USA > New York > New York City > Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city > Part 59
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Captain William Lawrence was the head of the patentees of Flushing, Long Island, in 1645, a magistrate under the Dutch administration, and a military officer under the English Government. He was the ancestor of Captain James Lawrence, U. S. N., commander of the frigate Chesapeake in its memorable action with the British ship Shannon in 1813, whose dying words, "Don't give up the ship," have become immortal, and whose tomb is now a conspicuous feature of the graveyard of Trinity Church, New York.
Major Thomas Lawrence, the youngest of the three brothers, was the chief patentee of Newtown, Long Island, and commander of the Queens County forces in 1689. His son William was a member of Jacob Leisler's Committee of Safety in 1689, and a Councillor of the Province in 1690, and from 1702 to 1706. Another son of Thomas, Captain John Lawrence, was the sheriff of Queens County. He married Deborah Woodhull, daughter of the patentee of Brookhaven, and died in 1729. One of his sons, John Lawrence, was a Judge of the Province, and married Patience Sackett and had a large family, the descendants of which have been prominent in New York. The eldest son, John Lawrence, alderman of the Dock Ward, married Catherine, daughter of the Honorable Philip Livingston, and died without issue. William Lawrence, the fifth son of John and Patience, was for many years a magistrate of Queens County. His grandson, the Honorable William Beach Lawrence, was prominent in political life, being Chargé d'affaires in London in 1827-28, and later was Governor of Rhode Island. His son is the Honorable Isaac Lawrence. Captain Thomas Lawrence, the sixth son of John and Patience Lawrence, commanded the ship Tartar during the French War, and was a Judge in Queens County. His son, Lieutenant Nathaniel Lawrence, distinguished himself in the Revolution. He was a member of the convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States, was four times a member of Assembly, and Attorney- General of the State of New York. He also left no male descendants.
Jonathan Lawrence, the eighth son of John and Patience, was a conspicuous patriot. He was so successful as a merchant that he had accumulated a large fortune at thirty-four years of age. He lost all his possessions during the Revolution, but became a wealthy man again before his death in 1812. He was a Major in the Continental Army, a member of the Provincial Congresses of 1775, 1776 and 1777, a member of the convention which formulated the Constitution of this State in 1776-77, and a member of the State Senate from 1777 to 1783. Three sons of Jonathan Lawrence became conspicuous in State and national affairs. Samuel was a county Judge and member of
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Congress. William was a soldier in the War of 1812, a county Judge and Member of Con- gress. Another son was the Honorable John L. Lawrence, who was born in 1785 and was one of the leaders of the New York bar. He also entered the diplomatic service of the United States, and was Secretary of Legation at Stockholm in 1814, and later Chargé d' Affaires. He was a member of Assembly, the State Senate, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1821, president of the Croton Aqueduct Board in 1842, and Comptroller of New York City at the time of his death in 1849. He was also, for many years, treasurer of Columbia College.
The Honorable Abraham R. Lawrence, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, is a son of the Honorable John L. Lawrence. On his mother's side he comes of an ancestry fully as renowned as that of his father. His mother was Sarah Augusta Smith, only daughter of General John Smith, of St. George's Manor, Long Island, and a granddaughter of General Nathaniel Wood- hull. General John Smith, whose wife was the only child of General Woodhull, was a descendant of Colonel William Smith, who was Governor of Tangier, Justice of the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice of the Province of New York, Judge of the Court of Admiralty for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, member of the Governor's Council from 1691 to 1704, received the grant of St. George's Manor 1693, and was Governor of New York, pro tempore, 1701, after the death of Lord Bellomont. Born in 1756, General John Smith served in the Revolution and was a member of the Assembly from 1784 to 1800. In 1788 he was a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. He was a member of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Congresses. In 1804, he succeeded General John Armstrong in the United States Senate, was elected for another term in 1807, and died in 1816.
