LAURENS, HENRY , American statesman, was born in Charleston, S.C., on Feb. 24, 1724, of Huguenot an cestry. When 16 he became a clerk in a counting-house in London, and later engaged in trade and planting at Charleston until 1771, when he retired. He spent the next three years travelling in Europe and in superintending the education of his sons in England. In spite of his attachment to England, he united with 37 other Americans in a petition to parliament against the passing of the Boston Port bill. Convinced that a peaceful settlement was im practicable, he returned to Charleston at the close of and joined the conservative element of the Whig party.
He was made president of the South Carolina council of safety, and in 1776 vice-president of the State. He was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, of which he was president from Nov. 1777 until Dec. 1778. In Aug. 1780 he started on a mission to negotiate on behalf of Congress a loan of $10,000,000 in Holland; but he was captured off Newfoundland and imprisoned in the Tower. His papers were found to contain a sketch of a treaty between the United States and Holland. This discovery led to war between Great Britain and the United Pro vinces. On Dec. 31, 1781, he was released on parole, and finally exchanged for Cornwallis. In June 1782 he was appointed one of the American commissioners for negotiating peace with Great Britain, but he did not reach Paris until Nov. 28, 1782, only two days before the preliminaries of peace were signed by himself, John Adams, Franklin and Jay. On account of failing health he did not remain for the signing of the definitive treaty. He died at Mepkin plantation near Charleston Dec. 8, 1792.
His son, JOHN LAURENS (1754-1782), American revolutionary officer, was born at Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 28, 1754. He was educated in England, and on his return to America in 1777, joined Washington's staff, and was entrusted with the delicate duties of a confidential secretary, which he performed with much tact and skill. He was present in all Washington's battles, from Brandy
wine to Yorktown, and his gallantry on every occasion gained him the title of "the Bayard of the Revolution." He wounded Gen. Charles Lee in a duel, fought on account of that officer's disre spectful conduct towards Washington. Laurens distinguished him self further at Savannah, and at the siege of Charleston in 1780. After the capture of Charleston by the English, he was selected by Washington as a special envoy to appeal to the king of France for supplies for the relief of the American armies. The more active co-operation of the French fleets with the land forces in Virginia, which was one result of his mission, brought about the disaster of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Laurens rejoined the army, and at Yorktown was at the head of an American storming party which captured an advanced redoubt. He was designated with the vicomte de Noailles to arrange the terms of the surrender, which virtually ended the war. In a skirmish on Aug. 27, 1782, on the Combahee river, before peace was formally concluded, Laurens was killed. Washington lamented deeply his death, saying of him, "He had not a fault that I could discover, unless it were intre pidity bordering upon rashness." The most valuable of Henry Laurens's papers and pamphlets, including the important "Narrative of the Capture of Henry Laurens, of his Confinement in the Tower of London, etc., 178o, 1781, 1782," are in vol. i. of Collections of South Carolina Historical Society (1857). John Laurens's military correspondence, with a brief memoir by W. G. Simms, was privately printed by the Bradford Club, New York, in 1867 (D. D. W.)