Abraham Riker Lawrence

Abraham was born in New York City on September 19, 1832 and was the namesake of his paternal uncle, Abraham Riker Lawrence, a merchant.{{cite book |title=Genealogical Record of the Saint Nicholas Society: Advanced Sheets, First Series |date=1902 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |pages=90–91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6Q-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA90 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Kert |first1=Faye |title=Privateering: Patriots and Profits in the War of 1812 |date=2015 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9781421417479 |page=126 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RQ0CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}} He was one of eleven children born to John L. Lawrence (1785–1849) and Sarah Augusta, née Smith, Lawrence (1794–1877). Among his siblings was Ann Middleton, née Lawrence, Suydam, who married John Richard Suydam, a merchant and "gentleman well-known in New-York society for his genial and hospitably qualities" (parents of Jane Mesier Suydam),{{cite news|title=JOHN R. SUYDAM|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1882/05/16/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html|accessdate=22 May 2018|work=The New York Times|date=May 16, 1882|language=en}} Richard Montgomery Lawrence; and Charles William Lawrence.

His father was a New York State Senator, Comptroller of New York City and diplomat, who served as chargé d'Affaires at Stockholm during the absence of U.S. Minister to Sweden Jonathan Russell.

His paternal grandparents were Jonathan Lawrence, a merchant and New York State Senator, and Ruth (née Riker) Lawrence, a member of the Riker family, for whom Rikers Island is named.{{cite book |last1=Schechter |first1=Stephen L. |last2=Tripp |first2=Wendell Edward |last3=Burke |first3=Thomas E. |title=World of the Founders: New York Communities in the Federal Period |date=1990 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780945660026 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VPI0HGC-mbgC&pg=PA67 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}} Among his extended family were uncles, Congressmen Samuel Lawrence and William T. Lawrence, as well as William Beach Lawrence, the Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island, and Brigadier General Albert G. Lawrence.

He was also a direct descendant of Capt. James Lawrence, a hero of the War of 1812, and Maj. Thomas Lawrence of the British Army who received a land grant in what became Queens in 1656. His maternal grandparents were Elizabeth (née Woodhull) Smith, daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull, and General John Tangier Smith, a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from New York.

Lawrence was educated at private schools and then attended and graduated from Ballston Spa Law School in Ballston Spa, New York.

After being admitted to the bar in 1853, he was appointed and served as Assistant Corporation Counsel of New York City from 1853 to 1856 and from 1857 to 1858. In 1859, Lawrence wrote Compilation of the Tax Laws of the State of New York, with notes of Cases.{{cite book |last1=Library |first1=Astor |title=Catalogue of the Astor Library |date=1887 |publisher=Printed at the Riverside Press |page=2142 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkPQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2142 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}}

In 1867, he was a member of the Constitutional Convention. In 1870, he was one of the founders of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, serving as vice-president in 1905 and 1906.

In 1870, he was a leading member of Apollo Hall, a Democratic reform movement founded by New York State Senator James O'Brien as a response to the corruption of Boss Tweed controlled Tammany Hall.{{cite news |title=O'BRIEN TRIUMPHANT.; Grand Mass-Meeting and Torch-light Procession Last Evening Apollo Hall and its Surroundings Ablaze with Light and Enthusiasm Speeches by Samuel J. Tilden, S.G. Courtney, Abraham B. Lawrence, Theodore E. Tomlinson and Others. New-Jersey Politics. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1871/10/29/82022125.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=29 October 1871}}

In 1872, Lawrence, then a lawyer doing business at 25 Nassau Street, was selected by both Tammany Hall, even though he had been a vocal opponent of Tammany,{{cite news |title=THE TAMMANY CONVENTION.; Abraham R. Lawrence the Probable Candidate for Mayor--A Committee of Twenty-One Appointed to Confer With the Reform Organizations. The Tammany Committee. The Marshal's Office--Preparing for the Election. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/10/08/105197909.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=8 October 1872}} and the Greeleyites, as the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City against the O'Brien, the Apollo candidate, and William Frederick Havemeyer, the Republican candidate.{{cite news |title=TAMMANY NOMINATES.; Abraham R. Lawrence for Mayor What They Did Adout It And what Else They Did. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/10/12/79199128.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=12 October 1872}}{{cite news |title=TO-MORROW'S CONTEST.; The Greeley Democracy's Bargain With Apollo Hall. Republicans, Vote for Wm. F. Havemeyer for Mayor. Importance of Personal Effort in the Canvass. Reform Candidates for Congress and the Assembly. Remember, To-morrow is a Legal Holiday. Another Greeley Intrigue. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/11/04/79024385.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=4 November 1872}} Lawrence came in second place, losing to Havemeyer,{{cite news |title=THE CITY VOTE.; Complete Success of the Republican County Ticket. Havemeyer and Phelps Certainly Elected. A Scheme Concocted to Defeat Them by Fraud. Full Returns of the New-York and Brooklyn Canvass. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1872/11/07/82732132.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 November 1872}} in what became Havemeyer's third non-consecutive term as mayor.

