhode Island. ; in 1803 he had lessons with Johann Christian Graupner in Boston, and some instruction on the clarinet from Thomas Granger.
Shortly after his graduation he joined his father in seafaring enterprises. At twenty-one, when he was not fully recovered from yellow fever, he helped in taking nautical observations from the sun; this affected his remaining eye, and he was totally blind for the rest of his life. Blindness determined him to become a musician rather than a mariner.
In 1807 he settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where he remained until his death. He became organist of the First Congregational Church and gave music lessons in the homes of his pupils, led from house to house by a boy employed for the purpose. In 1809 he gathered a group of fellow musicians in Providence, among them Thomas Webb, and founded the Psallonian Society, "for the purpose of improving themselves in the knowledge and practice of sacred music, and inculcating a more correct taste in the choice and performance of it". The society remained in existence until 1832.
One of his most popular sacred songs was "Mary's Tears". This program also contained Shaw's duet, "All Things Bright and Fair Are Thine. "
His secular compositions include "Bristol March", "Governor Arnold's March, " and "Washington's Grand Centennial March, " performed at the Providence Centennial Celebration in 1832.
He died in 1848.
On October 20, 1812, Shaw married Sarah Jenckes, daughter of Caleb Jenckes, who bore him two sons and five daughters. His son, Oliver J. Shaw, was also a composer.