Author: Shaw, John K.
Biography:
SHAW, John K. (1800-58: ancestry.com)
Shaw was a Methodist convert and preacher; it is mainly thanks to a memorial volume produced by his church that we have detailed information about his spiritual life and his working career. John Knox Shaw was born to parents of Scottish descent (their names not recorded) in Co. Armagh, Ireland, who emigrated with their five children when he was still an infant and settled on a farm in Washington, Cambridge County NY. He was raised a Presbyterian; at sixteen he left home to make his way as a schoolteacher. About three years later he returned, however, very seriously ill. During his illness he experienced a religious conversion and felt a call to preach. His one volume of poems followed. He studied scripture, found himself drawn to the Methodist church, and in 1825 was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia Conference, which at that time had responsibility for much of the northeast. He became an itinerant preacher on various circuits, mainly in New Jersey. (In the first two years, he was said to have given five hundred sermons.) In 1828 he married Hannah Loder; they had children, one of whom died in early childhood but also at least two sons who survived their father. He was appointed to fourteen districts in his time, to some of them more than once. His last appointment was to Newark, where he died--it seems, of overwork. He was buried, by his own request, in Morristown. His sons brought out a collection of sermons and addresses (1887) with a biographical introduction that includes some material from Shaw's diary. (ancestry.com 11 Sept. 2020; "Rev. John Knox Shaw," New Jersey Conference Memorial [1865] 314-34; Easton Gazette [Easton MD] 30 Apr. 1825; John Knox Shaw, Life and Words [1887])