Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/445

 expended much labour upon a colossal group of 'The Punishment of Dirce'; it was exhibited in 1911 at the International Fine Arts Exhibition at Rome which was assisted in arranging the British sculpture. It was set up in 1912 in the grounds at Rothamsted. A smaller bronze replica is in the Tate Gallery. He was the first president of the Incorporated Society of British Sculptors, which was founded in 1904.

In 1882 Richard Claude Belt, a sculptor of some repute, brought an action against Lawes for alleged libels in 'Vanity Fair' for 20 August 1881, and elsewhere. Lawes accused Belt of the fraudulent imposture of putting forward under his name sculpture executed by other persons. The case (Belt v. Lawes), which excited immense attention, was opened before Baron Huddleston on 21 June 1882, and occupied the court for forty-three sittings. Leading artists were called as witnesses on each side. Finally on 28 Dec. 1882 the jury decided in Belt's favour, and awarded him 5000l. damages. The case was the last heard at the old law courts at Westminster. After an appeal the verdict was upheld in March 1884. On 31 Aug. 1900 Lawes, on the death of his father, succeeded to the baronetcy and the Rothamsted property. He became chairman of the Lawes Agricultural Trust and vice-chairman of the incorporated society for extending the Rothamsted experiments in agricultural science, in which he was keenly interested. On 18 April 1902 he assumed by royal licence the additional surname of Wittewronge, after a kinsman, Thomas Wittewronge (d. 1763), from whom his family had derived the estate of Rothamsted. He died at Rothamsted on 6 Oct. 1911 after an operation for appendicitis, and was cremated at Golder's Green. He married on 8 April 1869 Marie Amelie Rose, daughter of Charles George Fountaine, and had an only son, John Bennet Fountaine, who succeeded to the baronetcy. At Rothamsted there is a life-size marble statue of Lawes-Wittewronge, executed by J. H. Foley, R.A., in 1870, as well as a portrait in oils painted by Frank Salisbury in 1905. A memorial portrait was placed in the pavilion at Fenner's, Cambridge, in July 1912. A cartoon appeared in 'Vanity Fair' for 12 May 1883.

 LAWES, WILLIAM GEORGE (1839–1907), missionary, son of Richard Lawes by his wife Mary, daughter of Joseph Pecover of Reading, was born at Aldermaston, Berkshire, on 1 July 1839. After education at the village school, he entered at fourteen a Reading house of business. In 1858 his thoughts turned towards missionary work. He was accepted by the London Missionary Society, and after training at Bedford was ordained to the congregational ministry on 8 Nov. 1860. A few months' voyage brought him to Niué (Savage Island) in the South Seas in August 1861, and he worked on the island until 1872. Besides general work in the mission and the industrial training of the people, he engaged in linguistic study, and in 1886 completed the task begun by others of rendering the New Testament into Niué. In 1872 he came home on furlough, taking with him corrected versions of Exodus, the Psalms, and the New Testament in the vernacular. Whilst at home he was appointed to the New Guinea mission, for which he sailed in April 1874. He settled first at Port Moresby, and again devoted himself to labours of translation. He reduced the Motu language to writing, prepared simple books in the language, set himself to the translation of the New Testament, and founded a training institution for New Guinea natives. When the British protectorate over New Guinea was proclaimed in 1884, Lawes, with James Chalmers [q. v. Suppl. II], gave much help to the British authorities. For twenty years his home was at Port Moresby, but on the training institution being moved to Vatorata, Lawes made that his centre. His position among both the settlers and the natives enabled him to give much help to the British administration—help gratefully acknowledged by Sir William Macgregor, ‘first ruler of British New Guinea’ (Life, p. 289). By the influence of Sir William, Lawes received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in April 1895. In the following year he visited Australia, and during his stay in Sydney saw through the press several works in Motu—selections from Old Testament history, a collection of 204 hymns, a catechism, forms of service, a Motu grammar and dictionary, and a manual of geography and arithmetic. In 1901 he took to England a revised Motu version of the New Testament.

In 1898 Lawes explored the mountainous region at the back of Vatorata. In 1905 he marked on a map ninety-six villages with the inhabitants of which he had been