General Woodhull was the great-grandson of Richard Woodhull, the patentee of Brook- haven, Long Island. He was a Major under General Abercrombie at Ticonderoga in the French and Indian War, and a Colonel in the army which invaded Canada in 1760. Later he was a member of Assembly. In 1775, he was commissioned Brigadier-General of the Suffolk and Queens County troops. After the battle of Long Island he was captured by the British forces, by whom he was killed when a prisoner. He was three times President of the Provincial Con- gress, and presided over the meeting which ratified the Declaration of Independence. His wife was Ruth, daughter of Nicoll Floyd, and sister of General William Floyd, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Justice Abraham R. Lawrence was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867. He has been a member of the New York bar for more than half a century, was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1873, was reelected in 1888, and is considered one of the ablest mem- bers of the judiciary. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Century, Bar Association, Manhattan and other clubs. In 1860, Judge Lawrence married Eliza Miner, only daughter of Dr. William Miner, and granddaughter of Dr. William Westcott Miner, a leading New York physician. The Miner family is descended from Lieutenant Thomas Miner, one of the founders of New London, whose son, Clement Miner, was born at New London, and whose grandson, also, William Miner, of Lyme, Conn., a well-known patriot of the American Revolution, was the father of Dr. William Westcott Miner. Mrs. Lawrence's mother was Julia Caroline Williams, a daughter of Cornelius T. Williams, of Rosemount, an estate that at the beginning of the century extended from the present Fourteenth Street to Twentieth Street, and from what is now Fifth Avenue to the limits of the Stuyvesant Farm, or about the line of Third Avenue.
Judge and Mrs. Lawrence have two children, William Miner Lawrence and Ruth Lawrence. William M. Lawrence at one time represented the Eleventh Assembly District of this city in the Legislature. He married Lavinia Oliver, of this city, and has two children, Oliver Lawrence and Clement Miner Lawrence. Judge Lawrence's residence is at 285 Lexington Avenue. The arms of the Lawrence family, taken from the seal of Thomas Lawrence, its first American ancestor, are described as follows : Argent, a cross raguly gules. Crest, a demi-turbot in pale argent, the tail upwards. Motto: Quaero Invenio.
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JOHN L. LAWRENCE
T HAT branch of the famous Lawrence family, of which Mr. John L. Lawrence is a represen- tative in the present generation, is directly descended from John Lawrence, who was the chief burgess of St. Albans, England, in 1553, and Mayor of that city, 1567-75. It is now generally agreed by genealogists that this John Lawrence was the father of William Lawrence, who in 1559 married Katerin Beaumont, the grandfather of John Lawrence, who married, in 1586, Margaret Robertes, and the great-grandfather of Thomas Lawrence, who married, in 1609, Joane Anterbus, daughter of Walter and Jane (Arnolde) Anterbus or Antrobus.
Captain William Lawrence, the first American ancestor of Mr. John L. Lawrence, was the son of Thomas and Joane (Anterbus) Lawrence. Born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, in 1622, he came to New England in 1635, was one of the eighteen original incorporators of Flushing, Long Island, in 1655, afterwards a magistrate, in 1657 a deputy to the council, in 1665 Captain of the Queens County militia and in 1673 schout or sheriff of Flushing. He died in 1679. His wife was Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Richard Smith. Joseph Lawrence, his son, born 1666, was an ensign of the New York provincial troops. Tradition says that he married Mary Townley, daughter of Colonel Richard Townley, of New Jersey.
Richard Lawrence, 1691-1781, son of Joseph Lawrence, married, in 1717, Hannah Bowne, daughter of Samuel and Mary Bowne. Their son, John Lawrence, 1732-94, married, in 1755, Ann Burling, daughter of John and Ann Burling. John Burling Lawrence, grandfather of Mr. John L. Lawrence, was the son of John and Ann (Burling) Lawrence. Born in 1774, he became a leading merchant at the head of the house of Lawrence, Keese & Co. His death occurred in 1844. His wife was Hannah Newbold, daughter of Caleb Newbold, of Philadelphia, by his wife, Sarah Haines, of New Jersey. Alfred Newbold Lawrence, 1813-1884, father of Mr. John L. Lawrence, had a long and successful business career, being a dry goods merchant and a wholesale druggist.
The mother of Mr. John L. Lawrence was Elizabeth Lawrence, daughter of the Honorable John L. Lawrence. She was descended in the sixth generation from Thomas Lawrence, a brother of William Lawrence, the ancestor of her husband, and himself a pioneer to this country in the early part of the seventeenth century. Thomas Lawrence was born in England in 1619, and was a patentee of Middleburgh, now Newtown, Long Island, in 1655. His son, John Lawrence, who married a daughter of Richard Woodhull, was a Captain in the Queens County Regiment and sheriff of the county in 1698. His grandson, John Lawrence, who married Patience Sackett, daughter of Joseph Sackett, was for many years a county magistrate. His great-grandson, Jonathan Lawrence, born in 1737, was a merchant of New York, a Captain of the militia, a Revolutionary patriot, a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775-6-7, a member of the Constitutional Convention, Major of the Queens and Suffolk County militia, and a member of the New York State Senate, 1777-83. The Honorable John L. Lawrence, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the son of Jonathan Lawrence, by his wife, Ruth Riker. He was born in 1785 and became one of the distinguished public men of the last generation, being engaged in the diplomatic service of the United States, a member of the New York Assembly, member of the State Constitutional Convention in 1821, Presidential elector in 1840, State Senator 1847-49, Comptroller of New York City in 1850 and treasurer of Columbia College. His wife was Sarah Augusta Tangier, daughter of General John Smith, of St. George's Manor, Suffolk County.
