Jemmy Shaw

Jemmy Elton Shaw (1815 – 1885), also known as Jimmy Shaw and James Shaw, was a 19th-century pioneer and fancier of the early dog show days, a promoter of dog fighting and rat-baiting contests, a breeder of Old English bulldogs, bull terriers and toy terriers and a contributor in the development of fancy rats.^[1]

Toy Dog Club, circa 1855, by R. Marshall, Jemmy Shaw is standing beside the fireplace with the white long sleeve shirt.

Dogs

According to the Sporting Chronicle Annual, Jem owned a black-and-tan bull and terrier named "Jacko", the world record holder for rat killing.

Tiny the Wonder, Rat-Catching at the Blue Anchor Tavern, London, c.1850-52. The man in the middle with a pocket watch is Jemmy Shaw.

Shaw owned Tiny the Wonder, an English Toy Terrier (Black & Tan), famous in the City of London in the mid-19th century for being able to kill 200 rats in an hour in London's rat-baiting pits.^[2]

Business

In the mid-1800s, Shaw was the landlord of the Blue Anchor Tavern, now the Artillery Arms,^[3] located at 102 Bunhill Row, St. Luke's, London Borough of Islington.^[4] Shaw would hold rat-baiting contests in the tavern basement for spectators. Shaw was able to maintain as many as 2,000 rats in his establishment for upcoming contests.

Establishment of fancy rats

Between the 1840s and 1860s Jemmy Shaw and Jack Black bred and sold many different colours of fancy rats and their work aided in the establishment of them as pets.^[5]