Submitted by Sue Burns Moore, sbmoore@swbell.net
In 1805 John Shaw wrote a letter to President Jefferson in which
he expressed his admiration for the President's politics and
introduced himself as "a native of North Carolina, descended from
European parents." He had been in the Natchez District and active
in politics as early as 1797 when he served on a Citizen's Committee
whose duty it was to keep order until the Spanish struck their
colors and pulled out of Natchez. Andrew Ellicott, surveyor general
and government representative who was present for the occasion ,
noted Shaw as "an itinerant attorney of some education and
abilities."
Shaw was a dedicated Republican who supported
Jeffersonian policies completely, an avid member of the Mississippi
Republican Society, along with friends such as Thomas M. Green, Cato
West , Judge David Ker and Edward Turner. He was never shy about his
stand and was constantly in one political battle or another. He
and Judge Thomas Rodney had a disagreement about the qualification
of territorial judges which led Judge Rodney to attack him as "a
quandam pillmaker from the frogponds of North Carolina."
He
was the first settler of Clifton, also named Hayes City, which he
called Lowenburg.In addition, he was the first postmaster of
Greenville in Jefferson County, MS, and a practicing physician
there. In 1804-1805, he served as a representative from Jefferson
County to the Mississippi Territorial Legislature. He was one of the
founding members of the Franklin Society in Greenville in Jefferson
County in 1806. Also that year, he was commissioned by the governor
as an attorney in that county.
During the 1807-1811 era, he
was involved in may activities, including editing for a time, the
Mississippi Messenger , one of the first newspapers in the territory
and printing the Acts of the Territorial Legislature. For several
years, he served a member of the Natchez Mechanical Society which
was a city council of sorts, and in 1810 became its president,
similar to a mayor of today. During this time his life was never
dull. The Attorney General of the Mississippi Territory, Seth
Lewis, even brought suit against him and other prominent Republicans
who were giving Governor Williams a very difficult time.
By
1815, he moved to Franklin County, Mississippi where he continued as
a doctor, lawyer, and postmaster. He and the Baptist minister,
Bailey Chaney, were arch political rivals. Shaw wanted the
Mississippi Territory divided into the two states of Alabama and
Mississippi; Chaney did not.
Shaw ran successfully against
Chaney for the legislature seat from Franklin County in 1817, and in
July was a member of the State Constitutional Convention.
Unfortunately, he died during the session on August 1 at the home
of Anthony Campbell near Natchez. For the remainder of the
convention all delegates wore black crepe armbands in his memory and
honor. Judge Edward Turner said of him, ”He was a man of wit and
honor, an ardent politician, and a caustic writer, well educated and
a respectable poet.”
Partridge in Debow's Review in 1860
said of him, “His style was rough, rasping, and vigorous, and his
power of ridicule and satire were of the highest order. He was also
a poet of the Hudibrastic school, and was famous for epigrams and
pasquinades. He
belonged to the Jeffersonian party and, for the
reason mentioned, was greatly dreaded by his adversaries. He lived
at Natchez, and afterwards at Greenville, in Jefferson County, once
a gay, refined and thriving village, but now entirely extinct. Dr.
Shaw was for a longtime a member of the Territorial legislature, and
was also a member of the convention which framed the first
constitution of the State of Mississippi.” Known descendants of John
Shaw were Thomas Breckinridge Shaw, Elizabeth Shaw, Mary Shaw, and
Saxton Shaw. I descend through Elizabeth who married Robert
Griffing April 4, 1807, in Jefferson County, Mississippi.