James Lawrence

Lawrence was born on October 1, 1781, the son of John and Martha (Tallman) Lawrence, in Burlington, New Jersey, but raised in Woodbury. His mother died when he was an infant, and his Loyalist father fled to Canada during the American Revolution, leaving his half-sister to care for the young Lawrence. He attended Woodbury Academy.{{cite book |last=Dickon |first=Chris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ANN2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT50 |title=The Enduring Journey of the USS Chesapeake: Navigating the Common History of Three Nations |page=50 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=9781625843791 |access-date=July 7, 2020 |quote=By the age of twelve, James Lawrence knew that he wanted to go to sea. His father wanted him to go to law school, however, and so he set out on that course, starting at Woodbury Academy, which Stephen Decatur Jr. had previously attended.}} Though Lawrence studied law, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1798. Lawrence hailed from a New England family of English descent, as his first ancestor to the American Colonies was William Lawrence, sailing from Hertfordshire, England. {{cite book |title=The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries: History of the New Jersey Coast with Genealogical and Historic-biographical Appendix, Volume 2 |publisher=Unknown |date=1902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUsVAAAAYAAJ&q=Hertfordshire,%20England%20William%20Lawrence |page=205 }}

During the Quasi-War with France, he served on {{USS|Ganges|1794|6}} and the frigate {{USS|Adams|1799|6}} in the Caribbean. He was commissioned a lieutenant on April 6, 1802, and served aboard {{USS|Enterprise|1799|6}} in the Mediterranean, taking part in a successful attack on enemy craft on June 2, 1803.

In February 1804, he was second in command during the expedition to destroy the captured frigate {{USS|Philadelphia|1799|6}}. Later in the conflict he commanded Enterprise and a gunboat in battles with the Tripolitans. He was also First Lieutenant of the frigate Adams and, in 1805, commanded the small Gunboat No. 6 during a voyage across the Atlantic to North Africa.

Although Gunboats No. 2 through 10 (minus No. 7) arrived in the Mediterranean too late to see action, they remained there with Commodore Rodgers's squadron until summer 1806, at which time they sailed back to the United States. On June 12, 1805, Gunboat No. 6 encountered a Royal Navy vessel that impressed three seamen.Smith (1995), pp. 95–86.Tucker (1993), pp. 77–9.

Subsequently, Lieutenant Lawrence commanded the warships {{USS|Vixen|1803|6}}, {{USS|Wasp|1807|6}} and {{USS|Argus|1803|6}}. In 1810, he also took part in trials of an experimental spar torpedo.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.169402/page/n96/mode/1up |title=James Lawrence: Captain, United States Navy |first=Albert |last=Gleaves |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |pages=74–75 |date=1904 |access-date=2024-06-13 |via=Internet Archive}} Promoted to the rank of Master Commandant in November 1810, he took command of the sloop of war {{USS|Hornet|1805 brig|6}} a year later and sailed her to Europe on a diplomatic mission. From the beginning of the War of 1812, Lawrence and Hornet cruised actively, capturing the privateer Dolphin in July 1812. Later in the year Hornet blockaded the British sloop {{HMS|Bonne Citoyenne}} at Bahia, Brazil, and on February 24, 1813 captured {{HMS|Peacock|1806|6}}.

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File:DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP flag.svg ]]

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Upon his return to the United States in March, Lawrence learned of his promotion to captain. Two months later he took command of the frigate Chesapeake, then preparing for sea at Boston. He left port on June 1, 1813, and immediately engaged the blockading Royal Navy frigate Shannon in a fierce battle. Although slightly smaller, the British ship disabled Chesapeake with gunfire within the first few minutes. Captain Lawrence, mortally wounded by small arms fire, ordered his officers, "Don't give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks."{{cite book |last=Crocker III |first=H. W. |title=Don't Tread on Me |publisher=Crown Forum |year=2006 |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4000-5363-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/donttreadonme40000croc/page/98 98] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/donttreadonme40000croc/page/98}} or "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship." Men carried him below, and his crew was overwhelmed by a British boarding party shortly afterward. James Lawrence died of his wounds on June 4, 1813, while his captors directed Chesapeake to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After Lawrence's death was reported to his friend and fellow officer Oliver Hazard Perry, he ordered a large blue battle ensign, stitched with the phrase "DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP" {{sic}} in bold white letters. The Perry Flag was displayed on his flagship during a victorious engagement against the British on Lake Erie in September 1813. The original flag is displayed in the Naval Academy Museum and a replica is displayed in Memorial Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. A replica is also on view at Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial, on South Bass Island, Ohio.

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Lawrence was buried with military honors at present-day CFB Halifax, Nova Scotia, but reinterred at Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City. He was survived by his wife, Julia (Montaudevert) Lawrence, who lived until 1865, and their two-year-old daughter, Mary Neill Lawrence. In 1838 Mary married a Navy officer, Lt. William Preston Griffin.