Mr. John L. Lawrence was born June 22d, 1857. His residence is upon the ancestral estate in Lawrence, Long Island. He belongs to the Calumet, Rockaway Hunt and Seawanhaka- Corinthian Yacht clubs. He married, in 1895, Alice Warner Work, daughter of I. Henry Work and Marie P. Warner. On her mother's side, Mrs. Lawrence is directly descended from William Brad- ford, who came on the Mayflower in 1620, and was the first Governor of the Plymouth Colony. He has one sister, Hannah Newbold Lawrence. The coat of arms of the Lawrence family is a fish's tail, with the motto, Quaro Invenio.
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LEONIDAS MOREAU LAWSON
E' NGLISH and Dutch families are both conspicuous in the Lawson genealogy, and among them occur several names of distinction in our national history. General Robert Lawson, of Virginia, was a prominent patriot and an eminent Revolutionary officer. He entered the Continental service as Major, in 1775, and in 1777 became Colonel in command of a brigade of Virginia troops, which served under General Nathaniel Greene at the battle of Guilford. He also rendered important service to Patrick Henry and to Thomas Jefferson, when the latter was Governor of Virginia, in 1778-79, the fact being prominently mentioned by Jefferson's biographers. His son, the Reverend Jeremiah Lawson, went early in life from Virginia to Kentucky, settling in Mason County. After Missouri had been annexed to the United States, through the Louisiana purchase, he removed thither with his family, in 1804, being one of the earliest American pioneers of the State. He was a noted clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Mississippi Valley, and died at Cincinnati, in 1862, aged ninety. William Lawson, eldest son of the Reverend Mr. Lawson, was the father of Colonel Leonidas M. Lawson. He settled in the Boone's Lick country, now Howard County, Mo., and married Phoebe Kanslor. Her family was founded in America by Philip Kanslor, who emigrated from Holland in 1750, settled at Albany, N. Y., and served in the French and Indian War, and the Revolution. His son, John Kanslor, moved to Kentucky, in 1798, and was the father of Phœbe (Kanslor) Lawson.
Mr. Leonidas Moreau Lawson was born of this parentage, in Howard County, Mo. He was named for his father's brother, Leonidas Moreau Lawson, M. D., 1812-1864. Dr. Lawson was a graduate of the medical department of Transylvania University, in which he became a professor, and was sent by his alma mater to Germany, France and England, in 1846, to investigate the progress of medical science. He was also a professor in the Ohio Medical College, of Cincinnati, the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, and the University of Louisiana, and was a voluminous writer on medical topics. His daughter, Louise Lawson, is the distinguished sculptor.
His namesake, Colonel L. M. Lawson, graduated at seventeen years of age from the University of Missouri, and for two years was professor of Greek and Latin at the William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and removed to Western Missouri, where he became interested in railroad construction. In 1860, he was elected to the Missouri Legislature on the Bell and Everett ticket, and, being a strong Union man, defeated a plan of the majority of the members to carry the State out of the Union by means of a militia bill. In 1861, he was offered by Governor Gamble the command of the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry. He refused this and served throughout the war on the staff of General James Craig.
After the war, Colonel Lawson again resumed the practice of the law, but became interested in railroad and business enterprises. He was a founder and first president of the State National Bank, in St. Joseph, and participated in organizing the German Savings Bank, Merchants Insurance Company, and other corporations. He founded the St. Joseph Law Library Association, and was its president for several years. He was also one of the chief promoters of the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad, afterwards the St. Joseph & Western, and of the St. Louis & St. Joseph Railroad, of which latter he was president. In 1868, with his brother-in-law, Robert W. Donnell, he established the banking house of Donnell, Lawson & Co., in New York, and in 1874-1878 was the firm's resident partner in London. In 1873, he organized the Kansas City Water-Works Company.
