William Shaw (1749–1831) was a Scottish Gaelic scholar, writer, minister and Church of England cleric.
[2] Entering the ministry of the Church of Scotland, Shaw was presented by the Duke of Gordon, in July 1779, to the parish of Ardclach in the presbytery of Nairn; but resigned the charge 1 August 1780.
[2] Shaw's first work, published by subscription, was An Analysis of the Gaelic Language, London, 1778 (2nd edition Edinburgh, 1778).
[4] After having travelled in Scotland and Ireland, Shaw completed and published A Galic and English Dictionary, containing all the Words in the Scottish and Irish Dialects of the Celtic that could be collected from the Voice and Old Books and MSS., 2 vols.
On 20 January 1786 he won an action in the court of session against some of the subscribers, who argued that they were not bound to accept the book because it was defective; it was admitted that he "had not fulfilled the terms of his printed proposals".
[2] In the controversy with James Macpherson (1736–1796) over the authenticity of his Ossian (supposed translations), Shaw sided with Johnson, and published An Enquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems ascribed to Ossian, London, 1781 (Dublin, 1782); a second edition, with a reply to John Clark's answer, was published (London 1782, also Dublin), part of the reply being by Johnson.