On July 4, 1813, Lawrence was posthumously elected to membership in the New York Society of the Cincinnati.{{cite web |url=http://www.nycincinnati.org/HonoraryMembers.htm |title=About HONORARY MEMBERS |publisher=The New York State Society of the Cincinnati |year=2015 |access-date=July 7, 2020}}

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He was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21880 J. F. Loubat, LL.D. (1831–1927), Jaquemart, Jules Fredinand (1837–1880), illustrator. (1888) THE MEDALLIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1776–1876. Volume II] Project Gutenberg or [https://archive.org/stream/medallichistoryo02loub/medallichistoryo02loub_djvu.txt here for text] at Internet archive. and the Thanks of Congress.

Many places are named for Captain Lawrence, including:

• Lawrence, Indiana{{cite web |url=https://www.cityoflawrence.org/history |title=City History |publisher=City of Lawrence, IN |access-date=July 7, 2020}}
• Lawrence County, Alabama
• Lawrence County, Arkansas{{cite book |last=Hempstead |first=Fay |title=A Pictorial History of Arkansas: From Earliest Times to the Year 1890 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OFD_49lddgAC&pg=PA833 |year=1890 |publisher=Southern Historical Press |page=833|isbn=9780893080747 }}
• Lawrence County, Illinois
• Lawrence County, Indiana
• Lawrence County, Kentucky{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ |title=The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society |volume=1 |publisher=Kentucky State Historical Society |year=1903 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ/page/n35 35]}}
• Lawrence County, Missouri
• Lawrence County, Mississippi
• Lawrence County, Ohio
• Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (Indirectly, as this county is named in honor of the sacrifices of the {{USS|Lawrence|1813}}, a namesake of Captain Lawrence.)
• Lawrence County, Tennessee
• Lawrence Park Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania
• Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
• Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
• Lawrenceville, Georgia{{cite book |url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/l.pdf |title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins |publisher=Winship Press |last=Krakow |first=Kenneth K. |year=1975 |location=Macon, GA |page=130 |isbn=0-915430-00-2}}
• Lawrenceville, Illinois
• Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Also home to the prestigious Lawrenceville School
• Lawrenceville, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh PA.
• Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, a borough in Tioga County.
• Lawrence Township, Marion County, Indiana and the municipality of Lawrence, Indiana contained therein.
• Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey and its Lawrenceville neighborhood.
• Captain Lawrence Drive in South Salem, NY, from which the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company of nearby Pleasantville takes its name.
• Lawrence Street in Montgomery, Alabama is named in honor of Lawrence. It runs parallel to streets named after other Barbary War/War of 1812 naval heroes: McDonough Street, named for Thomas Macdonough; Perry Street, named for Oliver Hazard Perry; Decatur Street, named for Stephen Decatur; Hull Street, named for Isaac Hull and Bainbridge Street, named in honor of William Bainbridge.
• Lawrence Avenue in Norman, Oklahoma is named in honor of Lawrence.

His birthplace of Burlington, New Jersey, has a Captain James Lawrence Elementary School.{{cite web |title=Captain James Lawrence Elementary School |url=https://cjles.burlington-nj.net/ |website=Burlington-NJ.net |publisher=City of Burlington Public Schools |access-date=June 24, 2019}}

In addition, the U.S. Navy has named five ships {{USS|Lawrence}}.

• The first {{USS|Lawrence|1813}} was a brig which acted as then-Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship during the Battle of Lake Erie until she was destroyed in that action.
• The second {{USS|Lawrence|1843}} was also a brig, serving from 1843–1846.
• The third {{USS|Lawrence|DD-8}} was a 400-ton destroyer, commissioned in 1903 and serving until 1920.
• The fourth {{USS|Lawrence|DD-250}} was a {{sclass|Clemson|destroyer|2}}, serving from 1921 to 1945
• The fifth {{USS|Lawrence|DDG-4}} was a {{sclass|Charles F. Adams|destroyer|2}}. Commissioned in 1962, she served until 1994. This ship was christened by Mrs. Dorothy Redmond Hubbard, Capt. Lawrence's great-great-grand-daughter, who at the time was his oldest living descendant.

• Hunter–Lawrence–Jessup House – Family home in Woodbury

{{reflist}}

:{{DANFS}}

• {{cite book |author-link=Albert Gleaves |last=Gleaves |first=Albert |year=1804 |title=James Lawrence, Captain, United States Navy, Commander of the 'Chesapeake'}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Peter Padfield |last=Padfield |first=Peter |year=1968 |title=Broke and the Shannon}}
• {{cite book |last=Pullen |first=H.F. |title=The Shannon and the Chesapeake |year=1970}}
• Hancock, James R.[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hanser5&id=I05912]
• {{cite book |author-link=Gene A. Smith |last=Smith |first=Gene A. |year=1995 |title="For the Purposes of Defense": The Politics of the Jeffersonian Gunboat Program |location=Newark, DE |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=0-87413-559-1}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Spencer C. Tucker |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |year=1993 |title=The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy |location=Columbia |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-87249-849-5}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Lawrence, James}}
• {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Lawrence, James}}

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Category:1781 births

Category:1813 deaths

Category:American military personnel killed in the War of 1812

Category:American military personnel of the First Barbary War

Category:American people of English descent

Category:United States Navy personnel of the War of 1812

Category:Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery

Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients

Category:Lawrence family

Category:Military personnel from Gloucester County, New Jersey

Category:19th-century American naval officers

Category:People from Woodbury, New Jersey

Category:Woodbury Junior-Senior High School alumni

Category:19th-century American businesspeople