Joseph Shaw

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 6:24 PM

I have just run across a letter that my grandma had which mentions John Baptist Shaw and William Shaw being brothers and there father was Timothy Shaw. You said that your William Shaw could possibly be named Joseph. The dates I have for the William Shaw in the letter do not match with your William Shaw. Do you know if your William Shaw was ever in Wilson County Tennessee after leaving North Carolina ?

Thanks

Jess

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Wed, December 24, 2008

Jess,

I apologize for not responding sooner but we have a lot of US Government work supporting the GWOT and it has been very busy of late. That said, I have a lot of information on Joseph and Timothy Shaw in PA and VA, prior to their migration to NC. The connection in NC and exact lineages proven by extant records there are the problem. I can even give you Timothy’s birth place, birth date, migration date, enlistment date, size, height, weight, description, occupation, etc. from archives in PRONI, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. There is some information on the immigrant Joseph as well who was probably Timothy’s younger brother by all indications but I can’t tell you which individuals are their respective offspring in NC. There was also a William Shaw in PA and VA about the same time that may or may not have been a close relation to Timothy and Joseph Shaw – TBD.

The confusion has to do with the fact that all 3 of these older individuals from Antrim, PA and VA migrated to NC prior to 1760 due to the French & Indian War then also named their sons William, Joseph, James, and John during the 1750-60s in VA and NC. The family oral tradition has become confused over the years when many records were lost in a tornado so we’re trying to reconstruct how they are related in NC and VA. Our William and Joseph Shaw were certainly brothers and their father was supposedly Joseph; however, we don’t know for sure if their father Joseph was the brother of Timothy, son of Timothy, or Argyll Colony immigrant Joseph who came with Collin/ Angus/ Patrick Shaw from the same Isle and Bally as the earlier Shaw immigrants from PA. They were apparently related somehow, used most of the same given names, and all 3 of these elder Josephs are in the Tri-County area of NC by 1770. I have at least half a dozen William Shaws about the time of the Revolution in Central NC , etc.. We still don’t know which William died young, which one was captured at Charleston and died on a Prison Ship, which one was killed at the battle of Hanging Rock, which one went to York County SC , which one went to Chester County SC , which one went to Washington County TN , etc. just to start. We do know that the younger William S. Shaw went to Anderson County SC with his brother Peyton.

Pls don’t be too quick to begin connecting many of these folks, some of us have been down these rabbit holes many times before and my GreatAunts worked on this for almost 50 years. We need solid records such as warrants, bonds, wills, church files, family bibles, tax/ tithe rolls, letters, etc. from the period prior to and during the Revolutionary War. Some of us have located a large number of extended family records in the NC Archives just recently that help make sense of the 1780-1820 period. Those records clearly reflect which families moved to SC and TN, later MS and LA, up through the Choctaw Cede of 1830. Many Shaws and Irwins were in TN by 1788 up through 1815. I haven’t put a lot of the militia rolls, legal documents, letters, etc. out on the web just yet due to the mindless reaction and conjecture by many folks in the past who simply begin to “connect the dots” – incorrectly.

BTW – the Shaw Family Y-DNA Study is the latest resort many of us are using to help quantify these relationships. Pls try to get more folks to participate if you want to provide the most impact right now.

I’d love to have the pertinent info wrt any period correspondence that will help clarify these relationships. I’ll send you some of this other Timothy and Joseph info over the Holidays. I, along with a few other Shaw researchers, would like to be able to control how and when some of this is released in order to preclude some of the problems seen previously on other websites, boards, etc.. I’ll even have a large set of PRONI records transcribed that may really surprise you by next Summer. I hope this helps and have a very Merry Christmas.

Thanks and we’ll be in touch.

10 public member trees have John Baptist Shaw (born 1775 in Wake, NC and died 16 Sep 1815 in Wake, NC and married to Frances McKelroy on 3 Dec 1771 in Wake, NC) as the son of Joseph Shaw, born 1715 in Maryland and died 1785 in Wake, NC. No spouse is given. Joseph Shaw is listed as the son of John Shaw who was born about 1700 in Antrim, Ulster or Pennsylvania, USA.

7) William Shaw (possibly Joseph given naming conventions - other brothers may include John B., Gabriel, Zachariah, Hugh, etc.)

B: Before 1735 in VA or MD

Lived most of their lives in Wake Cty, NC

D: Before 1800 in SC

8) Joseph Shaw

B: About 1715 in PA or MD

Lived much of his life in Augusta Cty, VA and Wake Cty, NC

D: Before 1785 in Wake County, NC

9) John, Joseph, James, or William Shaw (The 4 Brothers)

B: Before 1700 in PA or Antrim, Ulster

D: TBD

10) John or James Shaw

B: Before 1685 in Antrim, Ulster

D: TBD