He attended Southampton grammar school, and in October 1727 was entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
[1] Lawrence chose medicine as profession, and moved to London, where he attended the anatomical lectures of Dr. Frank Nicholls, and the practice of St. Thomas's Hospital.
After filling a number of college offices he was elected president in 1767, and was annually re-elected for seven consecutive years.
After 1750, finding he had competition from William Hunter, he abandoned his lectures, and concentrated on medical practice, without great success.
Another went to the East Indies, an occasion commemorated by Samuel Johnson, a personal friend and a patient, with the Latin alcaic ode, Ad Thomam Laurence, medicum doctissimum, cum filium peregre agentem desiderio nimis tristi prosequeretur.