[6][8][9][10] The Lawrence family emigrated from Wissett, County Suffolk, England, where the family name can be traced back to Sir Robert Lawrence of Ashton Hall (Lancashire) in the year 1191 A.D.[7][11]  Sir Robert was knighted by King Richard "the Lionhearted" for gallant conduct at the Siege of Acre during the Third Crusade (A.D.

[7][10][11] Among the families who first settled in Watertown, Massachusetts were those of Sir Richard Saltonstall[12] and Reverend George Phillips,[13] in all, a dozen or more, who came over in the Arbella – a ship which arrived at Salem in June 1630.

Proceeding from Salem to Charlestown, they passed-up the Charles River about four miles, and began their settlement – the fourth in the colony.

[6][8][11] Ensign Nathaniel Lawrence, son of John Lawrence (baptized 1609) was born 1639 in Watertown, Massachusetts,[8] and was a prominent member of the community, having received the commission as ensign of a company in Groton by Governor of Massachusetts Simon Bradstreet, and later, elected deacon.

[6][8][11] The youngest son of Deacon Peleg Lawrence (great-great grandson of John of Wissett) was born June 14, 1737 and married Abigail King on July 27, 1757 at Littleton, Massachusetts.

[6][11]  He was the first one of the descendants of John of Wissett to enter Harvard College (admitted in July 1739 and graduated in 1743).

[6] His neighbor, General Oliver Prescott, rode up and shouted, "Samuel, notify your men.

[6]  Major Samuel Lawrence married Susannah Parker on July 22, 1777, and he died on November 8, 1827, in his seventy-fourth year.

[6][24][25] In the 1820s, Lawrence became a prominent public figure, including as a vocal supporter of railroad construction for economic benefit.

[25]  In 1848, Lawrence was an unsuccessful candidate for party nomination as vice president on the Whig ticket, headed by Zachary Taylor.

Lawrence rejected a cabinet appointment, and chose the post of minister to Great Britain.

He died in Boston on August 18, 1855, aged 62, and was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[31] He was a key person in the United States abolition movement shortly before the Civil War.