Researching Thomas Shaw

In 1776 Shaw was admitted to the Royal Society of Musicians, and he was a member of the Drury Lane band by 1778. From 1786 until the early 19th century he led the band, and Charles Dibdin thought him a much better leader than Covent Garden's Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. By 1790 Shaw had published some promising instrumental works and compiled an afterpiece opera, The Island of St Marguerite which premiered at Drury Lane on 13 November 1789. In 1791, he wrote an overture for the revival of Michael Arne's Cymon; both these overtures were published in parts, probably in the early 1790s to judge from their title pages. Thereafter, Shaw composed only the occasional song for Drury Lane, even though he later became one of the theatre's proprietors. Sheridan's failure to pay him led to severe financial difficulties, and his debts eventually drove him abroad. He seems to have been in Paris when he composed the funeral anthem for Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1817, which was published soon after.

Shaw may have entertained Haydn to lunch on 14 September 1791; Haydn confided in his second London notebook that Mrs Shaw was ‘the most beautiful woman I ever saw’.

Shaw was born at Green Bank, Holywell Green, Yorkshire the third son of Joseph Shaw who owned the Brookroyd Mills. He was educated at Huddersfield and later became chairman of the family firm, John Shaw & Sons and was President of Halifax Mechanics' Institute. He was Mayor of Halifax from 1866 to 1868. In 1881, when his son came of age, he gave £1,000 to Halifax School Board to promote education in Halifax, which was used to establish the Rawson Shaw Scholarships . He was elected as M.P. for Halifax at a by-election in 1882. He held the seat until his death at the age of 69 in 1893. His son William Rawson Shaw was elected in succession to him.

Shaw married Elizabeth Rawson at Manchester in 1855 and had a son William Rawson.