Resources:
• The origin of the Shaws, at one time a most important clan of the Chattan confderation . .
• From Our Common Background within the Clan Mackintosh and the great Clan Chattan Confederation of tribes, the never-ending Clan Shaw family story begins at the ancient hill-fort at The Doune in Rothiemurchus Forest in the late fourteenth century.
• Ancient Maps from the National Library of Scotland
"Early" is a rather unusual name for someone, but when you consider the time and place of Early Shaw's birth, it may be a natural consequence for a baby born a little earlier than expected, and easy to come to mind when you plant Early Shaw potatoes every spring..Excerpts from this 1910 book:
Introduction of the Potato Into Scotland. -
In the excerpt culled from the " Treasury of Botany," it is stated that the potato was first grown in Scotland in 1725. The "Scottish Field," however, in reviewing our "Vegetables and their Cultivation," wherein we repeated this fact, controverts our statement. It says: "The potato is here stated not, to have been introduced into Scotland prior to 1725, when there are several known instances of its having been grown earlier, the Duchess of Buccleugh haying paid 2s. 6d. to a neighbour for a peck in 1701, and in 1683, Sir George Maclenzie's gardener published details of its cultivation and treatment generally. "We are glad to be able to rectify the error, and to record the additional facts supplied by the "Scottish Field." Phillips, in his "History of Cultivated Vegetables," records that "Thomas Prentice, a day labourer, first planted potatoes in the open fields, in Kilsyth; the success was such, that every farmer and cottager followed his example."
The first account we can find of the potato being extensively grown for market appears in the writings of the late, Arthur Young, the agricultural writer and traveller. He mentions that in 1807, a farmer, named Puttman, of Barking, in Essex grew 300 acres of polatoes, and sent to market, washed ready for sale, no less than 3,000 tons.
In Johnson's "Farmers' Encyclopedia," published in 1842, we learn that the potato was then grown extensively in field and garden, and considerable space is, consequently, devoted to the subject in that volume. The varieties then grown for field culture were the Ox-Noble, Champion, Purple Red, Rough Red, Hundred Eyes, Kidney, and Moulton White; while for garden culture Broughton's Dwarf, Early Warwick, Ash-leaved Kidney, Fox's Seedling, Early Manly, Early Mule, Early Kidney, Nonsuch, Early Shaw, and Goldfinder, are sorts advised for the earliest crops . . .
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