Richard Shawe

London solicitor, but also a sleeping partner with John Henry Deffell (q.v.) and mortgagee on 'slave-property' in Jamaica.

1. Will of Richard Shawe of Dulwich Hill Surrey [made in 1811] proved 27/11/1816. He left £10,000 to his daughter Mary Ann to augment the £20,000 she was to receive under his marriage settlement with his first wife Esther Croughton. In the will he refers to his second marriage to Emily Todd formerly Emily Deffell; his son from this marriage Richard Fleetwood Shawe on his [the testator's] death would be entitled to £10,000, 'which has been laid out in the name of William Le Blanc Esq. upon mortgage on an estate in the island of Jamaica' and a further £20,000 in consolidated bank annuities. His present wife was Ann, daughter of Nathaniel Bogle French, on his marriage to whom he had settled a further £20,000: he had also advanced £10,000 to the house of Bogle French & Barton.

2. In a codicil of 1812, Shawe said that he had entered into partnership as a West India merchant with his good friend [and brother-in-law] John Henry Deffell 'in particular concerns', and expressed his desire that his eldest son Richard Fleetwood Deffell should stand in his place in due course. In a further codicil of 1815, he characterised his role with John Henry Deffell as 'sleeping partner' in a co-partnership limited to 1/4 in certain matters and 1/2 in others, and explained that he had liquidated much of the £20,000 in consols he had previously left to his son Richard Fleetwood Shawe at a loss to put into John Deffell & Co. to make an 'establishment' for his son [then aged 11 or so] as a West India merchant. He also left £600 p.a. to Mrs Bogle French, following the failure of Bogle French & Co., so long as the Deffell firm continued as consignee for the estates of the late William Jackson, Chief Justice of Jamaica, to half of the emoluments from which he was entitled.

3. The monument to Richard Shawe in Dulwich Old Burial Ground is a Grade II Listed Building. It gives his death as 11/08/1816, age 61. Shawe was the successful defence lawyer in the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings 1788-1795. He commissioned John Nash to design for him Casina House in Dulwich and the gardens were landscaped by Humphrey Repton.

1. PROB 11/1586/212.

2. Ibid.

3. https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101385502-monument-to-richard-shawe-dulwich-old-burial-ground-village-ward#.XlfZH-unyFp; https://www.dulwichsociety.com/pdf/burial-ground.pdf.

We are grateful to Graham Butler-Shawe for his assistance with compiling this entry.