Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/291

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Lawrence
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Lawrence

crayons and pencil, which he continued to execute throughout his life. Many of these are well known by engravings and lithographs, like Fuseli's portrait in Lavater's 'Physiognomy' and the beautiful head of Horace Walpole which he drew in 1796, the year before Walpole's death. It was engraved for the quarto edition of Walpole's 'Works' published in 1798. Another notable drawing was a head of the Emperor Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, done in Vienna. Once (1801) he essayed sculpture and modelled the head of Mr. Locke of Norbury. Among other distinguished persons not already mentioned whom he either drew or painted were Bunbury the caricaturist (at Bath), Lady Hamilton (1791), John Abernethy, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Astley Cooper, Henry (afterwards Lord) Brougham, John Soane, James Watt (posthumous), J. Wilson Croker, and Warren Hastings.

Among Lawrence's pupils were Etty and Harlowe, but he appears to have left them pretty much to themselves, and though he was in many ways fitted for his position as president of the Royal Academy, his addresses to the students were poor.

The largest collection of Lawrence's works is at Windsor. In the national collection ore portraits of Angerstein, Benjamin West, Mrs. Siddons, Sir Samuel Romilly, and Miss Caroline Fry, 'A Child with a Kid' (these are in Trafalgar Square), the 'Hamlet.' and a nortrait of John Fawcett, which are on loan elsewhere. At the South Kensington Museum are portraits of Sir C. E. Carrington and his first wife, and of Princess Caroline. In the National Portrait Gallery is another of Princess Caroline, and others of George IV, Lord Thurlow, Lord Eldon, William Windham, Sir James Mackintosh, Wilberforce, Warren Hastings, Samuel Rogers, Thomas Campbell, and Elizabeth Carter. In the British Museum are several of his drawings. The Royal Academy owns an unfinished portrait of himself.

[Life by D. E. Williams; Cunningham's Lives of Painters (Heaton); Library of the Fine Arts, 1831; Redgrave's Century of Painters; Redgrave's Dict.; Bryan's Dict. (Graves and Armstrong); Graves's Dict.; Knowles's Life of Fuseli; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, National Gallery, South Kensington Museum, Loan Collection at South Kensington, 1867, Guelph Exhibition, 1890-1, Victorian Exhibition, 1891-2, National Portrait Gallery, &c.]

C. M.

LAWRENCE, WILLIAM (1611?–1681), lawyer, born in 1611 or 1612, was eldest son of William Lawrence (1579-1640) of Wraxhall, Dorset, by Elizabeth (d. 1672), sister of Gregory Gibbes (will of W. Lawrence the elder, registered in P. C. C. 152, Coventry). In 1631 he became a gentleman-commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, and was subsequently called to the bar at the Middle Temple. He rose to considerable eminence in his profession. In November 1653 he was appointed a commissioner for administration of justice in Scotland (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1653-4, p. 273). By the interest of Colonel William Sydenham, his brother-in-law, he was elected, on 26 Nov. 1656, M.P. for the Isle of Wight, on Sydenham's choosing to serve for Dorset, and on 11 Jan. 1658-9 he was returned for Newtown, in the same place (Members of Parliament, Official Return Dom. 1653-4, pt. i. pp. 505, 509). At the Restoration he returned to England, resumed his practice at the bar, and professed great loyalty. He died on 18 March 1680-1, aged 69, and was buried in Wraxhall churchyard. A memorial to him in the church contains a curious poetical epitaph of his own composition. In 1649 he married Martha (b. 1622), third daughter of William Sydenham of Winford Eagle, Dorset, by whom he had a son, William (will registered in P. C. C. 36, Drax). Lawrence wrote: 1. 'Marriage by the Morall Law of God vindicated against all Ceremonial Laws of Popes and Bishops destructive to Filiation, Aliment, and Succession, and the Government of Familyes and Kingdomes,' 2 pts. 4to, London, 1680, which he was compelled to leave unfinished on account of 'disturbances at the press.' Wood alleges that Lawrence wrote the book 'upon a discontent arising from his wife, whom he esteemed dishonest to him.' 2. 'The Right of Primogeniture in Succession to the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.' 4to, London, 1681, in which he learnedly argues in support of the Duke of Monmouth's succession. 3. 'The two great Questions, whereon in this present Juncture of Affairs the Peace and Safety of his Maiesties Person, and of his Protestant Subjects next under God depend, stated, debated, and humbly submitted to the consideration of Supreme Authority, as resolved by Christ,' 4to, London, 1681, a supplement to the foregoing. Lawrence also translated from the Italian of F. Pallavicino 'The Heavenly Divorce; or, our Saviour divorced from the Church of Rome his Spouse.' 12mo, London, 1679. He was fond of writing poetry, and introduced several pieces in which are not without merit.

'Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 62, where the place and date of Lawrence's death are wrongly given; Hutchins's Dorset, 3rd ed. ii. 201-3.]

G. G.