[4] Lawson soon after became convinced of the unlawfulness of preaching for hire, and at twenty-three gave up his living to join the Quakers.
[1] Lawson married, 24 March 1658, Frances Wilkinson, and settled at Great Strickland in Westmorland, where he took pupils from the sons of the gentry round.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, this is our "earliest firm evidence" of Lawson's interest in botany.
John Ray, to whom he was close, speaks of him as a "diligent, industrious, and skilful botanist", from whom he received much assistance.
[8] Of his three daughters the eldest, Ruth, whose letters in Latin are still extant, married without her father's knowledge Christopher Yeats, one of his pupils, who took holy orders; Lawson was rebuked by the Friends for his readiness in accepting the situation.
[5] His manuscript notes made on walking tours throughout England, giving localities of plants, and arranged under counties, came into the possession of a descendant, Lawson Thompson of Hitchin.