Henry Shaw, Botanist and Philanthropist

[HughW]

Henry Shaw, son of Joseph Shaw, who, with Robert Jobson and William Hoole, built the Roscoe Place works near St Philip's Church, in 1805/6. They made fenders and fire irons.

Henry was sent to America in 1819 while still a teenager, to chase up a lost shipment in New Orleans. He found it but couldn't immediately find a buyer so he took the goods up the Mississippi and stopped at a small but bustling town called St Louis. He opened a hardware store to sell his goods and others sent from Sheffield. He lived in the town for the rest of his life.

Henry is most famous as the founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

This is his mausoleum in the garden:

(Library of Congress/public domain [Wikipedia])

The information about Roscoe Place is from:

Morley, Chris (1997) 'A Forgotten Industry: The Stone Grate and Light Castings Industry of Sheffield' in Aspects of Sheffield Vol. 1 edited by Melvyn Jones

Hugh