In 1873, he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of New York. He was reelected in 1887 and served on the bench for twenty-eight years until December 31, 1901. After his retirement, a dinner was given in his honor at Delmonico's and hosted by John Edward Parsons, president of the Bar Association.{{cite news |title=Deal to Consolidate Ice Companies.; Dinner in Honor of Judge Lawrence. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1902/01/09/101928384.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=9 January 1902}} From 1911 until his death, he served as the official Referee of the Supreme Court.

Lawrence was a member of the Union Club, the Century Club and the Manhattan Club. In addition to membership in the Society of Colonial Wars, serving as Chancellor in 1895, and the American Rifle Association, he served two terms as president the 25th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York from 1882 to 1883, succeeding Edward Floyd DeLancey.{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Florence Evelyn Pratt |author2-link=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |last2=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |title=Portraits of the Presidents of The Society, 1835-1914. |date=1914 |publisher=Order of the Society |location=New York, NY |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hx4mm9;view=1up;seq=55 |accessdate=12 April 2019}} He previously served as fourth vice-president in 1878, second vice-president in 1879, and first vice-president from 1880 to 1881.{{cite book |title=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: Organized February 28, 1835, Incorporated April 17, 1841 ... |date=1923 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |pages=170–174 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7fF_Y5mrN0C&pg=PA170 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}}

In 1860, Lawrence was married to Elizabeth "Eliza" Williams Miner (1838–1915).{{cite news |title=LAWRENCE |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/07/01/301811102.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=1 July 1915}} Eliza was the only daughter of Dr. William Miner and Julia Caroline (née Williams) Miner. Together, Eliza and Abraham were the parents of:{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Lawrence Buckley |title=The Thomas Book: Giving the Genealogies of Sir Rhys Ap Thomas, K. G., the Thomas Family Descended from Him, and of Some Allied Families |date=1896 |publisher=H. T. Thomas Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/thomasbookgivin00thomgoog/page/n507 411] |url=https://archive.org/details/thomasbookgivin00thomgoog |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}}

• William Miner Lawrence (1861–1935),{{cite news |title=W. M. LAWRENCE DIES; HELD CITY HALL POSTS; Assistant Secretary and Chief Clerk of Estimate Board Under Three Mayors. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/11/25/98538827.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=25 November 1935}} a member of the New York State Assembly in 1891 who married Lavinia Oliver (1869–1916).
• Ruth Woodhull Lawrence (1866–1956), who did not marry and who was a founder of the National Society of Colonial Dames in New York in 1893.{{cite book |title=Register of the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York |date=1901 |publisher=The Society of Colonial Dames |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWUUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA44 |accessdate=17 April 2019 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=RUTH LAWRENCE OF PATRIOTIC UNIT; Founder of Colonial Dames Society, a Descendant of War Heroes, Dies at 90 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/06/16/86615608.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=16 June 1956}}

Lawrence died at his home, 69 Washington Place in New York City, on February 14, 1917.{{cite news |title=A. RIKER LAWRENCE, EX-JUSTICE, IS DEAD; Jurist of New York Supreme Court for 28 Years Expires in His Eighty-fifth Year. ONCE NOMINEE FOR MAYOR Author of Legal Works Was Twice the President of the St. Nicholas Society. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/02/15/118135430.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=15 February 1917}} He was buried at the Lawrence Family Cemetery, on 20th Road and 35th Street, in Astoria, Queens.{{cite news|last1=Lippincott|first1=E. E.|title=NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: ASTORIA; An Aging Custodian Worries About a Historic Cemetery|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/17/nyregion/neighborhood-report-astoria-an-aging-custodian-worries-about-a-historic-cemetery.html|accessdate=19 February 2018|work=The New York Times|date=17 September 2000}}

Through his son William, he was the grandfather of Oliver P. Lawrence (1892–1975), a U.S. Navy veteran, Clement Lawrence, who died young, and Ruth Lawrence (1902–1992), who married Stuart M. Briggs, son of G. Loring Briggs, in 1926.{{cite news |title=EDYTHE A. PARSONS WEDS VINCENT RICH; Bridegroom's Father Performs Ceremony in the Church of the Transfiguration. RUTH L. LAWRENCE BRIDE Wed to Stuart M. Brlggs by the Rev. W. B. Kinkaid in Old Trinity--Other Marriages. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/10/24/98400044.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=24 October 1926}} Ruth, who graduated from Wellesley College in 1925, was one of only five non-family members to inherit from Hetty Green, through her mentorship relationship with Green's son, Edward Howland Robinson Green.{{cite news|title=HETTY GREEN'S WILL IS READ IN COURT; Document Admitted to Probate Without Contest at Her Old Home in Bellows Falls. SON GIVES $50,000 BOND Full Text of Will Gives No Hint of Value of Estate and Reveals No Charity Bequests. HETTY GREEN'S WILL IS READ IN COURT |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1916/07/23/104237487.pdf |accessdate=17 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=23 July 1916}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{find a Grave|69566688}}
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-ac5c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 A. R. (Abraham Riker) Lawrence, 1832-1917.] at the New York Public Library.

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Category:1832 births

Category:1917 deaths

Category:Woodhull family

Category:State and National Law School alumni

Category:Lawyers from New York City

Category:19th-century New York state court judges

Category:New York Supreme Court justices

Category:Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York