OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, George (d.1678)

​LAWSON, GEORGE (d. 1678), divine, became rector of More, Shropshire, before 22 April 1686. He was a supporter of the parliament, and accordingly retained his rectory during the Commonwealth. Lawson wrote to Baxter on the appearance of the latter's 'Aphorismes of Justification,' 1649, and Baxter valued his criticisms; 'especially,' he writes, 'his instigating me to the study of politicks ... did prove a singular benefit to me.' Baxter says that he had seen in manuscript arguments by Lawson in favour of taking the engagement. His religious views inclined to Arminianism. He was buried at More 12 July 1678.
Lawson wrote: 1. 'Examination of the Political Part of Hobbes's "Leviathan,"' London, 1657, 12mo. 2. 'Theo-Politica, or a Body of Divinity,' London, 1659, 8vo; 2nd ed. 1705, commended by Baxter. 3. 'Politica Sacra et Civilis.' London, 1660, 4to. 4. 'Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews.' London, 1662, fol. 5. 'Magna Charta Ecclesiæ Universalis.' London, 1686, 8vo : 3rd ed. 1687.
Lawson, who was certainly not a Yorkshireman, must be distinguished from George Lawson (1606-1670) of Moreby, son of George Lawson of Poppleton, Yorkshire, who became rector of Eykring, Northamptonshire, and who may be identical with the George Lawson who was ejected as a royalist from the vicarage of Mears Ashby, Northamptonshire, by the parliamentarians (Walker, Attempt, ii. 296), and then became schoolmaster at Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire.
[Works; Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, ed. Sylvester, 1696, pp. 107-8; Bickersteth's Christian Student, pp. 472, 493; Foster's Yorkshire Pedigrees; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; information kindly furnished by the Revs. A. Gordon and E. W. Cockell.]
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, Isaac

​LAWSON, ISAAC (d. 1747), physician, was born in Scotland . He became a student of Leyden University on 17 May 1730; studied medicine and botany under Herman Boerhaave and Van Royen, and became the intimate friend of Linnaeus, whom he several times assisted with gifts of money. In conjunction with Gronovius he was at the expense of the printing of the 'Systema Naturæ' of Linnaeus in 1735. Lawson graduated at Leyden as M.D. in 1737, his thesis being entitled ' Dissertatio Academica sistens Nihil.' He afterwards became a physician to the British army, but died at Oosterhout in the Netherlands in 1747. Linnaeus dedicated to him the genus Lawsonia, the henna of the East. In Dr. Maton's edition of Linneeus's 'Diary.' included in his reprint of Pulteney's 'View of the Writings of Linnaeus.' p. 530. Lawson is inaccurately spoken of as John Lawson. Another Isaac Lawson, possibly a son, entered Leyden University 13 March 1747, and is described in the register as Britanno-Edinburgensis.
[Correspondence of Linnaeus, ed. Smith, i. 18, ii. 173, 175 ; Peacock's Leyden Students (Index Soc), p. 59; Pulteney's General View of the Writings of Linnæus, 1st ed. p. 15; Corresp. of Dr. Richard Richardson, pp. 343–5.]
G. S. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, John (1723-1779)

