Lemuel Shaw

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Lemuel Shaw (January 9, 1781 - March 30, 1861) was a United States jurist.

He was born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, son of the west parish's minister. He graduated from Harvard College in 1800 and was admitted to the bar of New Hampshire and of Massachusetts in 1804. In 1805, he began practicing law in Boston. He was a prominent Federalist and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1811 to 1814, in 1820, and in 1829. He was a state senator from 1821 to 1822, a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1820-1821, and chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of the commonwealth from 1830 to 1860.

As justice, Shaw maintained the high standard of excellence set by an earlier chief justice, Theophilus Parsons. He presided over the trial in 1850 of Professor John White Webster (1793-1850) for the murder of Dr George Parkman.

Shaw's work in extending the equity, jurisdiction, and powers of the court was especially important. He also was largely instrumental in defeating an attempt in 1843 to make a reduction of salary apply to judges already in office and an attempt in 1853 to abolish the life term of judges. His opinion in Cary v. Daniels (8 Metcalf) was an important legal precedent in Massachusetts regarding the regulation of water power rights belonging to riparian proprietors. His ruling in favor of the constitutionality of school segregation in Roberts v. City of Boston (1849) established "separate but equal" as a legal doctrine.

His daughter Elizabeth was married to author Herman Melville.

[edit] References

Address by BF Thomas in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, x. 50-79 (Boston, 1869)
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).