Thomas Shaw (1694–1751) was an English cleric and traveller.

Life

He was born about in

Kendal, Westmorland Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

. From the

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

of his native town, he went to

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, where he took his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1719. On entering holy orders, he was appointed chaplain to the factory at

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

. While in north Africa he traveled through

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, and

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Pl ...

in the first half of the eighteenth century. He is best known for his account of his travels, first published in Oxford in 1738 and published in a French translation in The Hague by Jean Neaulme in 1743; another translation of J. MacCarthy is published by Marlin in Paris in 1830. The preface of this edition indicates that he would have lived twelve years in Algiers (1720-1732). He became a Fellow of his college in 1727, in his absence. During his travels he made crude daily geodetic surveys from which he draws maps attached to his work. he also made use of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

Itinerary of Antoninus The Antonine Itinerary ( la, Itinerarium Antonini Augusti, "The Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus") is a famous ''itinerarium'', a register of the stations and distances along various roads. Seemingly based on official documents, possibly ...

and the 12th century

Arab geographer Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the map-m ...

Al Idrissi Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Muslim geographer, cartograp ...

in his works. On his return, in 1733, Shaw took his doctor's degree, and was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

. In 1740, on the death of Henry Felton, he was nominated principal of St Edmund Hall, with which he held the Greek professorship, and the vicarage of Bramley in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, till his death in 1751. In the 19th century, his century-old work again gained favor during the French conquest of Algiers in 1830. In fact, apart from the spy mission in the vicinity of Algiers led by the engineer Vincent-Yves Boutin in 1808, it seems that the France very little information on Algeria more recent than that of Shaw. Also, the geographical and "sociological" part of his 1830 edition named Historical, statistical and topographical facts on the State of Algiers, and was used of the expeditionary army of Africa.↑ Aperçu historique, statistique et topographique sur l'État d'Alger à l'usage de l'armée expéditionnaire d'Afrique, Paris, 1830

Works

The first edition of Shaw's ''Travels in Barbary and the Levant'' was printed at Oxford, in 1738.

Richard Pococke Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765)''Notes and Queries'', p. 129. was an English-born churchman, inveterate traveller and travel writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church ...

commented unfavourably on parts of the work in his ''Description of the East'' (1745), and Shaw published two supplements in vindication, which were incorporated in the edition of 1757. Today Shaw is better known in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

than his native

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

References

External links

A painting of Thomas Shaw, DD, FRS from the official site of the BBC.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Thomas People from Kendal 1694 births 1751 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society 18th-century English Anglican priests Principals of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford People from Bramley, Hampshire