LAWRENCE, AMOS (1786-1852), American merchant and philanthropist, was born in Groton (Mass.) on April 2 2, a descendant of one of the first settlers of Groton. Leaving Groton academy (founded by his father, Samuel Lawrence, and others) in 1799, he went to Boston and there set up in business for himself in Dec. 1807. In the next year he took into his employ his brother, Abbott (see below), whom he made his partner in 1814, the firm name being at first A. and A. Lawrence and after wards A. and A. Lawrence and Co. In 1831 Amos retired from active business, and Abbott was thereafter the head of the firm. The firm became the greatest American mercantile house of the day, and did much for the establishment of the cotton textile in dustry in New England; in 183o by coming to the aid of the financially distressed mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, where Luther Lawrence, the eldest brother, represented the firm's interests ; and in by establishing and building up Lawrence, Massa chusetts, named in honour of Abbott Lawrence, who was a direc tor in the Essex Company which controlled the water power of Lawrence, and afterwards was president of the Atlantic Cotton Mills and Pacific Mills there. In 1842 Amos Lawrence decided not to allow his property to increase any further. He gave freely to Williams college, to Bowdoin college, to the Bangor theological seminary, to Wabash college, to Kenyon college and to Groton academy, which was re-named Lawrence academy in honour of the family, and especially in recognition of the gifts of William Lawrence, Amos's brother; to the Boston children's infirmary, which he established, and to the Bunker Hill monument fund. He
died in Boston on Dec. 31, 1852.
See Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of the late Amos Lawrence, with a Brief Account of Some Incidents in his Life (1856).
His brother, ABBOTT LAWRENCE ( 1 79 2-185 5) , was born in Gro ton (Mass.) on Dec. 16, 1792. Besides being a partner in the firm established by his brother, and long its head, he promoted various New England railways, notably the Boston and Albany. The town of Lawrence (Mass.) was named after him. He was a representative in Congress (1835-37, 1839-40) ; in 1842 he was one of the commissioners for Massachusetts who settled with Lord Ashburton, the British plenipotentiary, the question of the north-eastern boundary. In 1842 he was presiding officer of the Massachusetts Whig Convention ; he broke with President Tyler, rebuked Daniel Webster for remaining in Tyler's cabinet after his colleagues had resigned, and recommended Henry Clay as the nominee of the Whig party in 1844—an action that roused Web ster to make his famous Faneuil Hall address. He refused the portfolios of the navy and of the interior in President Taylor's cabinet, but from 1849 to 1852 he served as United States min ister to Great Britain. He died in Boston on Aug. 18, 1855, leaving as his greatest memorial the Lawrence scientific school of Harvard, which he had established in See Hamilton A. Hill, Memoir of Abbott Lawrence. (Boston, 1884).