Richard Lawrence | |
---|---|
Member of the House of Burgesses for James City County | |
In office June 1676 | |
Preceded by | Edward Ramsey |
Succeeded by | Edward Hill |
Personal details | |
Born | England |
Died | Colony of Virginia |
Resting place | unknown |
Spouse | Dorothy |
Education | Oxford University |
Richard Lawrence (before 1640 – after December 1676) was an Oxford University graduate who emigrated to the Virginia colony where after various real estate speculations,he married a wealthy widow and became a tavernkeeper in Jamestown. Lawrence became one of Nathaniel Bacon's closest confidantes during Bacon's Rebellion and briefly served in the House of Burgesses during that conflict,after which he vanished with two other men otherwise likely to have been sentenced to death for treason. [1]
Complicating matters,another man of the same name represented Lower Norfolk County as a burgess between 1671 and 1674,and died in 1681 (and had his will admitted to probate),but no relationship between them has been established. [2] That William Lawrence and Lemuel Mason had succeeded William Carver (who was executed during Bacon's Rebellion) and Adam Thoroughgood Jr. as burgesses representing Lower Norfolk County.
Born in England,little is known about Lawrence's early life,other than that he had attended Oxford University. [3] His wife had died by 1676,and some of his detractors later claimed that Lawrence was an atheist and had an enslaved Black woman as a concubine. [4]
A charismatic man,Lawrence first appeared in colonial Virginia records on September 10,1662,when he appeared before the justices of the peace for Lancaster County and obtained headrights for several people whom he had brought to the colony,including his wife Dorothy,his sister Patience and four males who may have been servants. In 1663 and 1664,Lawrence patented thousands of acres in the Rappahannock River watershed,in what was then Rappahannock County,Virginia,including acreage under Native American settlements and at the head of Dragon Swamp (which Bacon's follower's would later invade and where Lawrence would ultimately disappear). Thus Lawrence owned (and was supposed to develop) land in the Middle Peninsula and slightly to the north in Lancaster County. Nonetheless,by 1667 he had moved south to the colony's capital,Jamestown and in 1668 the colony's surveyor,Edmund Scarborough I,made Lawrence responsible for reviewing all survey plants sent to that office before they became part of a patent. Lawrence continued as a surveyor until July 1672,and one of his authorized surveys was of "Paradise" plantation of Councillor Richard Lee II in Gloucester County. [5]
During the 1660s and 1670s,Lawrence made court appearances in Northumberland and Surry County,often seeking to recover debts,well as before the General Court during sessions of the House of Burgesses. However,in October 1672 he accused the General Court clerk,Richard Auborne,of causing the death of John Senior. Although all were Jamestown residents,the underlying facts are unknown,and no action was taken,unless the underlying lawsuit was in James City court,in which case the General Court overturned the James City County Court decision. Over the next months later,the General Court issued several decisions against Lawrence's economic interests. First,it reduced the indenture term of one of Lawrence's servants,John Bustone. In April 1674,the General Court fined Lawrence for entertaining some of Governor Berkeley's servants,and ordered him to pay part of the cost for constructing a brick fort at Jamestown. Furthermore,when three of Lawrence's servants stole a shallop boat and wrecked it,only two of them had their indentures extended. In 1675 the General Court freed an apprentice carpenter whom Lawrence had assigned to Arnold Cassina to pay a debt. Then Lawrence posted bail for Giles Bland,a young immigrant who came to the colony to settle debts owed his late father by his late uncle Theodorick Bland of Westover,and who had insulted Thomas Ludwell,Governor Berkeley ally and the colony's secretary. When Bland fled before trial,the colony's attorney general,William Sherwood,sued Lawrence to recover the bail money. [6]
By the time Bacon's Rebellion began in 1676,Lawrence was a widower and emerged as one of Nathaniel Bacon's leading advisors and staunchest supporters. Bacon lived next door to another of Bacon's supporters (and a former favorite of Governor Berkeley) William Drummond. James City County voters elected him as their representative in the House of Burgesses for the June 1676 session. [7] Thus,when Bacon (who had been elected as one of Henrico County's burgesseses nothwithstanding Governor Berkeley's condemnation of him) secretly landed at Jamestown in June 1676,he met with Lawrence,and Governey Berkeley had Lawrence's tavern searched while attempting to capture Bacon. When Bacon and his followers recaptured Jamestown in September 1676 and decided to set the capital aflame,Lawrence reportedly set fire to his own house,and some claimed that he also set the church and state house (and the house of William Sherwood's orphaned stepson Richard James II) aflame. [8]
After Nathaniel Bacon died of fever and loyalist forces defeated or captured most of his forces,Lawrence and two men were last seen walking in the snow into Native American land in New Kent County. Because Governor Berkeley considered Lawrence guilty of treason,he specifically exempted him from the general pardon that King Charles' emissaries had advised him to issue. In 1677,an inventory was made of his estate and Jamestown's Major William White was ordered to recover what he could. Crown agents were still trying to recover revenue from Lawrences' debtors as late as 1686. Furthermore,people who had purchased property from Lawrence had difficulty obtaining clean title.