Colonel Lawson married Theodosia Thornton, youngest daughter of Colonel John Thornton, of Missouri, and has two sons : William Thornton Lawson, the elder, graduated from Columbia University, in 1882, studied at the University of Berlin, and then graduated from the law depart- ment of Columbia. Leonidas M. Lawson, Jr., is a student in the medical department of Columbia. The family residence is in East Sixty-seventh Street. Colonel Lawson is a member of the Union, University, Union League, Manhattan, New York Yacht, Reform, and United Service clubs, and of the Downtown Association, the Southern Society, and other prominent bodies.
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JOHN BROOKS LEAVITT
B EARERS of the Leavitt name were among the Puritans of Massachusetts. John Leavitt, from Norfolk, England, settled at Hingham in 1628, and his son, John Leavitt, established himself in the town of Suffield, Hartford County, Conn. It was there that Mr. John Brooks Leavitt's grandfather, the Honorable Humphrey Howe Leavitt, was born in 1796. The family removed to Ohio in 1800, and Humphrey Howe Leavitt, having received a classical education, was admitted to the bar in 1815. He first practiced at Cadiz, Harrison County, O., but removed to Steubenville, where he was elected prosecuting attorney and served in the Ohio Legislature and Senate. In 1830, he became a Representative in Congress, serving for two terms. He was an admirer and prominent supporter of President Andrew Jackson, by whom he was appointed Judge of the United States Court for Ohio in 1834. In a short memoir written for his children he refers to a seat in Congress as " positively irksome and repulsive," adding "In times of party division, it is impossible for anyone in Congress to preserve a conscience void of offense toward God and at the same time to bear true allegiance to the party by which he has been elected. The member must vote with his party irrespective of the public good or expect to be visited with the fiercest denunciation." For thirty-seven years this upright and accomplished lawyer graced the Federal bench and decided cases of vital importance to the country, one of his noteworthy opinions being in the famous habeas corpus case of Clement L. Valandingham. Judge Leavitt was also an eminent member of the Presbyterian communion and served as delegate to eleven sessions of its general assembly. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Jefferson College. He married Marie Antoinette McDowell, daughter of Dr. John McDowell, provost of the University of Pennsylvania and Governor of that State. Judge Leavitt died at Springfield, O., in 1872.
His son, the Reverend John McDowell Leavitt, D. D., LL. D., was born at Steubenville, O., in 1824, graduated at Jefferson College in 1841 and studied law. After a few years of practice, his inclinations turned to the church and he was ordained to the ministry of the Episcopal Church in 1862. His educational talent was promply recognized, and he became a professor in Kenyon College, O., and was afterwards one of the faculty of the University of Ohio, which institution in 1874 conferred on him the degree of LL. D. He was subsequently the second president of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., and has filled the same office at St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. Doctor Leavitt's contributions to literature have been numerous, though only a few of his works can be mentioned, among them being: Hymns to Our King, Faith and other Poems, Reasons for Faith in the Nineteenth Century. He also edited The Church Review, and founded and edited The International Review. Doctor Leavitt married Bithia Brooks, of Cincinnati, daughter of Moses Brooks, born near Huntington, N. J., and his wife, Lydia (Ransom) Brooks, who was a granddaughter of Captain Samuel Ransom, slain at the Wyoming massacre in 1778.
Mr John Brooks Leavitt is the offspring of this marriage, and was born at Cincinnati, O., in 1849. He graduated from Kenyon College, O., in 1868, and from the law department of Columbia College, of this city, in 1871. Mr. Leavitt has pursued his profession with success, taking at the same time a warm interest in politics and literature. He is the author of a legal work, Law of Negligence, and a frequent contributor to the periodicals. In 1896, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Kenyon College. His wife was Mary Keith, born at Churchtown, Lancaster County, Pa., a lady who also springs from a family of unmixed American descent. Among Mrs. Leavitt's ancestors on her mother's side was Elisha Boudinot, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, brother of Elias Boudinot, president of Congress and the first lawyer admitted to the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Mrs. Leavitt and her family possess portraits of their ancestors of great interest.
Mr. Leavitt is a member of the University, City, Lawyers' and Church clubs and the New England Society. He resides at 44 Stuyvesant Street, and belongs to the Onteora Club, in the Catskill Mountains.
