Lawley served in the Warwickshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry, starting as a cornet in 1803, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1845 and resigning in 1848.
He inherited a town house in Grosvenor Square and £200,000 on the death of his maternal uncle Richard Thompson in September 1820.
[3] He succeeded his older brother, Robert Lawley, 1st Baron Wenlock as 7th Baronet on 10 April 1834.
On Lawley's death in 1851, he was succeeded in the baronetcy by his younger brother, Paul Thompson, who had been created Baron Wenlock in 1839.
[5] Lawley married Mary Anne, daughter of George Talbot of Temple Guiting, Gloucestershire, on 18 May 1815.