Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/304

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Lawson
298
Lawson

away by the breath of the Lord's Mouth, and by the Brightness of his Coming.' Lond. 1679. 8. 'A Mite into the Treasury, being a word to Artists, especially to Heptatechnists, the Professors or the Seven Liberal Arts, so-called Grammer, Logick, Rhetorick, Musick, Arithmetick, Geometry, Astronomy.' Lond. 1680. 9. 'A Treatise relating to the Call, Work, and Wages of the Ministers of Christ, as also to the Call, Work, and Wages of the Ministers of Antichrist.' 1680. The last four were reprinted in two volumes, under the title of 'Two Treatises of Thomas Lawson deceased,' &c., and 'Two Treatises more,' &c., in 1703. 10. 'A Serious Remembrancer to Live Well, written primarily to Children and Young People; secondarily to Parents, useful (I hope) for all.' 1684.

Among the manuscripts at the Friends' Institute, Devonshire House, are the following imprinted treatises by Lawson: 'The Foolish Virgin and the Wise, &c, in the way of Dialogue between a Professor and a Possessor;' 'Adam Anatomised, or a Glass wherein the Rise and Origin of many Inventions, Vain Traditions, and Unsavoury Customs may be seen;' 'Babylon's Fall, being a Testimony relating to the State of the Christian Church, its Purity, &c, and of its Cruel Sufferings under the Roman Emperors.'

[Fox's Autobiography; Croese's Gen. Hist of the Quakers, p. 49; Sewel's Hist. of the Rise, &c, 1834, i. 73; Webb's Fells of Swarthmoor Hall.pp. 63-9, 371-9; Smith's Cat.; Swarthmoor MSS. and other manuscripts at Devonshire House; Besse's Sufferings; Richardson's Corr., Yarmouth, 1835, p. 5; Pulteney's Sketches of the Progress of Botany, London, 1790; Kay's Synopsis Stirpium; Westmoreland Note-Book, Kendal and Lond., 1888, &c, pp. 212, 231, 232, 346-60; information from descendants and from Mr. J. A. Martindale of Kendal.]

C. F. S.


LAWSON, THOMAS (1620?–1695), independent divine, born about 1620, was educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and graduated M.A., being afterwards elected fellow of St. John's College. In June 1646 he obtained the vicarage of Fingrinhoe, Essex, on the sequestration of Joseph Long, and on 4 May 1647 he was instituted in addition to the neighbouring rectory of East Donyland, Essex, on the presentation of Henry Tunstall, confirmed by order of the House of Commons. In 1648 he signed the 'Essex testimony.' a presbyterian manifesto. Still holding his preferments, he became on 28 Oct. 1649 a member of the independent church at Norwich. Late in 1650, or early in 1651, he was presented by Robert Wilton to the rectory of Denton, Norfolk, and apparently resigned his other preferments. On April 1655 the Norwich independent church dismissed 'brother Thomas Lawson' to join with 'the Christians at Denton;' on 8 June an independent church at Denton was received into fellowship with that of Norwich. The Denton independent church does not seem to have flourished; in July 1661 Lawson was a member of the independent church at Market Weston, Suffolk (afterwards at Wattisfield, Suffolk). He probably held his living till the Uniformity Act of 1662. At the time of the indulgence of 1672 he was living at Norton, Suffolk; he took out a license (17 April) for preaching in his own house, and another for preaching at 'Dame Cook's house, in Southgate Street, Bury St. Edmunds.' He joined the independent church at Bury St. Edmunds on 20 Oct. 1689. Calamy says he was 'a man of parts, but had no good utterance.' He died at Bury St. Edmunds in 1695, aged about 75. He had a son Jabez, and another son Deodate, who went to New England and came back under a cloud.

[Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 483; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, ii. 629; Davids's Evang. Nonconformity in Essex, 1863, pp. 551 sq.; Browne's Hist. Congr. Norf. and Suff. 1877, pp. 333 sq., 404.]

A. G.


LAWSON, WILLIAM (fl. 1618), writer on gardening, was a resident in the north of England. He states that his work on gardening produced, in 1618, was the result of forty-eight years' experience; hence he must have been born before 1570. He claims no other guide than his own observation, but seems to have been an educated man. Lawson wrote 'A New Orchard and Garden, Or the best way for Planting, Grafting, and to make any pound good for a Rich Orchard; particularly in the North Parts of England . . .,' London, 1618, 4to. It is dedicated to Sir Henry Belasyse. With it was bound up Gervase Markham's 'Countrey Housewife's Garden,' bearing the date 1617. Another edition appeared in 1622 (with a chapter by Simon Harward [q. v.], on the 'Art of Propagating Plants.' It was incorporated with Markham's 'A Way to Get Wealth,' 1623, 1626, 1638, 1648, &c, and was from time to time enlarged. Lawson also wrote a 'Tractatus de Agricultura,' 1656, 4to, reprinted 1657 (Watt, Bibl. Brit.)

[Works; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

W. A. J. A.


LAWTON, CHARLWOOD (1660–1721), friend of William Penn, son of Ralf Lawton, of Egham, Surrey, surgeon general in the army, was born in 1660. He entered as a fellow commoner at Wadham College, Oxford, 23 Aug. 1677. He matriculated on