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LEWIS CASS LEDYARD
O RIGINALLY the name of Ledyard was Welsh and the family is a branch of the Llwyds or Lloyds, who trace their ancestry to the early Britons who fought with Arthur against the Saxon Kings. John Ledyard, the first of the name in America, was a gentleman of con- siderable means and of good family, a native of Bristol, England, and in middle life a resident of London. He came to Southold, Long Island, in 1717, and there was engaged first as a teacher and then as a trader. He prospered in business and married Deborah, a daughter of Judge Benjamin Youngs, of Southold, and a granddaughter of the Reverend John Youngs, a devoted minister, who led a company of Colonists, in 1638, from Norfolkshire, England, to settle the place that they called Southold.
John Ledyard moved to Groton, Conn., in 1727 and became one of the influential men of the Colony. He was a justice of the peace, 1731-49, auditor of the Superior Court in 1741, a deputy to the General Assembly, 1742-49, one of the Committee of War in 1754 and otherwise active in the administration of Colonial affairs. The second generation of Ledyards figured prominently in the Revolution and the name is indissolubly connected with one of the most tragic events of the war, the massacre at Fort Griswold, on the banks of the Thames River in Groton, September, 1781. Colonel William Ledyard, the fourth son of John Ledyard, with his nephew, Captain Youngs Led- yard, and others of the family were killed by a British foray that was organized and conducted by Benedict Arnold. More than twenty Ledyards participated in the engagement.
The New York Ledyards are descended from the original John Ledyard through his second son, Youngs Ledyard, 1731-1762, who was a shipmaster and died mysteriously on one of his voy- ages to the West Indies. Benedict Arnold sailed with him as clerk on that last voyage, and there has always remained a suspicion that he knew more about the disappearance of his superior than ever was revealed. Youngs Ledyard, in 1748, married Aurelia Avery, of Groton, and their third child and second son was Benjamin Ledyard, born in Groton, March 6th, 1753. He was brought up in the family of his grandfather in Hartford and then engaged in business in New York. He served in the army during the War of the Revolution, and attained to the rank of Major. After the war he renewed his commercial pursuits, was one of the founders of the Order of the Cincinnati in 1783 and was specially active in opening up and developing the unoccupied lands in the interior of New York State.
Benjamin Ledyard, Jr., 1779-1812, the eldest son of Major Ledyard, married Susan French Livingston, daughter of Brockholst Livingston, an aide to General Alexander Hamilton in the Revo- tion, and later Justice of the Superior Court of New York State and Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. His only son was Henry Ledyard, father of Mr. Lewis Cass Ledyard. Born in New York, March 5th, 1812, Henry Ledyard was a man of high culture. He entered the diplomatic service of the United States and was attached to the American Embassy in Paris when the Honor- able Lewis Cass was Minister to France. In 1839, he was made Secretary of Legation and in 1842 was Chargé d'affaires. After 1844, he withdrew entirely from public affairs.
Mr. Lewis Cass Ledyard is the second son of Henry Ledyard. His mother was a daughter of the Honorable Lewis Cass, the Michigan statesman, and thus, on both sides of his house, he descends through a notable line of American ancestors. He was born in Detroit, April 4th, 1851, graduated from Harvard in 1872 and entered the legal profession. In 1878, he married Gertrude Prince, daughter of Colonel William E. Prince. He is an enthusiastic yachtsman, owner of the schooner Montauk and Vice-Commodore of the New York Yacht Club. By virtue of his ancestry he is a member of the New England Society and the Sons of the Revolution. His clubs include the Metropolitan, Union, Tuxedo, Knickerbocker, Manhattan, Harvard, University and Seawanhaka- Corinthian Yacht, and he is a member of the Century Association, the Downtown Association and the Bar Association. His city residence is in Lexington Avenue and he has a summer home in Gibbs Avenue, Newport. He has one son, Lewis Cass Ledyard, Jr.
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FREDERICK HOWARD LEE
T HE Lees, as a family, have been known as devoted churchmen and supporters of the reigning families of England from time immemorial. They were adherents of the Plantagnets, and then of the Tudors and Stewarts, and so on down to the dynasty of the present day. They have had bestowed upon them lands and titles and have occupied influential positions in church and State. In 1674, King Charles Il. created Sir Edward Henry Lee, Earl of Litchfield, and the title and estates descended through many generations of male heirs, but are now in possession of descendants of the female line, Lord Arthur Lee Dillon, in the last generation, whose grandfather, an Irish peer, married a daughter of the second Earl of Litchfield and who assumed the name of Lee, being the head of the family in Ditchley, Oxfordshire.
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