1904 Errata appended.
​LAWSON, JOHN (1723–1779), mathematician, born in 1723, was eldest son of Thomas Lawson, vicar of Kirkby, Lincolnshire. After attending Boston grammar school he was, on 15 Dec. 1741, admitted sizar of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and was elected chapel clerk on 14 Jan. 1741-2, foundation scholar on 16 Jan. 1745-6, fellow on 3 Dec. 1747, mathematical lecturer in 1749, and tutor in 1751 (College Register). He graduated B.A. in 1745, M.A. in 1749, and B.D. in 1756 (Graduati Cantabr.) In 1759 he was presented to the rectory of Swanscombe, Kent, by the college (Sparvel-Bayly, Hist. of Swanscombe, p. 29). He died unmarried at Chislehurst on 13 Nov. 1779 (Gent. Mag. 1. 50).
In 1774 Lawson printed anonymously at Canterbury a 'Dissertation on the Geometrical Analysis of the Antients, with a Collection of Theorems and Problems without Solutions.' A general desire was expressed that the solutions should be also published, and Lawson announced on a flyleaf attached to some copies of the work that he would be glad to correspond with mathematicians. Among his correspondents Ainsworth, Clarke, Merrit, and Power appear to have furnished him with original solutions. A portion, if not the whole, of the solutions in manuscript was in Ainsworth's possession in 1777; but it was never printed, and its fate appears to be unknown (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 526-7). A compilation based on the above work, entitled 'An Introduction to ​the Geometrical Analysis of the Ancients.' appeared in 1811.
Lawson published also: 1. 'The Two Books of Apollonius Pergaeus concerning Tangencies, as they have been restored by franciscus Vieta and Marinus Ghetaldus; with a Supplement.' 4to, Cambridge, 1764; 2nd edit., with M. Fermat's 'Treatise on Spherical Tangencies, and two Supplements.' 4to, London, 1771. 2. 'Occasional Sermons on the Office and Duty of Bishops.' 8vo, London, 1765. 3. 'A Synopsis of all the Data for the Construction of Triangles, from which Geometrical Solutions have hitherto been in print.' 4to, Rochester, 1778; a specimen of which had previously appeared in 'The British Oracle.' 4. 'A Treatise concerning Prisms by Robert Simson, M.D., translated from the Latin.' 4to, Canterbury, 1777.
[Notes kindly supplied by the master of Sidney Sussex; Lawson's "Works; Watt's BibL Brit.]
G. G.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.178 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, Henry

​LAWSON, HENRY (1774–1855), astronomer, was the second son of Johnson Lawson, dean of Battle in Sussex, and of Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Wright of Bath. He was born at Greenwich on 23 March 1774, was a pupil of Dr. Burney, and entered as an apprentice the optical establishment of his stepfather, Edward Nairne [q. v.] of Cornhill. He, however, never engaged in business, but devoted himself to private scientific study. He lived with his mother until her death in 1823, when he married Amelia, daughter of Thomas Jennings, vicar of St. Peter's, Hereford. Fixing his residence in that town, he equipped an observatory with a five-foot refractor in 1826, and with one of eleven feet in 1834, considered by Dollond the finest telescope he had ever made. He observed there an occultation of Saturn on 8 May 1832 (Monthly Notices, ii. 111), Galle's first comet in December 1839 and January 1840 (ib. v. 9), and recorded the falling stars of 12-13 Nov. 1841 (ib. p. 173). A relative having left him a fortune, he removed to Bath in 1841, and mounted his instruments on the roof of his house at No. 7 Lansdowne Crescent. He published in 1844 a paper 'On the Arrangement of an Observatory for Practical Astronomy and Meteorology, and in 1847 a brief 'History of the New Planets.' The Society of Arts, of which he was a member, voted him a silver medal for the invention of an observing-chair called 'Reclinea.' and awarded him a prize for a new thermometer-stand, described before the British Association in 1845 (Report, ii. 17). He made communications to the same body in 1846 and 1847 on solar telescopic work (ib. ii. 9), and published in 1853 accounts of a 'lifting apparatus' for invalids, and of a 'surgical transferrer,' both contrived by himself. Lawson offered in December 1851 the whole of his astronomical apparatus, with a thousand guineas, to the town of Nottingham, on condition of money enough being raised to build an observatory and endow it with 200l. a year; but the plan failed of realisation through disputes about the valuation of the instruments. His eleven-foot telescope was later presented to the Royal Naval School at Greenwich, that of five feet to Mr. W. G. Lettsom, and his meteorological appliances to Mr. E. J. Lowe of Beeston, Nottinghamshire. Lawson devoted much time to promoting the scientific pursuits of young people, and dispensed liberal and unostentatious charity. He died at Bath in his eighty-second year, a few weeks after his wife, on 22 Aug. 1855, and was buried at Weston. The last of his family, he bequeathed to Miss Agnes Strickland several relics of ​his probable ancestress, Catherine Parr, which had been handed down as heirlooms for nearly two centuries (Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, iii. 295, ed. 1851). Lawson became a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1833, of the Royal Society in 1840, and of the British Meteorological Society in 1850, and left to each of these bodies a sum of 200l. His large fortune was divided by will among 139 persons, besides charitable institutions.
[Monthly Notices, Roy. Astr. Society, xvi. 86; Ann. Reg. 1856, p. 226.]
A. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, John (d.1712)

