Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/302

 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.  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.

[Works; Cat. of the Advocates' Library; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]  LAWSON, ROBERT (d. 1816), lieutenant-general, colonel-commandant royal artillery, entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, on 17 July 1758, and passed out as a lieutenant-fireworker, royal artillery, on 25 Dec. 1759. His subsequent promotions were: second lieutenant 1766, first lieutenant 1771, captain-lieutenant 1779, captain 1782, major 1793, lieutenant-colonel 1794, colonel 1801, major-general 1808, lieutenant-general 1813. He served through the famous siege of Belle Isle in 1761, and was afterwards some years at Gibraltar. He went to America with Lord Cornwallis in 1776 and was deputy-bridgemaster of the army under Sir William Howe [q. v.], and in 1779 was appointed bridgemaster to Sir Henry Clinton the elder [q. v.] There is little information respecting his services in America, but in the royal military repository, Woolwich, is a model of 'a field-carriage for small mortars to be used occasionally as howitzers.' which is stated to have been invented and used by him at the siege of Charleston, and another showing his plan of mounting mortars for firing at various elevations, 'experimented and approved at New York in 1780' (Official Cat Museum of Artillery). He returned home from America in 1783, and was afterwards three years in command of the artillery (three companies) in the island of Jamaica. In January 1793 he was appointed to command the first formed troop of the royal horse artillery, now the famed 'chestnut troop.' The four oldest troops of the horse brigade were trained under him, and he devised the system of manoeuvre enabling them to act with cavalry (, ii. 33-5). In 1799 he appears to have been in command of the artillery at Newcastle-on-Tyne (ib. ii. 95), and in January 1800 he was appointed to command the artillery of the expeditionary force destined for the Mediterranean. With some difficulty the temporary rank of brigadier-general, which had been accorded to officers of like standing of other arms, was obtained for him (ib. ii. 105). The movements that followed have been described by the regimental historian (ib. ii. 105-7). How the troops were shipped and landed and reshipped, how clerkdom was allowed to run riot in queries and surcharges and disallowances, while the sick were left without tents, tents issued without poles, and the like, read like parodies of the Crimean blunders of fifty years later. Lawson commanded the artillery throughout the campaign in Egypt, in which, in the words of Abercromby's successor, Lord Hutchinson, he overcame difficulties that appeared insurmountable. His professional memoranda on the operations (cf. ib. ii. chap, xvi.) were published some years ago by the Royal Artillery Institute, Woolwich, for the instruction of gunners of later 