Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/214

This page has been validated.
Laurence
208
Laurence

aged very nearly 66, and was buried at Beckenham on 11 March. In his will, made 29 Feb. 1736, he is described as 'of the parish of St. Saviours in Southwark.' He left all his property to his wife, Jane Laurence, whose maiden name was Holman.

Laurence was an able controversialist, though his style was not elegant. His collection of facts and references in support of his view on lay baptism is valuable. He published:

  1. 'Lay Baptism Invalid, or an Essay to prove that such Baptism is Null and Void when administer'd in opposition to the Divine Right of the Apostolical Succession. By a Lay Hand' (anon.), London, 1708. Editions, with various alterations, appeared in 1709, 1712, 1714, 1723, and 1725, and a reprint, edited by W. Scott, in 1841. The book was attacked by Burnet in a sermon (7 Nov. 1710); by Bishop Fleetwood [q.v.] in an anonymous pamphlet; by Bishop Talbot in a charge of 1712; and by Joseph Bingham [q.v.] in his 'Scholastical History of Lay Baptism,' (1712). Laurence was supported by Hickes and Brett.
  2. 'Sacerdotal Powers, or the Necessity of Confession, Penance, and Absolution. Together with the Nullity of Unauthoriz'd Lay Baptism asserted' (anon., in reply to the Bishop of Salisbury), London, 1711; 2nd edit. 1713; a reprint of the first four chapters was edited by Gresley in 1852.
  3. 'Dissenters' and other Unauthoriz'd Baptisms Null and Void, by the Articles, Canons, and Rubricks of the Church of England' (in answer to Fleetwood), London, 1712; 2nd edit. 1713; 3rd edit. 1810; reprint by W. Scott with 'Lay Baptism Invalid,' 1841.
  4. 'The Bishop of Oxford's Charge consider'd.'
  5. 'The Second Part of Lay Baptism Invalid,' in which he tries to prove his position from Bingham's 'Scholastical History,' London, 1713.

Bingham replied in a second part of his 'Scholastical History.' Laurence rejoined in:

  1. 'Supplement to the 1st and 2nd Parts of Lay Baptism Invalid' (assailing also White Kennett) (anon.), London, 1714.

Bingham again replied, but was not answered. An excellent bibliography of the controversy respecting lay baptism and Laurence's position is given in Elwin's 'Minister of Baptism,' pp. 258 et seq.

  1. 'Mr. Leslie's Defence from some … Principles Advanc'd in a Letter, said to have been written by him concerning the New Separation' (anon.), 1719.
  2. 'The Indispensible Obligation of Ministring the Great Necessaries of Publick Worship … By a Lover of Truth' (anon.), London, 1732–1734. (a) 'The Indispensible Obligation … with a Detection of the False Reasonings in Dr. B——t's Printed Letter to the Author of "Two Discourses,"' 1732. (b) 'A Supplement to the Indispensible Obligations,' &c., 1733. (c) 'The Supplement Continued,' 1734, in which Laurence quaintly comments on his own views and works in the third person.

[Registers of Christ's Hospital, communicated by W. Lempriere, esq.; Daily Post, 6 March 1736; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iv. 227; Burnet's Hist. of his own Time, vi. 117 seq. (Oxford edit. of 1823); Life of Archbishop Sharp, i. 369–77; Laurence's Lay Baptism Invalid, 1712, pp. xii, xiii; White Kennett's Wisdom of Looking Backward; Oxford Graduates, 1659–1850, p. 398; Post Boy, 25–8 July 1713; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. v. 475–7, 3rd ser. i. 225, iii. 243–4; Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors, pp. 381–4; Elwin's Minister of Baptism, pp. 227–40; preface by W. Scott to his edition of Lay Baptism Invalid, 1841; Burnet's Two Sermons, 1710; will in Somerset House, Probate Derby, 60.]

B. P.

LAURENCE, SAMUEL (1812–1884), portrait-painter, was born at Guildford, Surrey, in 1812, and early manifested a great love for art. The first portraits which he exhibited were at the Society of British Artists in 1834, but in 1836 he sent three portraits, including that of Mrs. Somerville, to the exhibition of the Royal Academy. These were followed at the Academy by portraits of the Right Hon. Thomas Erskine, 1838; Thomas Carlyle, 1841; Sir Frederick Pollock, bart., 1842 and 1847; Charles Babbage, 1845; Dr. Whewell, 1847; James Spedding, 1860; the Rev. William H. Thompson, master of Trinity, and Robert Browning, 1869; Sir Thomas Watson, bart., M.D., 1870; and the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, 1871. He exhibited also crayon drawings of Charles Dickens ('Sketch of Boz'), 1838; John Hullah, 1842; Professor Sedgwick, 1845; the Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice, 1846; George Grote, 1849; Lord Ashburton and Bernard Barton, 1850; Sir Henry Taylor, 1852; Sir William Bowman, bart., 1853; Sir Frederick Pollock and Lady Pollock, 1863; James Anthony Froude, Rev. Hugh Stowell, and William Makepeace Thackeray, 1864; Anthony Trollope, 1865; Sir Henry Cole and Dean Howson, 1866; William Spottiswoode, 1869; Lord-justice Sir Edward Fry, 1871; and Sir Theodore Martin, 1875. He ceased to exhibit at Suffolk Street in 1853, but his works continued to appear at the Royal Academy until 1882, when he sent a drawing of Mrs. Cross ('George Eliot'), made in 1860.

Early in life Laurence was brought into close relations with many of the eminent literary men of his time, and was on terms of great intimacy with George Henry Lewes and Thornton Leigh Hunt; but his most in-