​LAWSON, JOHN (d. 1712), traveller, a native of Scotland, was sent to America as surveyor-general of North Carolina, and arrived at Charleston in September 1700. A few months later he started on his exploration of the Carolinas with five white men and four Indians, went by canoe as far as Santee, and then turned inland on foot, jotting down his experiences as he journeyed​Continually roaming over the country in the exercise of his profession of survey or, he came much into contact with the Indians, upon whom he made many acute and trustworthy observations; but the natives began after a time to suspect that his surveying operations cloaked some designs upon their lands. He was accordingly seized in 1712, hard by the river Neuse, by the Tuscarora Indians, together with a Swiss, Baron de Graffenreid. The latter was suffered to ransom himself, but Lawson was put to death, probably in the gruesome manner described in a chapter of his book upon the cruelties of the Indians, resinous pine splinters being driven into the prisoner's flesh and then set alight. This is the generally received account, but William Byrd, in his 'History of the Dividing Line between Virginia and Carolina' (ed. 1866, 174, 214), says 'he was waylaid and had Throat cut from Ear to Ear.'
Lawson's impressions of travel were recorded in 'one of the most valuable of the early histories of the Carolinas.' It appeared in London in 1709, under the title 'A New Voyage to Carolina, containing the exact Description and Natural History of that Country, together with the present state thereof, and a journal of a Thousand Miles Travel'd through several Nations of Indians, giving a particular Account of their Customs, Manners, etc..' forming the second part of 'A New Collection of Voyages and Travels into several parts of the World, none of which ever before printed in England.' completed in 1711 by the publisher, John Stevens. Other issues of the same sheets, with slightly different title-pages, appeared in 1714 and 1718. A German version by M. Vischer, entitled 'Allerneuste Beschreibung der Provinz Carolina in West-Indien.' was printed at Hamburg in 1712; 2nd edit. 1722. The work was accompanied by an interesting map; it is by no means devoid of literary style, and is, according to Professor Tyler, 'an uncommonly strong and sprightly book' (Hist. of American Literature, u. 282).
[Field's Indian Bibliography, p. 228; Winsor's Hist. of America, v. 345; Appleton's Dict. of American Biog. iii. 642; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iv. 492; Lawson's Works in Brit. Mus. Library.]
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, John (1712-1759)

​LAWSON, JOHN (1712–1759), writer on oratory, was born in 1712 at Omagh, co. Tyrone, of which parish his father was curate. Entering Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar, he became a scholar in 1729, fellow in 1735, senior fellow in 1743, and first librarian. He graduated B.A. in 1731, M.A. in 1734, and D.D. in 1745 (Dublin Graduates, 1869). In 1753 he was appointed lecturer in oratory and history on the foundation of Erasmus Smith. He died on 9 Jan. 1759.
Lawson's acquaintance with European languages was wide, and he excelled as a preacher. He acquired some reputation by his 'Lectures concerning Oratory.' 8vo, Dublin, 1758; other editions 1759, 1760, to which is appended 'Irene: carmen historicum, ad vice-comitem Boyle.' Of this poem a revised edition, with an English translation by William Dunkin, was published at Dublin in 1760. A selection from his sermons appeared in 1764 as 'Occasional Sermons written by a late eminent Divine;' other editions 1765, 1776. Appended is a Latin oration delivered by Lawson on 4 Oct. 1758 at the funeral of Richard Baldwin, provost of Trinity College.
[Notice of Lawson prefixed to his Occasional Sermons, ed. 1776; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog.; Ryan's Worthies of Ireland; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 311; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 311; Allibone's Dict.; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hibern. ii. 286 n.; Taylor's Univ. of Dublin, p. 412; Cat. of Library of Trinity Coll. Dublin.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, John Parker

