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     Thomas Lawrence was born circa 1539.¹ He married Martha Cage of All Saints in Honey Land, London, daughter of Anthony Cage and Elizabeth Dale, on 22 July 1572 in All Hallows Honey Lane.^2,3 Thomas died on 28 October 1593.^4,1 He was interred on 7 November 1593 in Chelsea, Middlesex, England.⁴

     Thomas was also known as [Sir] Thomas Lawrence.

     Alfred Beaver wrote in 1892, that the oldest portions of Chelsea Old Church are the Chancel and the north chantry or chapel. The main fabric of the latter dates from the early part of the fourteenth century and is known as the Lawrence Chapel, from a family in whose possession is was for about a century and half (beginning with Sir Thomas Lawence.) It is generally supposed to have been the manor-chapel, built by one of the early lords of the manor, to have passed with the manor into the hands of Henry VIII, and to have been granted by him, with the old manor-house, to the Lawrences. No chapel, however, is mentioned in Lord Sandys' grant of the manor to Henry VIII in 1536, nor in a Particular of the Manor drawn up in 1544, nor in any of the manorial grants and assignments; and Alfred Beaver indicates the he can find no reason for supposing the Lawrence house to be identical with or on the site of the old manor-house other than the fact that it was near the Lordship Yard (originally the site of the manor-barns and stables) and a vacant piece of land (now occupied by Carlyle Mansions) called the Lord's Waste, and that these names were supposed to indicate the near neighborhood of the old manor-house. Alfred concludes that the chapel does not appear to have belonged to the manor or to have been used for burial in the time of the Brays (early owners of the manor). Had the chapel belonged to the manor, it is most probably that the Brays would have been buried there. No monuments, however, earlier than that of Thomas Lawrence, 1593, is to be found there. Alfred concludes the the chapel first became the private property when Thomas Lawrence purchased some property in Chelsea, and builid a house near the church in the late sixteenth century.⁵

     In Two Villages, Borer writes that during the later part of the sixteenth century the old manor-house was acquired by Sir Thomas Lawrence, goldsmith and merchant adventurer of the City of London. He too build a chapel in the parish church and his memorial there is dated 1593, but his family was to live on in the Chelsea until the end of the seventeenth century.⁶

     The Lawrence Monuments are placed in the chapel which bears their name. On the north wall is that of Thoams Lawrence (d. 1793), the earliest of this family to be found her. On the right are the effigies of his three sons, facing those of his wife and six daughters, all kneeling. On the cushion on which his wife kneels are the figures of two infants.⁵ This would indicate that there were possible three sons and six daughters plus perhaps two infants who died in infancy in the family. The names of only two sons and four daughters are known.

     Sir John Lawrence (d. 1638)--the second son represented in the previous monument--has an ornamental black tablet on the east wall. One of the daughters of Thomas Lawrence, Sarah, who married Richard Colvile, of Newton, in the Isle of Ely, has a monument on the same wall. On the floor is an inscription to Henry, Sir John Lawrences youngest son.

     Thomas was living in St. Michael Bassishaw Parish when he married Martha. He was a goldsmith in Chelsey in Middlesex and citizen of London. The London Goldsmiths 1200-1800 lists Thomas Lawrence, goldsmith, Parish of St. Mary Woolnoth, 1582-1624. This likely refers to both father and son.⁷ Thomas made a considerable fortune in his business as goldsmith, which in those days generally included banking, and in that of merchant adventurer.⁸

     Adjacent to Chelsea Old Church is one of the oldest thoroughfares in the parish, call Laurence or Lawrence Street, in memory of a family long connected with Chelsea. Lordship Place, leading from Lawrence Street into Cheyne Row (celebrated as the residence of Thomas Carlyle "the sage of Chelsea" was formally called Lordship Yard and marks the site of the manor barns and stables.⁵

     The Lawrence or Monmouth House stood to the north of Lordship Yard. The Lawrence Chapel, which belonged to this property was sometimes called the Manor Chapel.
⁵

