Shaw Family History

Genealogy is important to the history of the mansion, as the building and grounds were passed down from one generation to the next within the same direct family line, and at one point, to in-laws.

Owners of the Mansion/Years of Ownership:

Nathaniel Shaw, 1703-1778, 1758-1778
Nathaniel Shaw, 1735-1782, 1778-1782
Thomas Shaw, 1739-1795, 1782-1795
Lucretia Shaw Woodbridge, 1773-1802, 1795-1802
and Elias Perkins, 1767-1845, 1802-1845
Dr. Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, 1792-1870, 1845-1870
Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, Jr., 1822-1905, 1870-1905
Jane Richards Perkins, 1844-1930, 1905-1907
The New London County Historical Society,
1907-present

Captain Nathaniel Shaw (1703-1778) and his wife Temperance Harris Shaw 1709-1796) had a total of eight children...

Sarah, 1734-1759 married David Allen
Nathaniel, 1735-1782 married Lucretia Harris Rogers (no children)
Thomas, 1739-1795 never married
Daniel, 1742-1798 married Grace Coit (no children)
Joseph (died at sea at age 20) never married
John (died at sea at age 21) never married
William (died at sea at age 22) never married
Mary, 1751-1775 married Ephraim Woodbridge, their daughter:
Lucretia Shaw Woodbridge, 1773-1802 married Elias Perkins, their son:
Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, 1792-1870 married Ellen Richards

Of the eight children of Captain Nathaniel and Temperance Shaw, only two had children of their own.
Sarah married David Allen, and had a son, also named David, who died at age three and a half.
Mary married Ephraim Woodbridge in 1769 when she was twenty-six, and had three children, including a daughter named Lucretia (after Nathaniel Shaw junior’s wife, Lucretia Harris Shaw).
The first Lucretia Shaw died in 1781 after becoming ill from nursing prisoners assigned to her husband as the Naval War Agent for the colony. The Lucretia Shaw Chapter NSDAR takes its name from her, and continues to meet at the Mansion. Her husband was injured in a hunting accident early the following year and died in April.
Next to inherit the house was Thomas Shaw, brother of Nathaniel. He had been his brother’s aid, and Deputy Commissioner of Naval prisoners during the Revolution, and also a selectman of New London.
After Thomas Shaw died in 1795, the house and property went to Lucretia Shaw Woodbridge (aged 22 at the time) and her husband, Judge Elias Perkins.
Mr. and Mrs. Perkins had seven children, including a son named Nathaniel Shaw Perkins (1792-1870), who became the leading physician in town.
Dr. Perkins inherited the Mansion upon the death of his father in 1845. When Dr. Perkins inherited the house, he substantially remodeled it, giving it a much more Victorian appearance. Because of this remodeling, we cannot be sure what the house looked like during colonial times.
Dr. Nathaniel Shaw Perkins and his wife, Ellen Richards Perkins, had fourteen children, including Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, Jr., (b.1822), and Jane Richards Perkins (b.1844). Two of their sons, Benjamin and William, were some of the first volunteers for the Union Army in the Civil War.
William was killed in action a year after he volunteered. By the time Jane Richards Perkins grew to adulthood following the Civil War, there were few eligible men, and consequently, she never married.
Jane inherited the house from her elder brother, Nathaniel, upon his death in 1905, when she was fifty-nine.
In 1907, she offered to sell the Mansion and all of its contents to the New London County Historical Society, for $33,000, with the provision that she be allowed to reside there until her death.
The NLCHS accepted the offer, and raised the money in three months with the help of a public campaign reported almost daily in the local newspaper, The Day. Jane Richards Perkins died on March 26, 1930.

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