William Shaw (born 1632) was a con man and thief from England who became the lover of the pirate Morgan Adams during the Golden Age of Piracy.
Biography[]
William Shaw was born in England in 1632, and little is known about his early life; he claimed that he studied medicine at Leipzig in Germany before becoming a doctor. Nevertheless, Shaw was cunning, and he knew how to use his charm to rob people (especially women) blind. In 1668, he was arrested at a ball in Port Royal, Jamaica after he was caught lying about how he gained passage to Jamaica, and after several upper-class women discovered that he had stolen their jewelry. He was sold into slavery on the orders of Governor Patrick Ainslee, and he was later bought by the pirate Morgan Adams after she threatened her competitor with castration. Shaw translated her map to the treasure of Cutthroat Island into Latin, and he helped her with finding the island and with evading her rival, Dawg Brown; Shaw and Adams began a romance after he healed a gunshot wound to her chest. Shaw and Adams freed the crew of Adams' ship Morning Star after Brown and Ainslee captured them, and Shaw succeeded in rescuing Adams when she was caught aboard Brown's sinking ship, the Reaper. Shaw and Adams became lovers, and they sailed to Madagascar with the rest of the crew to embark on a new adventure.