Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/653

Rh charge, at the particular request of Rear-Admiral Cockburn, of an expedition against the town of Havre de Grace, at the entrance of the Susquehanna river, and by the able and judicious manner in which he there silenced a heavy battery, as well as by the gallantry, zeal, and attention he showed at the destruction of a neighbouring cannon-foundry, one of the most valuable works of the kind in America, he called forth the Admiral’s highest encomiums and acknowledgments. From the, which for a short time bore the flag of the latter officer, and proved the captor, 5 Oct. 1813, of a privateer, the Portsmouth Packet, of 5 guns and 45 men, Capt. Lawrence removed to the 16. He came home and was paid off in June, 1815; and on 8 Dec. in that year, as a reward for his services, was nominated a C.B. As a Post-Captain, a rank he attained 1 Jan. 1817, his appointments appear to have been – 31 Aug. 1822, to the 26, fitting for the West Indies, where, we believe, he remained the usual period – and 4 June, 1839, to the  72, part of the force employed during the operations on the coast of Syria in 1840. Since the commencement of 1842, at which period the was put out of commission, Capt. Lawrence has been on half-pay.

His eldest daughter, Margaret Frances, was married, in 1840, to Rich. S. Bunce, Esq., First-Lieutenant R.M. (1839). – Messrs. Ommanney.

 LAWRENCE. 

has lost two brothers in the Naval Service of their country.

This officer entered the Navy, 14 Sept. 1794, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 80, bearing the flag at Plymouth of Sir Rich. King. He was employed as Midshipman, during the five following years, in various ships, on the Home and Mediterranean stations; was confirmed a Lieutenant (after having acted for several months as such) in the 74, Capt. Hon. Alan Hyde Gardner, 6 May, 1801; and served during the whole of the late war, under different officers, in the  80,  frigate. 50, sloop,  74,  98, and  and  74’s, on the Channel, Baltic, Mediterranean, Lisbon, and American stations. By periling his existence, Mr. Lawrence was the means, on one occasion, of saving one of H.M. ships from destruction. His last appointment was, 5 June, 1833, to the Ordinary at Plymouth, where he remained until 13 July, 1836. He became a Retired Commander on the Senior List 25 Dec. 1845. – Messrs. Halford and Co.

 LAWRENCE. 

entered the Navy, 29 Jan. 1806, on board the 74, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Sam. Hood. While in that ship he assisted, in company with the and  74’s, at the capture, 25 Sept. 1806, of four heavy French frigates from Rochefort, after an action in which Sir Sam. Hood lost his arm. He also attended, in Aug. and Sept. 1807, the expedition to Copenhagen; beheld, in Dec. of the same year, the surrender of Madeira – aided, in conjunction with the 74, at the taking, 26 Aug. 1808, in sight of the whole Russian fleet near Rogerswick, of the 74-gun ship Sewolod, at the end of a close and furious couflict, in which the  lost 3 killed and 27 wounded, and the enemy 180 killed and wounded – and, in Aug. 1809, was engaged, under Capt. Wm. Henry Webley, in the attack upon Walcheren, where he had charge of a gun-boat. Between Nov. 1810 and Aug. 1812 Mr. Lawrence officiated as Midshipman, in tho Mediterranean, of the 120, flag-ship of Sir S. Hood and Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats. He then came home in the 74, Capt. Watson; and on 29 Dec. in the same year, 1812, being then on his passage to the East Indies as a Supernumerary (for the purpose of there joining Sir Sam. Hood) of the  of 46 guns and 377 men, he had the misfortune to be captured by the American ship Constitution, of 55 guns and 480 men, after a desperate struggle and a loss to the  of 22 killed and 102 (including her Captain, Henry Lambert, mortally) wounded. Mr. Lawrence, whose commission bears date 29 Dec. 1813, ultimately reached India in the 20, Capt. Geo. Henderson, in the early part of 1814. He remained on that station with Sir S. Hood in the 74, and with Capts. Robt. O’Brien and John Harper in the 36, until 1816; since which period he has been on half-pay.

 LAWS. 

, born 14 Feb. 1799 [sic], is son of the late G. Laws, Esq., of Waltington, co. Norfolk, by Lydia, eldest daughter of the late Robt. Seppings, Esq., and sister of the late Sir Robt. Seppings, Surveyor of the Navy, and of the late Lieut. John Milligen Seppings, for a long time Comptroller of Revenue-cruizers.

This officer entered the Navy, 19 Dec. 1809, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 18, Capt. Nicholas Lookyer, in which vessel he was for nearly two years employed in the Channel. In Oct. 1812 he became Midshipman of the 74, Capts. Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy and Chas. Ogle, attached to the force on the coast of North America, where, besides participating in many boat affairs, and being frequently invested with the charge of a prize, he landed, it appears, at Washington, Baltimore, and Moose Island, and was wounded at New Orleans. After a brief servitude in the 36, Capt. Andrew King, lying at Chatham, Mr. Laws, in Oct. 1815, joined the  50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral John Harvey in the West Indies; whence, in 1818, he came home as Acting-Lieutenant of the  36, Capt. Wm. Elliott. On his arrival in England he was confirmed by commission dated 11 Nov. in that year. His succeeding appointments were – 14 Oct. 1819, to the 46, Capt. Wm. Furlong Wise, whom he accompanied to the West Indies and South America – in 1821, to the 42,  26, and  46, Capts. Fras. Newcombe, Jas. Murray, and Henry Prescott, employed at Home and again in South America – 7 May, 1824, to the command of the mortar-vessel, in which he joined Sir Harry Neale off Algiers – and, next, to the  74, Capt. Graham Eden Hamond, under whom he accompanied Lord Stuart de Rothesay to the Brazils. Attaining the rank of Commander, 1 July, 1825, Capt. Laws was next, 22 Nov. 1826, appointed in that capacity to the 18, employed at first as an experimental cruizer, and then on service in the East Indies. While on the latter station we find Capt. Laws affording rehef to some settlers in New Holland who had been hemmed in by the natives, and discharging for fourteen months the duties of Senior officer at Sydney. He also effected the capture of a band of convicts who had turned pirates, and, besides making a survey of the Society Islands and New Zealand, demonstrated the necessity of frequent visits to those parts. In Jan. 1831, after he had extensively examined the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, Capt. Laws was removed to the 18, and sent to Pondicherry for the purpose of acknowledging the government of Louis Philippe. On 17 of the following April he became Acting-Captain of the 52, bearing the flag on the same station of Sir Edw. W. C. R. Owen, with whom he returned to England towards the close of 1832. He was then sent to join the fleet employed under Sir Pulteney Malcolm off Antwerp during the period of General Gerard’s attack on the citadel oi that place. On 7 Jan. 1833, in the course of which month the was paid off Capt Laws was confirmed in his present rank. He has not been since employed.

Capt. Laws is the Senior Officer of his rank on the List of 1833. He married, 20 June, 1836, Mary,