David was a leader-type Christian follower of Jesus all of his life. He was the eldest son of John Shaw, his immigrant father. Born 6-7 years after his father arrived in the USA from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he was our "Shaw Family's" first-known native-born American! His mother's name is not known for sure (but she may have been of a Frierson family). Being the only known living child of his father's first marriage, his father transferred (about 1807) his own original 100 acre immigrant land grant near the Shiloh community to David. There were 10 births in that location by his first wife (Rebecca died at the Shiloh location). Rebecca and five children are buried THERE. With all of those living children, David rapidly remarried and had one or two children there with Sarah.

David & Sarah subsequently moved in about 1829 (about 3 years after his first wife's death...probably in childbirth) to what became Shaws Crossroads (see photos of map sketches on this memorial) where he put together some 2000 acres of farm land that was distributed among his children at his death (David died 10 days after the death of his second wife).

David's eldest son, John G., left unmarried for Mississippi between 1840-47 (I suspect that it was before his father died). The deaths of David & Sarah left 6 orphaned children, ages 7-15! Mrs. Grace Brogdon Lemmon (family genealogist in Sumter) wrote a letter to me that it was Sarah Douglass Shaw's 6-years-younger sister, Eliza, that "looked after" those children (Eliza subsequently became the third wife of Gabriel Plowden).

By two wives, David had 17 children, six of whom died between birth and age 4. From first wife, Rebecca, John G. Shaw was the only male reaching adulthood (immigrated to Miss.). Only two males reached adulthood from his second wife, Sarah (Ervin stayed with the home place at Shaws Crossroad in Sumter County, S. C. & David C. emigrated to Florida).

Controversy: Apparently due to his daughter (Elizabeth Shaw Rhodes) naming her son William David Rhodes, it got into family lore (and on-line genealogy sources) that David's full name was William David Shaw. I have a copy of a letter (see David's memorial photo) that was in the possession of Jerry Shaw dated 20 May 1847 from Elizabeth to her brother John G. Shaw in Mississippi stating that the her son's first name was after Uncle William Shaw and middle name was for his father, David (see center of photo of letter copy...the sentence bracketed in red...here on David's memorial). So the object person of this memorial page is simply DAVID SHAW. And...

The obituary in the Charleston Observer (dated 22 July 1843): "Died, in Sumter District on the 11th instant, after a severe illness of four days, Mr. David Shaw, in the 64th year of his age. A clod was yet fresh which resided upon the bosom of his amiable and lamented consort, when death with fearful rapidity, struck him down from the ranks of the living. Mr. Shaw was a man of uncommon stability of character. Judicious and deliberate in forming his opinions, he was not easily turned aside from his purpose. For many years he had made a profession of religion; and for a number of the last years of his life, he was an office bearer in the house of God. He was known and esteemed for his sterling integrity. The death of such a man is a public calamity."

[I strongly suspect that he and wife, Sarah, died of typhoid fever.]
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We named my son "David" Ervin Shaw in honor of this fine man, my great-great-great grandfather.