{{Short description|Attorney General of New York (1761–1797)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Nathaniel Lawrence | honorific_suffix = | image = Nathaniel Lawrence, ca. 1790.jpg | caption = Nathaniel Lawrence, ca. 1790, portrait miniature, artist unknown (Frick Photoarchive) | image_size = | order = New York State Attorney General | term_start = December 24, 1792 | term_end = November 13, 1795 | governor = George Clinton<br>John Jay | predecessor = Morgan Lewis | successor = Josiah Ogden Hoffman | birth_date = {{Birth date|1761|07|11|mf=y}} | birth_place = Newtown, Queens County, New York | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1797|07|15|1761|07|11}} | death_place = Hempstead, then Queens, now Nassau County, New York | party = | other_party = | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | profession = }} '''Nathaniel Lawrence''' (July 11, 1761 – July 15, 1797) was an American lawyer and politician.<ref>{{Citation |title=Nathaniel Lawrence (class of 1783) |date=1981 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400856534.395 |work=Princetonians, 1776-1783 |pages=425–29, 433 |publisher=Princeton University Press |doi=10.1515/9781400856534.395 |access-date=2022-03-08|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==Life== He was the son of Thomas Lawrence (1733—1816; brother of Jonathan Lawrence) and Elizabeth (Fish) Lawrence. He attended Princeton College, but left to fight in the American Revolutionary War as a lieutenant. In 1788, he was a delegate to the New York State Convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution. He was Secretary to the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York from 1790 to 1794. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1791, 1792, 1795 and 1796. He was New York State Attorney General from 1792 to 1795.
He was a member of the New York Society Library, which has records of books he borrowed in 1791 and 1792.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New York Society Library, City Readers |url=https://cityreaders.nysoclib.org/Detail/entities/656 |access-date=4 March 2022}}</ref>
On February 16, 1796, he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the First District, comprising Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond and Westchester Counties, and died in office.
He married Elizabeth Berrien (1762–1800; aunt of John M. Berrien), and they had two daughters: Margaret Elizabeth Lawrence who married Philip Lindsley, and Elizabeth Lawrence who died in infancy.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== *“Nathaniel Lawrence” (class of 1783), ''Princetonians, 1776-1783'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 425-29, 433. *[http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Queens/history/civil1.html History of Queens County] *[http://haleycentral.com/phpgedview/individual.php?pid=I318479&ged=consolidated.ged Nathaniel Lawrence] at Haley Lawrence genealogy [gives July 15 as death date] *[https://books.google.com/books?id=E3sFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA36 Google Books] ''The New York Civil List'' compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858; pages 36, 166, 169 and 287) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=Top4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA426 ''History of Long Island''] by Benjamin Franklin Thompson (New York City, 1839; page 426) *[https://books.google.com/books?id=fOMVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA87 Death notice], original from the ''New York Journal'', republished in ''Queens County in Olden Times'' by Henry Onderdonk Jr. (Jamaica, NY, 1865; page 87) [gives July 5 as death date]
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | before = Morgan Lewis | title = New York State Attorney General | years = 1792–1795 | after = Josiah Ogden Hoffman}} {{s-end}}
{{NYSAttorneyGeneral}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Nathaniel}} Category:1761 births Category:1797 deaths Category:People from Hempstead (village), New York Category:New York State attorneys general Category:Queens County (New York) district attorneys Category:Members of the New York State Assembly Category:Princeton University alumni Category:People from Elmhurst, Queens Category:18th-century members of the New York State Legislature