Personal data
John Shaw
Born 1723  
in Straiton, Ayrshire
Laird of Daltoune

Probably the son of John Shaw (d. 1740) and Agnes Crawford. Possibly married to Helen Kennedy (d. 1795).1

In his journal, Boswell refers only to the Laird of Daltoune which doesn't identify Shaw with absolute certainty, but the evidence seems to fit.

Boswell met Shaw at James McAdam's on September 15, 1762. He described him as a man "who, from having a pretty fortune, is reduced to live in a cottage. He is a tall, lean man of tolerable parts, but has that happy absence of feeling which makes men easies under adverse fortune than all the reasoning of philosophy".

  • 1The Mort Roll from The commissariot record of Glasgow Register of testaments, 1547-1800 mentions a relict [widow] of John Shaw, of Daton (Daltoun). Helen Kennedy probably died around November 11, 1795. Alan Hersey has provided the webmaster with information on Shaw's year of birth and has further supported the identification of John Shaw as the Laird of Daltoune.

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.