     In 1583 Thomas Lawrence bought the old manor-house of Chelsea and the lord's chapel in Chelsea parish church attached to it, since known as the Lawrence Chapel, where on his death he was buried and where his son Sir John and his daughter are also commerated by monuments.⁸ The house, known as the Lawrence (or Monmouth) house was demolished in 1835.⁵ In 1714, Lady Lawrence let her Chelsea house to Ann, Duchess of Monmouth.⁵

     In 1590, he purchased Delaford Manor, Iver in Stoke Hundred, Buckinghamshire⁹ Deleford Manor is a typical example of the stately yet homelike Elizabethan mansion of red brick with its ample stone-mullioned windows and bays, it ranges of gables and grouped chimney stacks soaring above red tile roofs. The plan of Sir William Young's estate in Iver made in 1770 when the house was still standing shows that it was built around four sides of a courtyard with a larger courtyard surrounded by out-buildings in front of it. The interior must have contained many pleasant panelled rooms, including perhaps a long gallery, and carved chimneypieces and staircases. The gardens were douptless of the formal type usual at the period. A portion of such a lay-out subisted in 1770 to the west of the house, though it no longer, as it must have done formerly, extended to the eastern side where the oblong fishpond or "stews" still lies.⁸

     A History of the Manor and Parish of Iver states "In 1589, shortly before his death Sir Richard Blount, with his wife Mary and his son Richard, sold the Manor of Delaford and Edred's to Thomas Lawrence, citizen and goldsmith of London ... till the time of the Commonwealth the Lawrence family was one of the most influential in the parish. There had been Lawrences in Iver at least as early as the first half of the fourteenth century, but there is no evidence of their kinship to this Thomas Lawrence who came of a yeoman's family of Chelmarsh in Glouchesterhire, though his descendants attempted to trace descent to a more distinguished Lancashire family of Lawrences ... . He was succeeded at Chelsea and Delaford by his son John. There is neither trace or record of the manor house of Delaford such as it was in the days of the Fords and Blounts. Thomas Lawrence must have begun at once to rebuild it for in his will made on 20 August 1593 he sets aside a sume of 400£ for his executors to employ "in the best order in and abowte the finishing the buildings which are at hand at Iver." The new manor-house may have been structually almost complete by that date. That the family did not make it their principal residence at once appears from a letter written in 1621 by Sir John Lawrence to Sir Edward Cicil in reference to the latter's right to a pew in the Lawrence Chapel at Chelsea. "When I dwelt here," he says, "before I went to my house at Iver there stood a seat in which my parents in their life time sate, and I their heyre so long as I continued heere." Since Sir John was born in 1588 the move cannot have taken place much before the end of Elizabeth's reign. "Finishing" seems to have hung fire even then, for at his death in 1638 Sir John left 100 marks for this purpose."¹⁰

     In 1593 the College of Heralds granted Thomas the following coat of arms: Argent, a cross raguly gules, motto: "In Cruce Salus." In other words, a red cross of the "raguly" type is on a silver shield.⁷ The motto loosely translated is "In the Cross there is Salvation." Full description of the Arms: Argent, a cross ragulée gules, on a chief azure three leopard's heads or; an escucheon of Ulster. Crest: A demi-turbot, tail upwards, gules.

