Maj. Samuel Shaw (1754-1794)

He was born in Boston where - according to his memorial with the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts - his grandfather had emigrated from Scotland. He was educated in the common schools and at the Boston Latin School where he fostered a lifelong appreciation for latin literature. Destined to follow his father into business, he left school to start his career in a counting-house, but in 1775, during the Siege of Boston, he purchased a commission as a Lieutenant of Artillery into the Continental Army. By 1779, he was a Captain and aide-de-camp to General Knox, serving in that capacity until 1783. He took an active part in the formation of the Society of the Cincinnati and was secretary of the committee of officers who inaugurated it. In 1792, he was appointed aide to Major-General Henry Jackson with the rank of Major in the Massachusetts Militia, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He left the army in debt and without any property, but he was invited to join a group of merchants intent on trading with China and he was elected factor and commercial agent for their first voyage. They made their first trip to Canton in 1784 and he returned again in 1786 when he was appointed the the first U.S. Consul to Canton (Guangzhou), a position he held until his death. He became the owner of several ships, most notably the Massachusetts which was built to his order in 1789, and weighing between 800 to 900-tons, it was then the largest merchant vessel ever built in America - and may be the ship seen in his portrait by John Johnston. Although supposed to be a merchant vessel, it was fitted out along the lines of a man-of-war and was sold by Major Shaw to the Portuguese government shortly after his arrival in China. He lived in China for six years and from there made voyages to several other parts of the East. He died off the Cape of Good Hope, a victim of liver disease that he contracted in Bombay while making his way back to Boston.

He was described by James Dodge, the surgeon of the ship on which he died: "... a man rather tall and portly than otherwise; of an open countenance and benevolent heart; cheerful without levity, and sedate without reserve; in the hurry of business he had leisure to attend the distressed, and was ever open to indigence and want. His manners were refined, and his sentiments were worthy of the character he possessed; many a heavy heart has been enlivened by his sociability; and his freedom of conversation, and familiar deportment towards all the officers, endeared him to them by the most pleasant ties."

He was first engaged to a daughter of Col. Sebastian Bauman, Engineer of the defences at West Point, but she died during his first visit to China in 1784. In 1792, at Boston, he married Hannah, daughter of Sen. William Shaw; sister of Lt.-Governor William Phillips; and, sister-in-law of "The Patriot" Josiah Quincy. In 1793, he commissioned Charles Bulfinch to build his marital home at 8 Bulfinch Place in Boston, which later became the Hotel Waterston: "it originally had wings connected with the main edifice by colonnades, and was surrounded with gardens." He and his wife died without children. His nephew, Robert Gould Shaw, built a monument to his memory and continued his business prowess.