Her father was Sir Henry Constable (c.1559–1608), Justice of the Peace, Member of Parliament and Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire.
After her father in law sold Heaton Hall, with her permission, Lawson built the "quasi-religious"[6] home of St. Anthony’s near Walker, Newcastle-on-Tyne, naming each room after a saint.
[7] Lawson became a powerful widow who utilised her autonomy, financial independence and social status to harbour priests at St. Anthony's.
[3] She dispensed charity to local Catholic families, including comforting women during childbirth and baptising new-born babies if they were in danger of death.
[1] He wrote that the she was a patroness of the Society of Jesus, who met yearly at her home to discuss the mission in England, and that she chose not to remarry as ‘she intended to expend the rest of her life like a solitary sparrow in the holes of a rock, or morning turtle, that never had mate but one, and vow’d never to know another.’[1] She died on 26 March 1632.