BIOGRAPHY: John And Isaac Lawrence; New York co., NY surname: Lawrence, Campbell, Lee, Smith, Gracie, Churchill, Beach, Pool, Hillhouse, McVicker, Wells, Kip, Whitney submitted by Elizabeth Burns (burns at asu.edu) ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm Submitted Date: June 1,2005 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/nyfiles/ File size: 7.5 Kb ************************************************ Author: Walter Barrett John and Isaac Lawrence Page 61 The Old Merchants Walter Barrett Thomas R. Knox & Co. 1885 There have been many merchants of great celebrity in this city, named Lawrence, but among all the Lawrence race, none have been more remarkable than the brothers John and Isaac Lawrence. John was in business during the war and lived and did business at 162 Queen Street (Pearl). In 1795 he took in his younger brother Isaac, who had been clerk with him for two years previous and the new sign was placed over the store at 154 Water, corner of Fly market. Isaac had received a collegiate education at Princeton College and intended to become a lawyer, but his health was poor, and he went into business with his brother John. The firm of John and Isaac Lawrence continued until 1803, when the brothers separated after doing a very prosperous and extended commerce. They were owners of vessels, shippers of goods abroad, and importers. They did a very heavy West India business. This was owing to their having relations established in the West India Islands. In fact, they had a brother named William, who owned a plantation in Demarara, where he died. Another brother named Richard was also an eminent merchant in New York and died at Hell Gate, where he owned a country seat in 1816. When the house of J. & I. Lawrence dissolved, the store was at 208 Pearl and Isaac lived at 40 Courtland Street. Isaac continued on with the business at the same place, 208 Pearl, until 1814. He was out of business until 1817 when he became President of the U.S. Branch Bank that had been established in this city. The office was then kept at 65 Broadway. His residence at that time was at 480 Broadway. He afterwards moved into a handsome house he had built at 498 Broadway, above Broome. John Lawrence, the partner of Isaac, lived at 82 Murray Street. He was a great man in this city, and engaged in all the benevolent projects. He was a Governor of the New York Hospital, a Trustee of Columbia College and a Member of Congress. There were several John Lawrences living in New York at the close of the last century, but the one I am now describing, who died in the summer of 1817, if I am not mistaken, had been in Congress. He left several daughters. They married into some of the first families. One married John Campbell, another Benjamin F. Lee, one John P. Smith, and another Timothy G. Churchill. After he moved from Murray Street, John Lawrence lived at 391 Broadway. Isaac Lawrence was a merchant in the most extended sense and meaning of the word. From 1795 to 1815 there was not as great a chance to make extended operations as a few years ago. He had been a director in the old U.S. Bank that was located in the city, and so also was his brother John. That old Bank of the U.S. commenced operation before 1792. I think its charter expired in 1811. The president of the bank in this city was old Phillip Livingston at its commencement and at its close Cornelius Ray. The directors were such men as I have written about--Thomas Buchanan, John Atkinson, Thomas Pearsall, William Laight, William Bayard, Jacob LeRoy and Archibald Gracie. Jonathan Burrell was its cashier from 1791 to 1811. He lived in a fine old mansion at 49 Pine Street. Isaac Lawrence was president and principal man at the Bank of America. He only lived four years afterwards and died July 12, 1841. Three Lawrence brothers came out to this country in the troublesome times of King Charles the First. They were passengers on board the ship "Planter" and landed in Massachusetts in 1835. They were named John, William, and Thomas. >From Massachusetts they immigrated to Long Island in 1644 and took a patent of land from Governor Kief. Old John afterwards moved to New York City, then New Amsterdam, and was a great man among the Dutch and English. He was a merchant. He was alderman from 1665 to 1672 and mayor in 1673. He was again alderman from 1860 to 1874 and mayor again in 1691. One hundred years later, another John Lawrence, also a merchant and great grandson of the old one, was alderman from 1762 to 1765. The eldest one was made Judge of the Supreme Court in 1693 and held it until he died in 1699. He was born in 1618 in England. His will, in his own handwriting, made when he was eighty years old, is still on file in the County Clerk's office. >From one of these brothers John and Isaac Lawrence were descended. Isaac Lawrence married Miss Cornelia Beach. She was a daughter of the Rev. Abraham Beach, on of the ministers of Trinity Church and a man of note in his day. They used to go to St. Thomas Church, corner of Broadway and Houston Street in its palmy days, when Dr. Hawks preached there and there never lived in this city such a family of beautiful daughters. They were the prettiest girls in the city. They are all married to prominent men. Cornelia married James A. Hillhouse of New Haven. Harriett married John A. Pool. Isaphene married Dr. Benjamin McVicker. Julia Beach married Thomas L. Wells; Maria, the Rev. W. J. Kip and Hannah, the pride of the family married Henry Whitney, a son of the late Stephen Whitney. Isaac Lawrence had but one son, William Beach Lawrence. He received all the advantages of an excellent education and was intended for a public career. He became Secretary of Legation at London shortly John Quincy Adams became president of the U.S. in 1825. While in London he was extremely popular with all classes. Upon the accession to power of General Jackson, Mr. Lawrence was supplanted by a partisan of that gentleman. Mr. Beach Lawrence removed to Rhode Island some years ago and was adopted there by the democrats. He was elected Lt. Governor of the State. He would have made an excellent merchant, had he entered upon the career. He married a daughter of Archibald Gracie, the great merchant, and thus become brother-in-law to James G. and Charles King who had married sisters and to the brothers Gracie. No man was ever placed in a pleasanter position in life than "Beach" as his relations called him. Surrounded by loving sisters, a doting father who left him rich, he has known or felt but few of the thorn of life; and even now is quite a young man and no one who meets him would suppose for an instant that he was over forty years old. He has children. One of them, William Beach Lawrence, is a young man of uncommon promise and bids fair to keep up the reputation of the race he springs from. There was one very painful matter connected with "Beach" and his father. I allude to the father's endorsement for the son and his final ruin in consequence. In 1834 a lot of lots on Murray Hill of Isaac Lawrence were sold to pay Beach's debts for some $50,000 that last year was worth $800,000.