{{Short description|American industrialist and politician (1792–1855)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Abbott Lawrence | image = File:Chester Harding - Abbott Lawrence - 61.239 - Museum of Fine Arts.jpg | caption = Portrait by [[Chester Harding (painter)|Chester Harding]], {{circa}} 1842 | office = [[List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom|United States Minister to the United Kingdom]] |president = {{Plainlist| * [[Zachary Taylor]] * [[Millard Fillmore]] }} | term_start = October 20, 1849 | term_end = October 12, 1852 | predecessor = [[George Bancroft]] | successor = [[Joseph R. Ingersoll]] | state2 =[[Massachusetts]] | district2 =[[Massachusetts's 1st congressional district|1st]] | term_start2 =March 4, 1839 | term_end2 =September 18, 1840 | predecessor2 =[[Richard Fletcher (American politician)|Richard Fletcher]] | successor2 =[[Robert Charles Winthrop]] | term_start3 =March 4, 1835 | term_end3 =March 3, 1837 | predecessor3=[[Benjamin Gorham]] | successor3= Richard Fletcher | birth_date = {{birth date|1792|12|16|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Groton, Massachusetts]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1855|08|18|1792|12|16}} | death_place = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] | spouse = {{marriage|Katherine Bigelow|1819}} | relations = [[Samuel Lawrence (revolutionary)|Samuel Lawrence]] (father)<br />[[Amos Lawrence]] (brother)<br />[[Amos Adams Lawrence]] (nephew) |children = 1 | profession = {{hlist|[[Politician]]|[[merchant]]}} | alma_mater = [[Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts)|Groton Academy]] | party = {{Plainlist| * [[National Republican Party (United States)|National Republican]] * [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] }} |signature=Appletons' Appleton Lawrence Amos - Abbott signature.jpg |}} '''Abbott Lawrence''' (December 16, 1792 – August 18, 1855) was an American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was among the group of industrialists who founded a settlement on the [[Merrimack River]] that would later be named for him, [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]].
==Early life and education== Lawrence was born on December 16, 1792, in [[Groton, Massachusetts]], the son of [[American Revolutionary War]] officer [[Samuel Lawrence (revolutionary)|Samuel Lawrence]]. He attended Groton Academy, now known as the [[Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts)|Lawrence Academy]], in Groton.
==Career== Upon his graduation in 1808, Lawrence became an apprentice to his brother, [[Amos Lawrence|Amos]], as chief clerk in his brother's firm. On the conclusion of his apprenticeship, in 1814, the Lawrences formed a partnership, specializing in imports from Britain and China, and later expanded their interests to textile manufacturing. Initially called A. & A. Lawrence, the firm later was named A. & A. Lawrence and Co. It continued until Amos's death, and became the greatest wholesale mercantile house in the United States.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} It was successful even in the [[War of 1812|hard times of 1812–1815]]. In 1818, A. &. A Lawrence purchased 50 [[Share (finance)|shares]] of the [[Suffolk Bank]], a [[Bankers' clearing house|clearinghouse bank]] on [[State Street (Boston)|State Street in Boston]].<ref>{{citation|last=Whitney|first=David R.|title=The Suffolk Bank|pages=4–5|year=1878|place=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=Riverside Press}}</ref>
The firm did much for the establishment of the cotton textile industry in [[New England]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} In 1830, it came to the aid of financially distressed mills of [[Lowell, Massachusetts]]. In that year, the Suffolk, Tremont and Lawrence companies were established in Lowell, and [[Luther Lawrence]], the eldest brother, represented the firm's interests there.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Legendary locals of Lowell, Massachusetts|last=M.|first=Rosenberg, Chaim|isbn=9781467100489|oclc=854956846|year = 2013|publisher=Arcadia }}</ref> When Amos retired from the business in 1831 due to ill health, Abbott became head of the firm. In 1845–1847, the firm established and built up [[Lawrence, Massachusetts]], named in honour of Abbott, who was a director of the Essex Company, which controlled the water power of Lawrence, and later was president of the Atlantic Cotton Mills and Pacific Mill] there. The Lawrence brothers were among the founders of New England's influential textile industry.
