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On 1, May 2002, William G.A.
Shaw of Issaquah, Washington was granted the Name, Arms and Territorial
Designation as the Representer of the House of Shaw of Easter Lair by H.M.
Court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms for Scotland. Established in 1318 by
Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, the Court of the Lord Lyon is the primary
armorial and titular adjudicating body in Scotland, and is the most
influential armorial and heraldic body of its kind in Europe in modern
times. Mr. Shaw inherits the title and arms as the Tanist of his uncle,
the late William Iain Gordon Shaw of Easter Lair and is the twelfth of his
line.
The Shaws of Easter Lair
are the senior armigerous family of the Shaws of Crathienaird, a vigorous
sept or branch of the Scottish Highland Clan Shaw that settled firstly in
the Balmoral area of Aberdeenshire at Crathienaird in 1633. In 1710 most
of the small clan emigrated en masse to the Glen Shee and Glen Isla area
of Perthshire. Clan Shaw is also a part of the great Clan Chattan, an
ancient tribal and military confederacy that lasted from 1291 until 1746.
Members of the Shaw clan in
Glen Shee and Glen Isla enthusiastically contributed their skills as
warriors in the Stuart Jacobite Risings against the Hanoverian Governments
of both King George I and II. In the 1715 Rising, some served under the
banner of their cousin and neighbor, John Farquharson of Invercauld (the
Chief of Clan Farquharson) as a part of the Clan Chattan regiment. During
the 1745 Rising, many Glen Shee Shaws also served as Officers in the
Farquharson contingent of a family friend, Francis Farquharson of
Monaltrie (the famous 'Baron Ban' of Jacobite legend). During the harsh
periods of Hanoverian reprisal in the Highlands after the failure of the
1745 Rising, the more peaceful members of the Shaw family up and down Glen
Shee and Glen Isla also actively assisted their now 'Outlawed and Rebell'
kin and clan that had 'taken to the heather' smuggling them food,
clothing, weapons and the latest military intelligence to assist them in
evading the brutality of the English regimental pickets in the district.
During the less turbulent
periods of Highland history, the Glen Shee and Glen Isla Shaws were
farmers, mercenaries and both cattle drovers and rustlers. In the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they were farmers, accountants,
Episcopalian ministers, Clan Shaw historians and amateur sabre-fencers,
stockbrokers, Roman Catholic mother superiors and monks, decorated
military officers, writers, artists, journalists, musicians and pioneers
in aviation and travel. Emigrating from Scotland to Canada in 1910 and to
the Pacific Northwest of the United States a few years later, the Shaw of
Easter Lair family continued to maintain their Celtic and Scottish
Highland culture, history, traditions and links to their clan lands of
old. From the early 19th century they have worn the Glen Shee, Mac Duff,
Mackintosh, Clan Chattan and the modern Shaw tartans, and continue to do
so today.
Aside from his tribal
duties as a Gentleman of his Clan and now Head of his Territorial House,
William Shaw of Easter Lair was appointed by John Charles Shaw of
Tordarroch, the 22nd Chief of the worldwide Highland Clan, Family and Name
of Shaw as the Seannachaidh, or Chief Bard, Poet and Historian of the now
worldwide Clan in 1995. Mr. Shaw is the great-great-great grandson of the
Rev. William G. Shaw, Minister of Forfar, (Angus-shire) who was also the
Seannachaidh of Clan Shaw from the early 1860's until his death in 1874.
From 1996 to 2000, William
Shaw also held a Commission as a Lieutenant to the Chief of Clan Shaw,
registered in the Court of the Lord Lyon. He is also is the U.S. Member of
Council for the Clan Chattan Association, based in Inverness, Scotland.
Living on Squak Mountain in
Issaquah, WA., Shaw of Easter Lair is married to Mary Beth Haggerty-Shaw
and together they have two children, Liam and Mora. He is active in the
Pacific Northwest Scottish and Celtic community. Easter Lair Farm is in
Glen Shee, Perthshire.
As decreed by the H.M.
Court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms for Scotland, the Ensigns Armorial
are thus:
Motto: "FIDE ET FORTITUDINE"
Crest: A demi lion Gules, holding in the dexter paw a sword Proper
hilted and pommelled Or.
Shield: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Or, a lion rampant Gules, armed and
langued Azure; 2nd and 3rd, Argent, a fir-tree growing out of a mound in
base Vert, in the dexter canton a dexter hand couped at the wrist holding
a dagger, point downwards, all Gules, overall at the center point a
torteau charged with a wolf's head erased Argent, langued Azure.
Slughorn (or battle cry): "NA BEAN RIS A CHAT"
The newly established Arms design features two main heraldic symbols: a
Fir Tree on a Mound and the Lion Rampant. The fir tree reflects Mr. Shaw's
descent from the Mackintosh Shaw Thanes of Rothiemurchus. Rothiemurchus is
part of the great Caledonian Forest. The mound reflects 'the Doune' the
ancient hill-fort of which the main family of Clan Shaw held from the
fourteenth to the late sixteenth century. The lion traces his lineage via
the Chiefs of Clan Mackintosh to the ancient Mac Duff Earls of Fife to the
oldest line of the King of Scots via Aedh or Aethelred, the eldest son of
King Malcolm II (Ceann Mhor), circa 1080. With Glen Shee and nearby Strath
Ardle being near the heart of Clan Robertson country, the center torteau
(or circle) consists of a white Wolf's Head, which reflects the acquiring
of Easter Lair in Glenshee by the marriage of James Shaw to Susann(a)
Robertson, daughter and heiress of John Robertson of Bridgend in Strath
Ardle in the years shortly after the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
"Fide et Fortitudine" is
the ancient Latin motto of the Clan Shaw: 'by faith and fortitude'. The
slogan "Na Bean Ris A Chat" proclaims in Gaelic the battle cry of Mr.
Shaw's family: 'touch not the cat'. This is also the motto of the Clan
Chattan, of which the Highland Clan Shaw and the Shaws of Easter Lair are
a part.
Web site information is
available at:
www.theclanshaw.org
www.clanchattanassociation.org.uk
www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk
For additional information contact:
William G. A. Shaw of Easter Lair
Wester Crathienaird
260 Mount Pilchuck S.W., Issaquah, WA. 98027
tel. 425.392.6511 ~ e-mail:
shawofeasterlair@comcast.net 
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