     The Lawrence Chapel at Chelsea is to the north of the chancel, and the monument of Thomas Laurence is affixed upon its north wall. It exhibits within two arched recesses kneeling effigies of the citizen and his wife, with three sons behind him, and behind her six daughters, besides two babes in swaddling-clothes laid on a cushion before their mother. Above the cornice are three shields of arms; the personal coat of the deceased in the centre, between those of the Merchant Adventurers and the Goldsmiths. This first is Argent, a cross raguly gules, on a chief azure three leopard's heads or. On another shield, placed behind the middle pillar on the monument, is the same coat impaling, 1 and 4. Per pale [az.] and [gu.] (tinctues gone), over all a saltire or, for Cage; 2 and 3 A swan flying for Dale. The inscription is as follows:

     The yeares wherin I livd ware fifty-fowre,
     October twenty-eyght did end my live,
     Children five of eleven God left in store,
     Sole confort of theyr mother & my wife.
     The world cn say what I have bin before,
     What I am now examples still are rife,
     Thus Thomas Larrance spekes to tymes ensving,
     Than Death is sure & Tyme is past renuing.¹¹

     Abstract of will of Thomas Lawrence:

Thomas Laurence, citizen and goldsmith of London -- his wife Martha. To the poor of Chesey parish. To his executors 400£ to be employed by them in "the finishing of the buildings which are in hand at Iver, in the county of Bucks." To my sister-in-law Katherine Cage, wife of Mr. John Cage. To my sister Lowton's children. To my sister Heades children. Cousin Joice Jackson. Executors his wife and son Thomas. Overseers, brother-in-law Mr. John Cage of London, salter, and John Taylor of London, mercer. Real property in Bucks, Chelsea, and London. To his wife his house at Chelsey, with all the grounds, archardes, gardens, &c; over to his son Thomas in tail; over to his son John in tail. Daughters Blanch, Martha, and Sara. Proved at Hadleighe, co. Middx Nov. 1593.¹¹

     Martha Cage was born on 10 October 1553.¹ She married first Thomas Lawrence, son of Thomas Lawrence, on 22 July 1572 in All Hallows Honey Lane.^2,1 She married second John Bromley after 1593.³

     Thomas Lawrence was baptized on 5 September 1573.^1,2,3 Sir Thomas, Knight of Chelsea, died without issue, probably before his father in 1793.⁴

     Thomas was also known as [Sir] Thomas Lawrence.

     John Lawrence was baptized on 1 December 1588 in England.^1,2 He married Grissell Gibbons, daughter of Gervas Gibbon and Grisilde Roberts, in 1609 in England.^1,2 John died on 12 November 1638 in England at age 49.¹ He was interred on 14 November 1638 in Chelsea Church in Chelsea, Middlesex, England.¹

     John was also known as [Sir] John Lawrence Baronet.

     John Lawrence, Esq., was from Delaford in Iver, Buckinghamshire and Chesea, Middlesex.³ Hugh Buckner Johnston in his Lawrence Family manuscript relates the following concering Sir John Lawrence:

     "Sir John Lawrence, Knight and Baronet, was a wealthy merchant of London. He purchased on share of stock in the Virginia Company in Virginia on June 23, 1620, a fact that may entitle his descendants to membership in the Order of the First Families of Virginia. In June 1632, Sir John Lawrence, "Adventurer", and others, recorded their plans to transport three hundred colonists for agriculture, mining, etc., to Long Isle, about one hundred fifty miles north of Jamestown. On August 24, 1635, he was party to a suit in the High Court of Admiralty in London, and his kinsman and factor, Richard Bennett, testified concerning goods sent to Virginia on the ship Revenge."⁴

     He entered Oxford (St. John's College) 27 May 1603 at age 14. He received a B. A. from Oriel College on 29 October 1604 and a M. A. from St. Edm Hall on 7 July 1615. John was knighted at Royston 26 January 1609/10 and was made a baronet on 9 October 1628.¹

     On a large tablet of black marble, affixed to the east wall:

     Sacred to the memory
     of S^r. John Lavrence late of Iver in y^e covnty
     of Bvcks Knight and Baronet who married Grissill
     davghter & co-heire of Gervase Gibbon of Benenden
     in the county of Kent Esq. by whom he had issve
     seven sons and fovre daughters Hee deceased the
     xii^th of Novemb^r. 1638. aged 50 years

     What bad men dy & tvrn to their last sleepe
     What stir the poets and engravers keepe
     By a fained skill, to pile them vp a name
     With termes of Good & Just ovt lasting fame.
     Alas poor men, svch most have neede of stone
     And Epitaphs, the Good ( indeed ) lack none
     Theire owne trve worth's enovgh to give a glory
     Vnto th' uncankerd record of theire story.
     Such wass the Man lyes heere yet doth pertake
     Of verse and stone bvt tis for fashion sake.