In 1819, Abbott Lawrence married Katherine Bigelow, the daughter of [[Timothy Bigelow (lawyer)|Timothy Bigelow]] and sister of [[John P. Bigelow]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gill |first1=Eliza M. |title=The Bigelow Family |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2005.05.0012%3Achapter%3D17 |website=Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 12 |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |access-date=30 June 2018 |date=1909}}</ref> Their daughter, Katherine Bigelow Lawrence, married [[Augustus Lowell]] on June 1, 1854.<ref>[[Ferris Greenslet|Greenslet, Ferris]]. (1946) ''The Lowells and Their Seven Worlds''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-89760-263-3}}.</ref>
In the 1820s, Lawrence became a prominent public figure, including as a vocal supporter of railroad construction for economic benefit.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Van Deusen |first1=Glyndon G. |title=Some Aspects of Whig Thought and Theory in the Jacksonian Period |journal=The American Historical Review |date=1958 |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=306–307 |jstor=1849546 |doi=10.2307/1849546}}</ref> He was an ardent [[protective tariff|protectionist]], and represented Massachusetts at the Harrisburg protectionist convention in 1827. Lawrence was highly influential among Massachusetts [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rich |first1=Robert |title='A Wilderness of Whigs': The Wealthy Men of Boston |journal=Journal of Social History |date=1971 |volume=4 |issue=3 |page=266 |jstor=3786703 |doi=10.1353/jsh/4.3.263}}</ref> In 1834, he was elected [[United States House of Representatives|US Representative]] as a Whig, serving in the [[24th United States Congress|24th Congress]]. He did not seek re-election in 1836, but was elected again in 1838, serving in the [[26th United States Congress|26th Congress]]. In 1840, he took an active part in the successful presidential campaign of [[William Henry Harrison]]. In 1842, he was appointed commissioner to settle the [[Northeastern Boundary Dispute]] between Canada and the United States. In 1844, he supported the campaign of [[Henry Clay]] and was a presidential elector. Lawrence was elected a member of the [[American Antiquarian Society]] in 1846,<ref>[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistl American Antiquarian Society Members Directory]</ref> and subsequently was also elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1847.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter L|url= http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterL.pdf| publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences| access-date=7 April 2011}}</ref>
[[File:Thumbs abbott-lawrence-painting-after.jpg|thumb|250px|Portrait of Ambassador Abbott Lawrence by [[George Peter Alexander Healy|G.P.A. Healy]].]]
In 1848, Lawrence was an unsuccessful candidate for party nomination as vice president on the Whig ticket, headed by [[Zachary Taylor]]. After Taylor's presidential victory, he offered Lawrence a choice of positions in the administration. Lawrence rejected a cabinet appointment, and chose the post of [[United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom#Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James.27s.2C 1815–1893|minister to Great Britain]]. He was involved in the negotiations of the [[Clayton–Bulwer Treaty]], and resigned in October 1852. He returned to the United States to join the [[1852 United States presidential election|1852 presidential campaign]] of Gen. [[Winfield Scott]]. However, he grew dissatisfied with the Whig stand on slavery, and abandoned the party.
Lawrence was active in Boston's [[American Unitarian Association|Unitarian Church]] and donated money to various causes.<ref name ="confidence">{{cite journal |last1=Norris |first1=William |title=Abbott Lawrence in ''The Confidence-Man'': American Success or American Failure? |journal=American Studies |date=1976 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=27, 31| jstor=40641182}}</ref> He supported Lawrence Academy, affordable housing in Boston, and the [[Boston Public Library]]. He also provided $50,000 to establish the [[Lawrence Scientific School]] at [[Harvard College]],<ref name ="confidence"/> and provided a similar sum in his will for the School. He died in Boston on August 18, 1855, aged 62, and was interred in [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].
His differenced coat of arms, ''Argent, a cross raguly gules, on a chief gules a leopard or'', became well-known though its 1887 publication as the second of three frontispiece illustrations in ''American Heraldica'',<ref>[https://archive.org/details/americaheraldica00verm/page/n8/mode/1up America Heraldica : a Compilation of Coats of Arms, Crests and Mottoes of prominent American families settled in this country before 1800]. By Vermont, E. de Valeaurt; Illustrated by Rykers, Henry. Publ. New York, Brentano Brothers 1887. Frontispiece 2 of 3. Accessed 19 June 2024.</ref> with explication of the original family coat of arms, ''Argent, a cross raguly gules, on a chief gules three leopard heads or'', within the tome on page 33.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/americaheraldica00verm/page/33/mode/1up America Heraldica : a Compilation of Coats of Arms, Crests and Mottoes of prominent American families settled in this country before 1800]. By Vermont, E. de Valeaurt; Illustrated by Rykers, Henry. Publ. New York, Brentano Brothers 1887. Page 33. Accessed 19 June 2024.</ref>
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References== * {{CongBio|L000130}} Retrieved on 2008-02-15 * {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Lawrence, Abbott}} * {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Lawrence, Amos}} * {{cite book |last=Hunt |first=Freeman |year=1858 |title=Lives of American Merchants |volume=2 |pages=331–364 |chapter=Abbot Lawrence |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7YmR230yAkC&pg=PA331}} * {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Lawrence, Amos|year=1892}} * {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Lawrence, Abbott|year=1905}} * {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Lawrence, Abbott}} * {{cite journal|last1=Luthin|first1=Richard H.|title=Abraham Lincoln and the Massachusetts Whigs in 1848|journal=The New England Quarterly|date=December 1941|volume=14|issue=4|pages=619–632|jstor=360598|doi=10.2307/360598}}
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