A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lawrance, George Bell
LAWRANCE. (Retired Commander, 1836. f-p., 13; h-p., 37.)
George Bell Lawrance died 9 April, 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 March, 1797, as Master’s Mate, on board the El Corso 18, Capt. Bartholomew James, with whom he served, in the same vessel and the Canophs 80, on the Mediterranean and Lisbon stations, until Sept. 1799. During the next three years and a half he was employed off St. Helena and in the Downs and West Indies on board the Director 64, Capt. Wm. Bligh, and Leviathan 74, flag-ship of Sir John Thos. Duckworth. He then, in March, 1803, became Acting-Lieutenant of the Racoon 18, Capt. Austen Bissell, and while in that sloop, to which he was confirmed by commission dated 8 Sept. following, we find him in the course of the same year participating in a very warm action of 40 minutes, which terminated in the capture, in Leogane Roads, of the French corvette Le Lodi, of 10 guns and 61 men – contributing, also, to the destruction, off the island of Cuba, of the national brig La Mutine, of 18 guns – and further present, with distinction, in an action in which the Racoon, with only 42 men on board, most gallantly took, notwithstanding a long and desperate resistance on the part of the enemy, a French gun-brig, cutter, and schooner, carrying altogether between 300 and 400 men.[1] In 1805, Lieut. Lawrance – who had for some time had command of the Gipsy schooner of 10 guns, and been also employed in the Echo sloop, Capt. Edmund Boger – successively joined the Acasta 40, Capt. Rich. Dalling Dunn, Hercule 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres, and Theseus 74, Capt. Fras. Temple, all on the West India station; and he next, from 10 July 1806 until 15 July, 1808, served with the late Sir Sam. Hood on board the Centaur 74. While in the Echo he cut out a brig from the Bight of Leogane; he captured, in the Gipsy, a privateer of 4 guns off Trinidad; and, when in the Centaur, he assisted, in company with the Mars and Monarch 74’ s, at the defeat, 25 Sept. 1806, of four heavy French frigates off Rochefort, on which occasion Sir Sam. Hood lost his arm – accompanied, in Aug. and Sept. 1807, the expedition to Copenhagen, where he was employed in taking soundings during the siege – and was present in Dec. of the same year at the surrender of Madeira. His last appointment was, 5 June, 1810, to the Cadmus 10, Capt. Thos. Fife, with whom he served on the coast of France until 17 Dec. 1811. He retired with the rank of Commander 4 May, 1836.
Commander Lawrance married, in 1814, a daughter of Rich. Bennett, Esq., of Lostwithiel, co. Cornwall, by whom he has left, with one daughter, a son, the present Lieut. Geo. Bennett Lawrance, R.N.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 162.