Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/298

Lawson cook, who 'skadded' (i.e. scalded) his 'lips in other men's kaile ' (printed in, iv. 126-41 ). Not long afterwards the magistrates were charged to dislodge the ladies from their dwellings (ib. p. 200). The turn of events had seriously affected the health of Lawson, and, according to Calderwood, 'waisted his vitall spirits by peece meale' (ib. p. 13). He died in London of dysentery on 12 Oct. 1584. His will and testament dated from 'Houie (Honie) Lain of Cheapside.' has been preserved by Calderwood (ib. pp. 201-8). After his death a forged testament was put forth in his name by Bishop Adamson, in which he is represented as repenting of his opposition to episcopacy (ib. p. 697-732). Although as an ecclesiastic Lawson was conscientious rather than enlightened, he had a sincere love of learning and literature. He is thus described by Arthur Johnston —

Corpora non magno, mens ingens: spiritus ardens.

By his wife Janet Guthrie he left three children.

 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.

[Times, 11 Aug. 1887, p. 10; Debrett's House of Commons, 1885, p. 349; Solicitors' Journal, 13 Aug. 1887, p. 694.]  LAWSON, JOHN (d. 1665), admiral, was a native of Scarborough, with which place he continued through life closely connected, and where at the time of his death he owned a considerable property (will ;, Scarborough, 3rd edit. pp. 297, 308). It has been generally stated that he was originally a fisherman or collier, who, 'serving in the fleet under the parliament, was made a captain therein for his extraordinary desert' (, ii. 252 ; . i. 111). But he publicly used the arms of the Lawsons of Longhirst in Northumberland — argent, a chevron between three martlets sable (, Pedigrees of the Knights, p. 111), and doubtless belonged to a branch of that family. In a letter from himself to Sir Henry Vane, dated 12 Feb. 1652-8 (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. viii. 3), he writes of his early life: 'In the year 1642 I voluntarily engaged in 