​LAWSON, JOHN PARKER (d. 1852), historical and miscellaneous writer, was ordained a minister in the episcopal church of Scotland. He was for some time a chaplain in the army, but afterwards lived in Edinburgh, writing for the booksellers. He died in 1852. Lawson wrote many works, the chief of which are: 1. ‘The Life of George Wishart of Pitarrow,’ Edinburgh, 1827, 12mo. 2. ‘Life and Times of William Laud, … Archbishop of Canterbury,’ 2 vols., London, 1829, 8vo. 3. ‘The History of Remarkable Conspiracies connected with English History during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries,’ 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo. This was issued in ‘Constable's Miscellany.’ 4. ‘The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland,’ Edinburgh, 1836, 8vo. 5. ‘Gazetteer of the Old and New Testaments, with Introductory Essay by William Fleming,’ 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1838, 8vo. 6. ‘Historical Tales of the Wars of Scotland,’ 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1839, 8vo. 7. ‘History of the Scottish Episcopal Church from the Revolution to the Present Time,’ Edinburgh, 1843, 8vo. This is still an authority. 8. ‘The Episcopal Church of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution,’ Edinburgh, 1844, 8vo. Lawson also edited in 1844 the first two volumes of Bishop Keith's ‘History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland’ for the Spottiswoode Society, and wrote the letterpress for Stanfield and Harding's ‘Scotland Delineated,’ Edinburgh, 1847–54, fol.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lawson, James Anthony

1904 Errata appended.
​LAWSON, JAMES ANTHONY (1817–1887), judge of queen's bench, Ireland, eldest son of James Lawson, by Mary, daughter of Joseph Anthony, was born at Waterford in 1817, and was educated at the endowed school there. Having entered Trinity College, Dublin, he was elected a scholar in 1836, obtained a senior moderatorship in 1837, and was a gold medallist and first class in ethics and logic. He graduated B.A. 1838, LL.B. 1841, and LL.D. 1850, and served as Whately professor of political economy from 1840 to 1845. He was called to the Irish bar in 1840, and soon obtained a good practice, especially in the courts of equity. On 29 Jan. 1857 he was gazetted a queen's counsel, elected bencher of King's Inns, Dublin, 1861, and acted as legal adviser to the crown in Ireland from 1858 to 1859. He was appointed solicitor-general for Ireland in February 1861, and in 1865 attorney-general, when he was sworn a member of the Irish privy council. As attorney-general he had in 1865 to grapple with the Fenian conspiracy, when he suppressed the ‘Irish People’ newspaper, and the leaders were arrested and prosecuted. On 4 April 1857 he unsuccessfully contested the seat for Dublin University, but on 15 July 1865 came in for Portarlington, and continued to represent that place till November 1868, when he was defeated on the general election in December. He was appointed fourth justice of the common pleas, Ireland, in December 1868, and held the post till June 1882, when he was transferred to the queen's bench division. During the land league agitation he presided at several important political trials. His firm conduct made him obnoxious to those who were breaking the laws, and an attempt was made to murder him while walking in Kildare Street, Dublin, on 11 Nov. 1882, by Patrick Delaney, who was afterwards tried for the Phœnix Park murders, and became an approver. His courage never failed him, and he won the respect of his enemies, and the admiration of the general public. He was made one of the Irish church commissioners in July 1869, gazetted a privy councillor in England on 18 May 1870, acted as a commissioner for the great seal from March to December 1874, was a vice-president of the Dublin Statistical Society, and was in 1884 made D.C.L. of Oxford. He died at Shankhill, near Dublin, 10 Aug. 1887, having married in 1842 Jane, eldest daughter of Samuel Merrick of Cork.
Lawson was the author of: 1. ‘Five Lectures on Political Economy,’ 1844. 2. ‘Duties and Obligations involved in Mercantile Relations. A lecture,’ 1855. 3. ‘Speech at the Election for Members to serve in Parliament for the University of Dublin,’ 1857. With H. Connor he compiled 4. ‘Reports of Cases in High Court of Chancery of Ireland during the time of Lord Chancellor Sugden,’ 1865.
G. C. B.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.178 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langton, Christopher