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley,after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American Indians out of Virginia. Thousands of Virginians from all classes and races rose up in arms against Berkeley,chasing him from Jamestown and ultimately torching the settlement. The rebellion was first suppressed by a few armed merchant ships from London whose captains sided with Berkeley and the loyalists. Government forces arrived soon after and spent several years defeating pockets of resistance and reforming the colonial government to be once more under direct Crown control.
William Drummond was a Scottish indentured servant in Virginia who became the first colonial governor of Albemarle Sound settlement in the Province of Carolina,but alienated Virginia governor William Berkeley,became a ringleader of Bacon's Rebellion and was executed after his capture.
Philip Cottington Ludwell was an English-born planter and politician in colonial Virginia who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council,the first of three generations of men with the same name to do so,and briefly served as speaker of the House of Burgesses. In addition to operating plantations in Virginia using enslaved labor,Ludwell also served as the first governor of the Carolinas,during the colony's transition from proprietary rule to royal colony.
Colonel Thomas Ballard was a prominent colonial Virginia landowner and politician who played a role in Bacon's Rebellion. He served on the Governor's Council 1670–79 and was Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses 1680–82.
William Whitby emigrated from England to the Virginia colony where he became politician and major landowner. He represented Warwick County as a burgess several times,and became Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1653 session.
Colonel Augustine Warner Jr. was an American planter,military officer and politician. He served in the House of Burgesses from 1666 to 1677 and was its Speaker in two separate sessions in 1676 and 1677,before and after Bacon's Rebellion. Warner then served on the Virginia Governor's Council from October 1677 until his death. Warner is the last common ancestor of George Washington and King Charles III.
Thomas Godwin was a Virginia politician,planter and real estate speculator in Tidewater Virginia. He thrice served in the House of Burgesses representing the Nansemond River area,and was its Speaker in the June 1676 session that preceded Bacon's Rebellion.
Col. William Travers was a lawyer,early settler and politician of Colonial Virginia.
James Crewes was a British merchant who traded with the Virginia colony before emigrating there. He became a planter in Henrico County and represented it for one session of the House of Burgesses,but was executed for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion.
William Kendall Sr. (I) (1621-1686) was a British merchant,planter,military officer and politician who came to own considerable land on Virginia's Eastern Shore. He represented Northampton County several times before and after Bacon's Rebellion,and during 1685 became the 21st Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses while representing Accomack County.
Sir Richard Kemp was a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. Kemp served as the Colony's Secretary and on the Governor's Council from 1634 to 1649. As the council's senior member,he also served as the acting Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1644 to 1645 during travels by Governor Sir William Berkeley. Kemp had also worked closely relation with Berkeley's predecessor,Sir John Harvey.
Thomas Stegg Jr.,like his father of the same name,was a British merchant and politician in the Colony of Virginia.
Mathew Kemp was a British attorney who emigrated from England to the Colony of Virginia where he became a government official,planter and politician. He supported Governor William Berkeley during Bacon's Rebellion and became Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1679 before being elevated to the Virginia Governor's Council.
St.Leger Codd was a militia officer,lawyer,planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia and the Colony of Maryland who sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly.
Thomas Swann was a planter,tavernkeeper,militia officer and politician in the Colony of Virginia who sat in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and survived Bacon's Rebellion.
Lawrence Baker (ca.1620–1681) was a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia who immigrated from England and represented Surry County in the House of Burgesses (1666–1676). He is best known for suppressing America's first tax strike,a predecessor to Bacon's Rebellion.
James Bray (ca.1630-1691) was a British merchant who also became an attorney,planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia,serving nearly a decade on the Virginia Governor's Council through Bacon's Rebellion (1670-1679),and later representing James City County in the House of Burgesses,although unseated when he refused to make a loyalty oath.
William Carver,a British merchant,mariner,planter and politician who represented Lower Norfolk County in the House of Burgesses from 1665 through 1669,is best known for his participation in Bacon's Rebellion,which led to his execution in 1676.
Thomas Mathew was an English merchant who became a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He owned property in Northumberland County and was one of the first burgesses representing Stafford County in the House of Burgesses when it was formed. An Indian raid which killed one of his herdsmen was a precursor of Bacon's Rebellion and shortly before his death in London Mathew wrote an account of that conflict which was published a century later.
Otto Thorpe or Thorp(1630-winter of 1696/1697) was an English merchant who became a militia officer and politician of Middle Plantation in the Colony of Virginia. His home was commandeered during Bacon's Rebellion,and in April 1682,Thorpe briefly represented York County in the House of Burgesses,before returning to England,where he died more than a decade later.
Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, "Richard Lawrence: A Sketch," William and Marv Quarterly, third series, XIV (1959), 244-248.