Nicholas Lawes
{{Short description|British judge and colonial administrator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use Jamaican English|date=August 2012}}
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| honorific_prefix = Sir
| name = Nicholas Lawes
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| birth_date = 1652
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| death_date = 18 June 1731 (aged 78–79)
| death_place = Jamaica
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| nationality = English
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| occupation = Governor of Jamaica 1718–1722
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Sir Nicholas Lawes ({{circa|1652}} – 18 June 1731) was a British judge and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Jamaica from 1718 to 1722.
Early life
Nicholas Lawes was born {{circa|1652}} to Nicholas and Amy Lawes. He was a British knight.
Governor of Jamaica
He was Chief Justice of Jamaica from 1698 to 1703 and Governor from 1718 to 1722.{{cite book|title= Historic Jamaica : With fifty-two illustrations|year = 1915|url = https://archive.org/stream/cu31924020417527/cu31924020417527_djvu.txt}}
In his capacity as Governor during the Golden Age of Piracy he hunted down or tried many pirates, among them John Massey, John Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Robert Deal,{{cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Baylus C.|title=Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World|date=2017|publisher=Lulu Press, Inc|location=Raleigh NC|isbn=9781365795923|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R39dDgAAQBAJ|language=en}} Joseph Thompson,{{cite book|last1=Headlam|first1=Cecil|title=America and West Indies: January 1719 {{!}} British History Online|date=1933|publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office|location=London|pages=1–21|edition=January 1719|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol31/pp1-21|accessdate=28 July 2017|language=en}} Nicholas Brown, and Charles Vane. He signed an arrangement with Jeremy, king of the Miskito, to bring some of his followers over to Jamaica to hunt down runaway slaves and Jamaican Maroons in 1720.Michael Olien, "The Miskito Kings and the Line of Succession," Journal of Anthropological Research 39 (1983),
Family
Lawes married five widows in succession. No children survived from the first three marriages.
James and Temple Lawes were the sons of his fourth wife Susannah Temple whom he married in 1698. She had previously been married to Samuel Bernard. Her father, Thomas Temple, is said to have given Lawes his Temple Hall, Jamaica estate as a dowry.{{cite book|last=Sibley|first=Inez Knibb|title=Dictionary of Place 1st in Jamaica|year=1978|publisher=Institute of Jamaica|location=Kingston, Jamaica|pages=196}}
Lawes later married Elizabeth Lawley (1690-1725), widow of Thomas Cotton, and daughter of Sir Thomas Lawley, 3rd Baronet and his first wife Rebecca Winch, daughter of Sir Humphrey Winch, 1st Baronet. Their youngest surviving daughter, Judith Maria Lawes, married Simon Luttrell, 1st Earl of Carhampton and so became both wife and mother of the Earls of Carhampton and mother of Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn.
Coffee and printing
At Temple Hall Lawes experimented with a variety of crops and introduced the very lucrative coffee growing into the island in 1721 according to some sources{{cite web | url=http://www.discoverjamaica.com/gleaner/discover/geography/history2.htm | title=Jamaican History 2 / 1692-1782 / Foundation of Kingston to the Battle of the Saints | publisher=Gleaner Company | accessdate=13 August 2012 }} or 1728 according to others.{{cite web|title=Kingston & St. Andrew Economy|url=http://www.jis.gov.jm/ja50/v2/profiles-kingston-st-andrew/kingston-st-andrew-economy/|publisher=Jamaica Information Service|accessdate=5 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214142514/http://www.jis.gov.jm/ja50/v2/profiles-kingston-st-andrew/kingston-st-andrew-economy/|archive-date=14 December 2012|url-status=dead}}
He is also credited with setting up the first printing press in Jamaica.{{cite web|last=Powers|first=Anne|title=The Queen of Hell in Portman Square|url=http://aparcelofribbons.co.uk/tag/sir-nicholas-lawes/|work=A Parcel of Ribbons|accessdate=5 December 2012|date=17 March 2012}}
Death
He died on 18 June 1731 in Jamaica.
References
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{{succession box
| before=Peter Heywood
| title=Governor of Jamaica | years=1718–1722
| after=The Duke of Portland
}}
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{{Authority control}}
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Category:Chief justices of Jamaica
Category:Colony of Jamaica judges
Category:People involved in anti-piracy efforts
Category:18th-century Jamaican judges
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