[From Home Office File HO 98/66 ]

[some text lost in binding]

Memorial [of Lt Govr Alex Shaw] dated 3d July 1804

enclosed with a letter to J. King

Lieut Governor Shaw begs leave humbly to represent that he had the honor to serve his Majesty in all above eight and forty years, nearly the last fourteen as Lieut Governor of the Isle of Mann and for at least thirteen of those years in the chief command charged with the whole trouble fatiques and responsibility and in the latter often deep anxiety of a Government civil and military not so few as 30,000 of his Majesty's subjects unavoidably therefore expos'd to expences to which the emoluments of his office being seldom by any means adequate he is now with a family of six motherless children in very straiten'd circumstances.

He humbly therefore prays that in consideration of his long and he can add faithful services, and of his large family, the resignation which through the Duke Atholl he had the honor to give in some months ago maybe graciously accepted and he now permitted to retire with the means of passing the probably short remainder of his days in decent comfort and able to give his children such education as may enable them to help themselves when it may please God to deprive them also of their father. What he would beg leave to mention in particular would be his present salary settled in himself as a pension or annuity for life with a small annuity also say £50 each a year to be at the same time settled on his three daughers (Ann, Millicent and Augusta). With this he would be quite satisfied, and would pray God to bless the generous minds who had the goodness the humanity to relieve his [mind] the [of the] distress of leaving his very young [mother-] missing daughters otherwise in circumstances [] very dependent indeed.

Alex Shaw

6 Suffolk Street Charing Cross 3d July 1804

John King was one of the law officers at Westminster - many of Shaw's private complaints about the behaviour of the Duke of Atholl were sent to King.

Notes

1804 was a bad year for Lt Governor Shaw, his health was failing, his wife died, shortly followed by that of a son and after many years of bullying by Atholl who wanted to replace him by Lord Henry Murray, he was willing to consider resignation if a sufficient financial package could be obtained from Treasury.

Manks Advertiser, Saturday, January 21, 1804;

Died - At the Castle, on Friday evening, the 13th inst, after a few hours illness, universally beloved and lamented, Mrs. SHAW, wife of the Honourable the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.

This Lady possessed in an eminent degree those amiable qualities which give additional lustre to high rank in Society ; her untimely fate will long continue a subject of the deepest regret to all her friends and acquaintances -Her remains were interred in the King's Chapel, on Tuesday last.

The burial of Mrs Shaw "The Governor's Lady". was noted in the Malew burial register on the 17th January 1804.

The King's Chapel is possibly the one constructed in the inner courtyard of the castle - this would appear to have been a particular interest of Governor Smith who mentions it in several letters.

1804 brought another death - that of a son

Manks Advertiser, Saturday, February 18, 1804

We are sorry to observe, that the report, which has for some days been in circulation, relative to the untimely fate of his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor's son, together with other passengers, and the boat's crew, appears to be too well founded. The particulars of this melancholy circumstance shall be slated in our next.

Manks Advertiser, Saturday, February 25, 1804

The bodies of the late unfortunate passengers, and crew of the Manks boat, - which was lost on her passage from Dublin to this Island, have been found cast up on Luce Bay, near the Mull of Galloway. This melancholy circumstance is attributed to their having lost their course, and not being provided with a proper compass. It is with regret we mention that the passengers were, Lieutenant Charles Shaw, and Mr. King and son, of Castletown.

Baptisms of three of his children were noted in the Malew register as:
Claudius 12 Feb 1791
William 15 Dec 1793 and
Augusta 18 Mar 1795 - she married Samuel Flood Page.

His wife's family name was not given, merely her first names Ann Elizabeth.

He was granted leave from August 1804 when Atholl came to the Island under the arrangement agreed with Westminster that either the Governor or the Lt Governor should be on Island - however Atholl had by this time significant duties in Perthshire which made extended stays on the Island difficult. In 1799 when Atholl wished to shorten his intended stay on the Island and Shaw could not return in time, permission had been given for Atholl to depute the senior military Officer Commanding on the Island as deputy Governor. But in 1804 Atholl sought to force the issue of a succesor to Shaw and illicitly issued a Commission as Lt Governor to his brother.