He emigrated with his family to the United States and settled in Cass County, Illinois.
Shaw wrote "Monograph of Antiquities" for the Smithsonian Institution about the mound builders of the Rock River and northern Illinois.
He later seed as an Illinois Circuit Court judge until December 1902.
Shaw died at his home in Mount Carroll, Illinois from a long illness.
This article about a Member of the Illinois House of Representatives is a stub.