LEMUEL

SHAW (1781–1861)  , American jurist, was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts, son of the minister of the West Parish there, on the 9th of January 1781 . He graduated from Harvard College in 1800, and was admitted to the bar (of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts) in 1804 . In 18o5 he began to practise law in Boston . He was a prominent Federalist and was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1811-1814, in 1820, and in 1829, and of the state Senate in 1821–1822, a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1820-1821, and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state from 183o to 186o . He died in Boston on the 3oth of March 1861 . As chief justice Shaw maintained the high standard of excellence set by Theophilus Parsons . He presided over the trial in 1850 of Professor John White Webster (1793–1850) for the murder of Dr George Parkman . His work in extending the equity, iuriiadiction and powers of the court was especially notable . He was also largely instrumental in defeating an attempt (1843) to make a reduction of salary apply to judges already in office, and an attempt (1853) to abolish the life term of judges . His opinion in Cary v._ Daniels (8 Metcalf) is the basis of the present law in Massachusetts as to the regulation of water power rights of riparian proprietors . See the address by B . F .

Thomas in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, x . 50-79 (Boston, 1869) ; and the sketches by Samuel S . Shaw and P . Emory Aldrich in vol. iv. pp . 200-247, of Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (Boston, 1885) .