The chief branches of this eminent family resided in Chelsea, in London, and at Iver, Bucks. Sir John Lawrence, knight, was Lord Mayor of London in 1665.
Some “Pious Contemplations,” on the arms of the Lawrence family, are written in the margin of their pedigree. They are supposed to have been affixed to it in 1664, but the author is not known. The following are the concluding lines:—
“The way to Heaven is not with roses spread,
But throng’d with thorns, as was Thy sacred head;
Our peace is hack’d and hew’d, our life’s a war,
We, for our Cross, must many crosses bear—
Or, a red sea our passage doth withstand,
Or, fiery serpents, or, a barren sand,
Ere we can reach the truly Holy Land.”“Christ’s Cross the ladder is that leads to bliss,
Blest Jacob’s vision was a type of this;
Who climbs by other steps is at a loss—
To Heaven the only ladder is the Cross.”
Ann, Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleugh, relict of James, Duke of Monmouth, resided in the “great house” in Lawrence Street about 1714, and from that time it was called Monmouth House. The following item appears in the Churchwardens’ accounts for the year 1716: “Paid the ringers, when the Princess (afterwards Queen Caroline) visited the Duchess of Monmouth, six shillings.” The Duchess was, it is said, for her agreeable person, good sense, and irreproachable character, one of the most amiable ladies about the Court. During the first years of her marriage she seems to have been as happy, and as much envied as any woman in the kingdom; but this happiness was of short duration; she was unfortunately supplanted in the Duke’s affections by Lady Harriet Wentworth, daughter of the Earl of Cleveland, whose personal charms were superior to her own. Her Grace died in 1732, aged 90 years.
Mr. Gay was for some time secretary to the Duchess, as stated in Johnson’s Life of Gay.
Dr. Smollett afterwards resided in the same house in Lawrence Street. He came to Chelsea on account of the bad state of health of his beloved daughter, who was at that time in a consumption, under which she finally sank in the year 1763. The house and premises were extensive, and well suited for the residence of a person of rank. There are few men of real genius who have written more voluminously than Dr. Smollett. His entertaining novels are so well known that it seems almost unnecessary to mention Roderick Random, the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Ferdinand Count Fathom, and Sir Launcelot Greaves, the Expedition of Humphry Clinker, &c.
He was bred to the medical profession, and in the early part of his life served as a surgeon in the navy. It is said that before he took a house at Chelsea he attempted to settle as a practitioner, at Bath, but was unsuccessful, chiefly because he could not render himself agreeable to the ladies. This, however, was a little extraordinary, for Smollett was as graceful and handsome a man as any of the age; besides, there was a certain dignity in his manner which could not fail to inspire respect whenever he appeared. Abandoning physic altogether as a profession, he fixed his residence at Chelsea, and turned his thoughts entirely to writing.
Dr. Smollett’s History of England has had a most extensive sale. He is said to have received £2000 for writing it and the continuation. During the last years of his life he was employed in abridging the Modern Universal History, great part of which he had originally written himself. In the year 1755 he set on foot the Critical Review, and continued the principal manager of it till he went abroad for the first time, in the year 1763. He had made some very severe remarks on a pamphlet published by Admiral Knowles, who commenced a prosecution against the printer; and, just as sentence was going to be pronounced, he came into Court, and avowed himself the author; upon which he was fined £100, and condemned to three months’ imprisonment in the King’s Bench. It is there he is said to have written the Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves, in which he has described some remarkable characters, then his fellow-prisoners. When Lord Bute was called to the chief administration of affairs, he was prevailed upon to write in defence of that nobleman’s measures, in a weekly paper called the Briton. This gave rise to the well-known North Briton, wherein he was rather baffled.
Smollett’s constitution being at last greatly impaired by a sedentary life, and assiduous application to study, he went abroad for his health in 1769. He wrote accounts of his travels, in a series of letters to his friends, which were afterwards published.
During that time he appears to have been occasionally in a distressed state of mind. In his first letter he writes:—“In gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the tedious hours; which, without some such employment, would be rendered insupportable by distemper and disquiet. You knew and pitied my situation: traduced by malice, persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by domestic affliction.” He here alludes to the loss of his only daughter. In another letter, addressed to Mr. Reid, of this parish, he desires to be remembered to his Chelsea friends, wishing them that health and happiness to which he himself was a stranger, and adds, “I am very glad to know your concert was so brilliant, and I hope all your Chelsea societies will continue to flourish.”