service in and for India, “the great proconsul of our English Christian empire” was created Baron Lawrence of the Punjab, and of Grately, Hants. He assumed the same arms and crest as those of his brother Henry, with a Pathan and a Sikh trooper as supporters, and took as his motto “Be ready,” his brother’s being “Never give in.” For ten years he gave himself to the work of the London school board, of which he was the first chairman, and of the Church missionary society. Towards the end his eyesight failed, and on the 27th of June 1879 he died at the age of sixty-eight. He was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, beside Clyde, Outram and Livingstone. He had married the daughter of the Rev. Richard Hamilton, Harriette-Katherine, who survived him, and he was succeeded as 2nd baron by his eldest son, John Hamilton Lawrence (b. 1846).
See Bosworth Smith, Life of Lord Lawrence (1885); Sir Charles Aitchison, Lord Lawrence (“Rulers of India” series, 1892); L. J. Trotter, Lord Lawrence (1880); and F. M. Holmes, Four Heroes of India.
LAWRENCE, STRINGER (1697–1775), English soldier, was born at Hereford on the 6th of March 1697. He seems to have entered the army in 1727 and served in Gibraltar and Flanders, subsequently taking part in the battle of Culloden. In 1748, with the rank of major and the reputation of an experienced soldier, he went out to India to command the East India Company’s troops. Dupleix’s schemes for the French conquest of southern India were on the point of taking effect, and not long after his arrival at Fort St David, Stringer Lawrence was actively engaged. He successfully foiled an attempted French surprise at Cuddalore, but subsequently was captured by a French cavalry patrol at Ariancopang near Pondicherry and kept prisoner till the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1749 he was in command at the capture of Devicota. On this occasion Clive served under him and a life-long friendship began. On one occasion, when Clive had become famous, he honoured the creator of the Indian army by refusing to accept a sword of honour unless one was voted to Lawrence also. In 1750 Lawrence returned to England, but in 1752 he was back in India. Here he found Clive in command of a force intended for the relief of Trichinopoly. As senior officer Lawrence took over the command, but was careful to allow Clive every credit for his share in the subsequent operations, which included the relief of Trichinopoly and the surrender of the entire French besieging force. In 1752 with an inferior force he defeated the French at Bahur (Behoor) and in 1753 again relieved Trichinopoly. For the next seventeen months he fought a series of actions in defence of this place, finally arranging a three months’ armistice, which was afterwards converted into a conditional treaty. He had commanded in chief up to the arrival of the first detachment of regular forces of the crown. In 1757 he served in the operations against Wandiwash, and in 1758–1759 was in command of Fort St George during the siege by the French under Lally. In 1759 failing health compelled him to return to England. He resumed his command in 1761 as major-general and commander-in-chief. Clive supplemented his old friend’s inconsiderable income by settling on him an annuity of £500 a year. In 1765 he presided over the board charged with arranging the reorganization of the Madras army, and he finally retired the following year. He died in London on the 10th of January 1775. The East India Company erected a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey.
See Biddulph, Stringer Lawrence (1901).
LAWRENCE, SIR THOMAS (1769–1830), English painter,
was born at Bristol on the 4th of May 1769. His father was an
innkeeper, first at Bristol and afterwards at Devizes, and at
the age of six Thomas was already shown off to the guests of
the Black Boar as an infant prodigy who could sketch their
likenesses and declaim speeches from Milton. In 1779 the elder
Lawrence had to leave Devizes, having failed in business,
and the precocious talent of the son, who had gained a sort
of reputation along the Bath road, became the support of
the family. His debut as a crayon portrait painter was made
at Oxford, where he was well patronized, and in 1782 the family
settled in Bath, where the young artist soon found himself fully
employed in taking crayon likenesses of the fashionables of the
place at a guinea or a guinea and a half a head. In 1784 he
gained the prize and silver-gilt palette of the Society of Arts for a
crayon drawing after Raphael’s “Transfiguration,” and presently
beginning to paint in oil. Throwing aside the idea of going
on the stage which he had for a short time entertained, he came
to London in 1787, was kindly received by Reynolds, and entered
as a student at the Royal Academy. He began to exhibit almost
immediately, and his reputation increased so rapidly that he
became an associate of the Academy in 1791. The death of Sir
Joshua in 1792 opened the way to further successes. He was
at once appointed painter to the Dilettanti society, and principal
painter to the king in room of Reynolds. In 1794 he was a Royal
Academician, and he became the fashionable portrait painter
of the age, having as his sitters all the rank, fashion and talent
of England, and ultimately most of the crowned heads of Europe.
In 1815 he was knighted; in 1818 he went to Aix-la-Chapelle
to paint the sovereigns and diplomatists gathered there, and
visited Vienna and Rome, everywhere receiving flattering marks
of distinction from princes, due as much to his courtly manners
as to his merits as an artist. After eighteen months he returned
to England, and on the very day of his arrival was chosen
president of the Academy in room of West, who had died a few days
before. This office he held from 1820 to his death on the 7th of
January 1830. He was never married.
Sir Thomas Lawrence had all the qualities of personal manner and artistic style necessary to make a fashionable painter, and among English portrait painters he takes a high place, though not as high as that given to him in his lifetime. His more ambitious works, in the classical style, such as his once celebrated “Satan,” are practically forgotten.
The best display of Lawrence’s work is in the Waterloo Gallery of Windsor, a collection of much historical interest. “Master Lambton,” painted for Lord Durham at the price of 600 guineas, is regarded as one of his best portraits, and a fine head in the National Gallery, London, shows his power to advantage. The Life and Correspondence of Sir T. Lawrence, by D. E. Williams, appeared in 1831.
LAWRENCE, a city and the county-seat of Douglas county, Kansas, U.S.A., situated on both banks of the Kansas river, about 40 m. W. of Kansas City. Pop. (1890) 9997, (1900) 10,862, of whom 2032 were negroes, (1910 census) 12,374. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Union Pacific railways, both having tributary lines extending N. and S. Lawrence is surrounded by a good farming region, and is itself a thriving educational and commercial centre. Its site slopes up from the plateau that borders the river to the heights above, from which there is a view of rare beauty. Among the city’s principal public buildings are the court house and the Y.M.C.A. building. The university of Kansas, situated on Mount Oread, overlooking the city, was first opened in 1866, and in 1907–1908 had a faculty of 105 and 2063 students, including 702 women (see Kansas). Just S. of the city of Lawrence is Haskell institute (1884), one of the largest Indian schools in the country, maintained for children of the tribal Indians by the national government. In 1907 the school had 813 students, of whom 313 were girls; it has an academic department, a business school and courses in domestic science, in farming, dairying and gardening, and in masonry, carpentry, painting, blacksmithing, waggon-making, shoemaking, steam-fitting, printing and other trades. Among the city’s manufactures are flour and grist mill products, pianos and cement plaster. Lawrence, named in honour of Amos A. Lawrence, was founded by agents of the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company in July 1854, and during the Territorial period was the political centre of the free-state cause and the principal point against which the assaults of the pro-slavery party were directed. It was first known as Wakarusa, from the creek by which it lies. A town association was organized in September 1854 before any Territorial government had been established. In the next month some pro-slavery men presented claims to a part of the land, projected a rival town to be called Excelsior on the same site, and threatened violence; but when Lawrence had organized its “regulators” the pro-slavery men retired and later agreed to a compromise by which the town
