William Shaen (1821–87)

Lawyer. Studied classics at University College, London, and law at Edinburgh University; became a solicitor in 1848. Founder of the Metropolitan and Provincial Law Association. Part of a group of London Unitarians working for political and social reform. Involved with a number of controversial legal cases, including the Jamaica committee, set up in 1866 to lobby for the governor of Jamaica to be tried for his excesses in suppressing the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865.