LAW, John, American lawyer: b. New London, Conn., 17%; d. Indiana, 1873. He was graduated at Yale and admitted to the bar in 1817, but soon after emigrated to Indiana, where he settled at Vincennes. He was quickly brought to the front as a lawyer; be.wne suc cessively prosecuting attorney, judge for eight terms and in 1838 receiver of public moneys. In 1855 he was appointed judge of the Court of Land Claims. He afterward served in the 37th and 38th Congresses on committees of li brary, agriculture and Revolutionary pensions. He was descended from a long line of lawyers, which included the chief justice of the Connec ticut Supreme Court, Jonathan Law, and was president of the Indiana State Historical So ciety.
LAW, William, English clergyman and writer: b. King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire, 1686; d. there, 9 Api•il 1761. He was graduated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1712, hav ing been ordained and elected a Fellow of his college in 1711. He afterward lived at Cam bridge, tutoring and occasionally acting in his capacity as a clergyman. His loyalty to the Stuarts prevented his taking the oath of alle giance to George I, and he was deprived of his fellowship. He is thought afterward to have become a curate in London, but from 1727 he was a member of the household of Edward Gibbon, grandfather of the historian, as tutor and spiritual adviser. His influence extended over a widening circle of friends, among them Charles and Jahn Wesley, and Archibald Hutcheson, M.P. from Hastings. His writings extended his influence over a wider sphere, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Lord Lyt Bishop Home and others attesting the worth of his teachings. In 1740 the Gibbon household was broken up and Law returned to his house at King's Cliffe. There he was
subsequently joined by the wealthy widow of Eris old friend, Archibald Hutcheson, who had counselled her to place herself under Law's spiritual guidance and by Miss Hester Gibbon, sister of his former pupil, Who also possessed considerable means. The three formed a household devoted to the following of Law's famous book, 'The Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life,' spending most of their in come in charity, and their time in religious study and devotion; an arrangement which con tinued until Law's death, •21 years later.
As a writer Law had among his contempo raries no rival except Richard Bently in the field of controversy, always supporting the High Church party; while in matters of practical divinity his influence was indispu table. The Wesleys, however, broke with Law after his teachings and writings be gan to evince a tinge of mysticism. This tendency appears to have been the out growth of his admiration for the Teuton theosophist, Jacob Boehme, although Law was by no means a disciple of that writer. Author of 'Three Letters to the Bishop of Bangor> (1717); 'Remarks on Mandeville's Fable of the Bees> (1723) ; 'Treatise on Christian Re flection> (1726) ; 'Serious Call to a Devout and Holy
(1728) •