He was the only child of John Shawe (d. December 1634, aged 63) by his second wife, born at Sykehouse in the chapelry of Bradfield, parish of Ecclesfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, on 28 June 1608.
[1] Driven from Cambridge by the plague in 1629, he was ordained deacon and priest (28 Dec.) by Thomas Dove, bishop of Peterborough.
Shawe was now married, and held the post of chaplain to Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke; through his city connections he was transferred in 1633 to a lectureship to be maintained by for a term of three years at Chulmleigh, Devon.
Having preached his first sermon there, he was summoned by the archbishop, Richard Neile, who regarded Vaux as his enemy, but moderated his tone on learning that Shawe was Pembroke's chaplain.
At the pacification of Berwick (28 May) Shawe made the acquaintance of Alexander Henderson, and improved it when he acted (October 1640) as chaplain to the English commissioners for the Treaty of Ripon.
On the taking of the town (4 May 1643) his wife was imprisoned, but Shawe, after hiding in cellars for three weeks, escaped to Manchester.
Here he preached every Friday without pay, He accepted from Sir William Brereton the rectory of Lymm, Cheshire, but continued to reside in Manchester.
By the end of the year complaints of his services from the officers and garrison of Hull reached Charles II through Gilbert Sheldon.
Charles declined to remove the inhibition, but allowed him to retain his mastership, and promised to provide for him as his chaplain, Shawe then saw Sheldon, who explained that he was looked upon as a clerical leader in the north, and as no great friend to episcopacy or the Book of Common Prayer.
Returning to Hull, he preached every Sunday at the Charterhouse, and drew crowds, in spite of obstructions by the garrison, Finding the situation hopeless, the Uniformity Act 1662 being now passed (19 May 1662), he resigned the Charterhouse, closed his accounts with the corporation who owed him money, and moved on 20 June to Rotherham.
Here, till the act came into force (24 August), he conducted services in the parish church alternately with the vicar, Luke Clayton (d. 1674), Henceforth he preached only in private houses.