Richard Lawrence (c. 1800 – June 13, 1861) was an English-born American house painter who was the first known person to attempt the assassination of a sitting president of the United States.

Lawrence attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson outside the United States Capitol on January 30, 1835, however both of his pistols misfired and he was taken into custody.

Historians have speculated that Lawrence’s exposure to the toxic chemicals used in paint in the 1800s (including lead, antimony, chromates, sulfides and barium) contributed to his mental illness, which manifested itself when he was in his thirties.

He told his family that "unnamed persons" had prevented him from traveling abroad and that the U.S. government also disapproved of his plan to return to England.

When questioned by his sister and brother-in-law, with whom he was living, Lawrence claimed that, because the U.S. government owed him a large sum of money, he did not need to work.

Lawrence became convinced that President Andrew Jackson's opposition to the Second Bank of the United States was preventing the distribution of the money he believed he was owed.

He felt that if Jackson were no longer in office, Vice President Martin Van Buren would establish a national bank and allow Congress to pay him the money for his English estate claims.

Once conservatively dressed, Lawrence grew a mustache and began buying expensive and flamboyant clothing, which he would change three or four times a day.

On Friday, January 30, 1835, the day of the assassination attempt, Lawrence was seen sitting in his paint shop with a book in his hand while laughing.

The crowd, which included U.S. Representative Davy Crockett, eventually intervened and wrestled Lawrence into submission.

While nobody denied Lawrence's involvement, many people, including Jackson, believed that he might have been supported in or put up to carrying out the assassination attempt by the President's political enemies.

[13] Jackson also suspected a former friend and supporter, Senator George Poindexter of Mississippi, who had used Lawrence to do some house painting a few months earlier.