Richard Lawrence (before 1640 – after December 1676) was an Oxford University graduate who emigrated to the Virginia colony where after various real estate speculations, he married a wealthy widow and became a tavernkeeper in Jamestown.
[1] Complicating matters, another man of the same name represented Lower Norfolk County as a burgess between 1671 and 1674, and died in 1681 (and had his will admitted to probate), but no relationship between them has been established.
Lawrence continued as a surveyor until July 1672, and one of his authorized surveys was of "Paradise" plantation of Councillor Richard Lee II in Gloucester County.
In April 1674, the General Court fined Lawrence for entertaining some of Governor Berkeley's servants, and ordered him to pay part of the cost for constructing a brick fort at Jamestown.
When Bland fled before trial, the colony's attorney general, William Sherwood, sued Lawrence to recover the bail money.
Because Governor Berkeley considered Lawrence guilty of treason, he specifically exempted him from the general pardon that King Charles' emissaries had advised him to issue.