Professor of Biblical Criticism. Andrew Shaw was born ca. 1700, the son of Alexander Shaw, Minister of Edinkillie, and Grizzel Munro.
Shaw served as Minister to St Madoes from 1729 until 1740, when he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism at St Mary's College, University of St Andrews. He was, at some point, tutor to the Balmanno family.
Shaw breakfasted with Boswell and Dr Johnson in St Andrews on August 20, 1773, during which Boswell took out his copy of Ogden on Prayer and read some of it to the company. After breakfast, they went together to see "Colonel Nairne's garden and grotto".
In his Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Boswell mentions how Shaw said of Dr Johnson, that he was a "wonderful man: he is master of every subject he handles." Johnson later returned the compliment, telling Boswell that he "took much to Shaw."