Patrick Shaw (legal writer)

Patrick Shaw (1796–1872) was a Scottish lawyer and legal writer.

Life

Born at Ayr, he was grandson of David Shaw, D.D., moderator of the general assembly in 1775, and son of Charles Shaw, clerk of Ayrshire. Alexander Shaw, Sir Charles Shaw, and John Shaw (1792–1827) were his brothers. In boyhood he lost his leg through an accident.^[1]

In 1819 Shaw was called to the Scottish bar. In 1848 he was appointed sheriff of chancery, and he held the post till 1869, when he resigned in failing health. He died at 36 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, on 12 February 1872.^[1]

Works

In 1821 Shaw started with his friend James Ballantine, and later with Alexander Dunlop, a series of reports of the decisions in the court of session. In 1824 he began a similar series of reports of decisions in the House of Lords on appeal from the Scottish courts. Shaw also published supplementary digests of the decisions. His works were:^[1]

• Cases decided in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, 1821–1827, 5 vols.; new edition with notes, 1834, continued to 1838, vols. vi.–xvi., 1838–52.
• Cases decided in the House of Lords on Appeal from the Courts of Scotland, 1821–4, 2 vols., 1824–6; from 1825 to 1834, 7 vols., 1829–39; from 1835 to 1838, 3 vols., 1836–9.
• Cases decided in the Court of Teinds from 1821 to 1831, Edinburgh, 1831.
• Digests of Cases decided in the Courts of Session, Teinds, and Judiciary, and in the House of Lords from 1821 to 1833, and in the Jury Courts from 1815 to 1833, Edinburgh, 1834; from 1832 to 1837, 2 vols. 1838.
• Digest of Cases decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland from 1800 to 1842, 2 vols. 1843–4; from 1842 to 1852, 1852; new edition, 1868–9.
• Forms of Process in the House of Lords, Court of Session, Privy Court, Court of Teinds, and Sheriff Court, Edinburgh, 1843, 2 vols.
• Treatise on the Law of Obligation and Contracts in Scotland, 1847.
• Principles of the Law of Scotland, in Lord Stair's Institutions, Edinburgh, 1863.

Shaw also edited the sixth edition of George Joseph Bell's Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1858, and the fifth edition of Bell's Principles of the Law of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1860.^[1]

Family

In 1860 Shaw married the fourth daughter of William Fullarton of Skeldon, Ayrshire.^[1]

Notes

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Shaw, Patrick". Dictionary of National Biography 51. London: Smith, Elder & Co.