Clan Shaw

History

The Shaws are usually counted as a branch of the Mackintoshes and so as part of Clan Chattan, the confederation of Highland families that gathered around the Mackintosh chiefs. Tradition says the first Shaw was John, son of Angus, a Mackintosh chief, and his wife Eva. The name is held to come from Shaw Macduff, said to be a son of the Thane of Fife, who kept the royal castle at Inverness in the 12th century. Scotland.org says the line runs unbroken to the early earls of Fife. That is family tradition, and we cannot offer it as proven pedigree.

The best-known story belongs to 1396. A trial by combat was fought on the North Inch at Perth, with thirty champions on each side. The Clan Chattan Association says Shaw Mor led the Chattan party and that the family were rewarded with land at Rothiemurchus, near Aviemore. Scotland.org calls the leader Shaw Bucktooth. The clan website places its early strongholds at the Doune and at Loch an Eilean.

Rothiemurchus did not stay with the family. The Clan Chattan Association notes that it was in Grant hands by 1567. The chiefly line had by then shifted north. A branch under Aedh settled at Tordarroch in Strathnairn in 1468, and its followers became known as Clan Ay. Its heads came to lead the Shaws within the confederation. Shaws are recorded among the signatories of the Clan Chattan bands of union in 1543 and 1609.

Many Shaws took part in the Jacobite risings. Robert and Angus of Tordarroch led the Shaw contingent in 1715. Robert died in 1718, and Angus was transported to Virginia and later pardoned. In 1745 Angus refused to bring out the clan, although many Shaws joined the rising anyway.

A different story links the name to the Black Watch. Corporal Farquhar Shaw was executed for mutiny in 1743. A drawing of him by R. R. McIan, published around 1845, gave rise to the older Shaw sett. The Register of Tartans says that sett came from errors in how the Black Watch tartan was drawn. When a newer design was approved in 1971, the old one was kept for use in his memory.

In 1970 the Lord Lyon recognised Major Iain Shaw of Tordarroch in the undifferenced arms of the name, according to Scotland.org. His son John followed him. In 2017 John's son Iain Shaw of Tordarroch became the 23rd chief, according to the Clan Chattan Association. Sources differ in detail on the early centuries, so we have kept to what they agree on.