​LANGTON, CHRISTOPHER, M.D. (1521–1578), physician, born in 1521 at Riccall in Yorkshire, was educated on the foundation at Eton, and went as a scholar 23 Aug. 1538 to King's College, Cambridge. He was admitted a fellow of King's College a week later than all the other scholars of his year, 2 Sept. 1541, and graduated B.A. 1542. He received his last quarterage as a fellow at Cambridge at Christmas 1544, and in 1547 he describes himself as 'a lerner and as yet a yong student of physicke' (Dedication of Brefe Treatise), and in 1549 he was studying 'Galen de Usu partium.' His copy of the Paris edition of 1528, with his name, the date, and notes in his handwriting on several pages, is in the Cambridge University Library. He published, 10 April 1547, in London, 'A very Brefe Treatise, orderly declaring the Principal Partes of Plysick, that is to say, thynges natural, thynges not naturall, thynges agaynst nature,' with a dedication to Edward, duke of Somerset. He describes the ancient sects in physic, and then treats of anatomy, pathology, and therapeutics according to the method of his age. He commends Pliny, quotes Hippocrates, Ætius, Paulus Ægineta, Celsus and Galen, but of mediaeval writers only Avicenna. His English style is simple, and resembles that of More, being as full of idiomatic expressions, but much easier and more refined than that of the English treatises of the surgeons of his time. He shows a fair knowledge of Greek, and wrote a good Greek hand, as his copy of Galen proves. In 1550 published, through the same printer, 'Edward Whitchurch, of Flete Street, An Introduction into Phisycke, wyth an Universal Dyct.' It is dedicated to Sir Arthur Darcye, of whose favours he speaks, and begins with an address supposed to be spoken by Physic in person. Parts of it are mere alterations of his former treatise, and the additional matter is not important. He was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians of London on 30 Sept. 1552, having taken his M.D. degree at Cambridge, but was expelled for breach of the statutes and profligate conduct 17 July 1558, Dr. Caius being then president. On 16 June 1563, having been detected in an intrigue with two girls, he was punished by being carted to the Guildhall and through the city. Machyn (Diary, Camden Soc.), who saw him, describes his appearance in the cart. His professional ability must have been considerable, for in ​spite of this public disgrace he continued to have practice. Lord Monteagle gave him a pension, both Sir Thomas Smith [q. v.] and Sir Richard Gresham were his patients, and the latter left him a small legacy (will printed in Burgon, Life and Times of Sir T. Gresham, ii. 493). He published one other book, a 'Treatise of Urines, of all the Colours thereof, with the Medicines,' London, 1552. He died in 1578, and was buried in London at St. Botolph's Church, Bishopsgate.
N. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langton, John (fl.1390)

1904 Errata appended.
​LANGTON, JOHN (fl. 1390), Carmelite, was, according to Bale, a native of the west of England. De Villiers, however, describes him as a Londoner. He studied at Oxford, and was a bachelor of theology (Fasc. Ziz. 358). He was present at the council of Stamford on 28 May 1392, when the lollard Henry Crump was tried, and drew up the account of the trial, which is printed in 'Fasciculi Zizaniorum,' pp. 343–59. He is also credited with 'Collectanea Dictorum.' Langton, owing to a confusion with John Langton [q. v.], bishop of Rochester, is wrongly said by De Villiers to have preached before a synod at London in 1411, and to have attended the council of Basle in 1434 (cf. Harpsfeld, Hist. Eccl. Angl. p. 619). The ascription to him of a treatise, 'De Rebus Anglicis,' is due to the same error.
C. L. K.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.177 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 121 | i | 9-10 | Langton, John: for the lollard Henry Crump read Henry Crump [q. v.] |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langton, Zachary

​LANGTON, ZACHARY (1698–1788), divine, third son of Cornelius Langton of Kirkham, Lancashire, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of the Rev. Zachary Taylor, headmaster of the grammar school there, was baptised at Kirkham on 24 Sept. 1698. He was educated at Kirkham grammar school, and, on being elected to a Barker exhibition, went to Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 18 Dec. 1721, and M.A. on 10 June 1724. After his ordination he removed to Ireland, where his kinsman, Dr. Clayton, was bishop of Killala, and afterwards of Clogher. He held preferments in the diocese of Killala, and was chaplain between 1746 and 1761 to the Earl of Harrington, lord-lieutenant. He held the prebend of Killaraght from 5 July 1735 until 1782, and that of Errew from 6 Dec. 1735 until his death. In November 1761 he returned to England, and was present at Kirkham Church in 1769 at the recantation of William Gant, late a Roman catholic priest. He published anonymously a pedantic work entitled 'An Essay concerning the Human Rational Soul, in three parts,' 8vo, Dublin, 1753; Liverpool, 1755; Oxford, 1764. The Oxford edition has a dedication of 166 pages addressed to the Duke of Bedford, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He died at Oxford on 1 Feb. 1786. He married Bridget, daughter of Alexander Butler of Kirkland, Lancashire, but died without issue.
C. W. S.