     Arms: Argent, a cross raguly gules, on a chief azure three leopard's heads or; on a scutcheion of pretence the arms of Ulster; impaling Sable, a lion ramp. between three escallops or. (Gibbon)⁵

     "In 1637, Margaret, Countess of Nottingham; Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire; Edward, Lord Gorges; sir John Danvers and Sir John Lawrence, with others protested against the amount levied on Chelsea (it being at a rate four times greater than that of other taxes), but took care to state their complaint was only against the amount, and not against the tax itself. The Sheriffs replied that the unusual rate was "in respect of persons of honour and quality who had summer houses there, but land and property elsewhere." In the following year (1638), Sir John Lawrence, Nicholas harman, and Sir John Abeale drew up another partition, stating that, by appointment of the High Constable, they had lately made a 'ratement' for ship-money, according to every man's estate. They had rated themselves and som few others at a higher proportion, in order to spare the minister and some of the weak estate. The Sheriffs, however, who were strangers to the place, at the instigation of some 'factious spirits,' had struck out the names of these abatements upon the petitioners, the Countess of Devon and Sir John Fearne. They prayed that the first rate might be confirmed, but with what sucess is not recorded."⁶

     John made a will on 19 October 1638. His will reads as follows:

I, Sir John Lawrence of Delefords and Iver, Bucks Kt. and Bt., desire to be buried in my Chapel at Chelsea. All my interest in the Parsonage of Dorking, Surrey, which I, with my brother-in-law Richard Colville, purchased of Richard Hollman, to my sister Martha Jackson, widow, and she be dead at my decease same to her daughter Martha. 300 pounds to my oldest daughter, Ann Lawrence; 200 pounds to my second daughter Frances Lawrence; bequests to servants; all my interest in 7010 pounds which long since I recovered my judgement of Anne Babington, executrix of Vry Babington, dec., in H. M. Court of Exchequer due me from the estate of Robert Bromley, dec. Of what can be recovered 1/2 to my eldest son John Lawrence and the other moiety to my younger children. 100 marks towards the finishing of my house at Iver. Rest of personal estate to my younger children, Anne, Robert, Frances, Grissell, and Henry, those age 21 to be paid soon as possible and the others to be paid at 21 or marriage. All portions of my younger children to amount to 900 pounds apiece and all my houses and land at Chelsea to provide this. * * * The settling of wife's estate has cost me more at this date than double the value of her inheritance, were it to be sold. The legacies of 5000 pounds which I have given her younger children is more than double the value of her estate after her decease. Wife Dame Grissell to sole extrx. provide she shall settle within 12 months after my death all her estate in lands and tenements on her eldest son John Lawrence and heirs male and in default of same to son Robert Lawrence, etc. Witnesses Pugh Flood, clarke; Samuel Forest, John Hynde, Martha Jackson, Rice Thomas.⁷

The reference "all my interest in 7010 pounds which long since I recovered my judgement of Anne Babington, executrix of Vry Babington, dec., in H. M. Court of Exchequer due me from the estate of Robert Bromley, dec." refers to the heirs of the estate of John Bromley whom Sir John Lawrence's mother, Martha Cage, married after the death of Sir John's father, Sir Thomas Lawrence.

     His will was probated on 21 January 1638/39.

     Elizabeth Lawrence was baptized on 14 December 1589.¹

     Martha Lawrence was baptized on 1 March 1583.¹ She married William Jackson [Esq.] in 1601.^2,3,1

     Henry Lawrence was baptized on 5 January 1577.¹