He was educated first in the school at Whitchurch in the same county, and was then admitted as a sizar of Magdalene College, Cambridge on 8 June 1644.
After his ejection he resided with a gentleman in the parish of Baschurch until March 1666, when the Five Mile Act necessitated a move, and he settled at Tilstock, a village in the area of Whitchurch.
[1] In February 1667-8 Lawrence and his friend Philip Henry were invited to Betley in Staffordshire, where they preached in the church.
The incident was reported in the House of Commons, and with others of a similar nature provoked a proclamation against papists and nonconformists (18 February 1668).
This affair caused Lawrence to take his family to London in May 1671, where he remained, preaching in his meetinghouse near the Royal Exchange and elsewhere.