Maj. William LAWRENCE

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S.R. Durand:
Isaac Lawrence was born February 8, 1768 at his parents' estate near Newtown, Long Island, New York.  He was baptized in the Newtown Church on March 27, 1768.  He died July 12, 1841 and is buried at the Lawrence cemetery at Newtown [now part of Bayside, Queens]. Isaac Lawrence and Cornelia Ann Beach were married in 1800.  Their children are mentioned in the account of their lived published in a book I have, from which I will quote.  The title of the book is The Old Merchants of New York City.  It is by Watler Barrett and was published in 1863.  The account of the Isaac Lawrence family is in Chapter VI, pages 61-62 and 65-67, as follows:
'There have been many merchants of great celebrity in this city named Lawrence, but among all the Lawrence race, none have been more remarkable than the brothers John and Isaac Lawrence.  John was in business during the war and lived and did business at 162 Queen Street, later named Pearl Street.  In 1795 he took in his younger brother Isaac, who had been clerk with him for two previous years, and the new sign was placed over the store at 154 Water, corner of Fly Market.  Isaac had received a college education at Princeton College, and intended to become a lawyer, but his health was poor, and he went into business with his brother John.  The firm of John and Isaac Lawrence continued until 1803, when the brothers separated after doing a very prosperous and extended commerce.  They were owners of vessels, shippers of goods abroad, and importers.  They did a very heavy West India business.  This was owing to their having relations established in the West India Islands.  In fact, they had a brother named William, who owned a plantation in Demarara [present-day Guyana], where he died.  Another brother named Richard was also an eminent merchant in New York, and died at Hell Gate, where he owned a country seat in 1816.
'When the house of J. & I. Lawrence dissolved, the store was at 208 Pearl, and Isaac lived at 40 Courtlandt Street.  Isaac continued on with the business at the same address until 1814.  He was out of business until 1817, when he became president of the United States Branch Bank, that had been established in this city.  The office was then kept at 65 Broadway.  His residence at that time was at 480 Broadway.  He afterwards moved into a handsome house he had built at 498 Broadway, above Broome.
'After the War of 1812 when the United States Government was in financial difficulties, Isaac Lawrence contributed a gift of $25,000 to keep it solvent... Isaac Lawrence was a merchant in the most extended sense and meaning of the word.  From 1795 to 1815 there was not as great a chance to make operations as a few years ago.  He had been a director in the old United States Bank that was located in the city, and so also was his brother John.  That old Bank of the United States commenced operation before 1792.  I think its charter expired in 1811
'When the Bank of America was chartered in 1812, the leading merchants who got it up had an idea that it would take the place of the United States Bank.  Hence the comprehensive name, Bank of America.  They made the late cashier of the United States Bank, Jonathan Burrill, cashier.  The Bank of America was chartered for twenty years, with a capital of $4,000,000.  This was twice the capital of any other bank then chartered.  It was the sixth bank chartered by the state of New York The directors were Jonathan Burrill, Archibald Gracie, William Bayard, Stephen Whitney, George Newbold, and others who had been old United States Bank directors.  They did not succeed in making the Bank of America take the place of the United States Bank, and in 1816, Congress chartered that institution with a capital of 35,000,000 to last twenty years.  The branch in the city had its office at No. 65 Broadway.  It did last twenty years and then General Jackson [when President of the United States] crushed it.  The president and principal man was Mr. Isaac Lawrence, who until 1836, presided over its destiny.  He only lived four years afterwards, and died July 12, 1841.  He was one of the real aristocracy of the city, and was among the first.  There were two legitimate kinds - one descended from the old Holland Dutchmen that came here in 1630 and thereafter, and another class of English who came here in the same century, although a few years later.  John and Isaac Lawrence were of that stock.  Three brothers came out to this country in the troublesome times of King Charles I.  They were passengers on board the ship Planter, and landed in Massachusetts in 1635.  They were named John, William, and Thomas.  From Massachusetts they emigrated to Long Island in 1644, and took a patent of land from his worthy old Goverenor Kief. From one of these brothers [Major Thomas Lawrence]  John and Isaac were descended - a good old New York stock, by the English breed.'
I have in my home two fine portraits by the artist Henry Inman of my great-great-grandparents Isaac and Cornelia Beach Lawrence.  Isaac Lawrence's father was of purely English ancestry, and his mother, Anna Brinckerhoff Lawrence was of purely dutch ancestry except for a great-grandmother, Sarah Rapalie, the first white child born in New Netherlands , who was a daughter of French parents.  Isaac Lawrence is portrayed with a strong, handsome face; curly black hair, and wearing small steel-rimmed glasses.
Facts about this person:
Record Change  June 18, 1999
Burial    1841
Newtown, Long Island, NY