The son of Col. William Prescott, also William, was known during his life, which was devoted to the law, as Hon. William Prescott. Here is a brief biography.

 

Hon. William Prescott, painted by Gilbert Stuart

_______________

from the Prescott Memorial, pp.75-76.

 

Hon. William b. at Pepperell, Aug. 19, 1762. In 1776, at the age of fourteen, he was placed under the instruction of “Master Moody,” the then celebrated teacher of Dummer Academy in Newbury, Essex Co., Mass. Here he remained three years, when he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1783, with high honors. His father, partaking largely of that liberality so common among the officers of the Revolutionary army, had accumulated hut a small estate, and young Mr. Prescott found it necessary to be earning something to help him finish his professional education, upon which he was about to enter; accordingly he took charge of an academy at Beverly, where he continued two years, and where he studied his procession, (that of law,) with the Hon. Nathan Dane, an able and learned jurist and statesman. While here he received an invitation to become a member of Gen. Washington’s household, to act as a private teacher while he was prosecuting his legal studies, but. previous engagements compelled him to decline the proffered boon, and his classmate in college, Mr. Tobias Lear, obtained it.

Continue reading →

In the long  list of works by William Hickling Prescott, there is this: the Memoir of the Hon. Abbott Lawrence (available here at the Internet Archive).

It’s an interesting account, not least because it was written by another of our ancestors, but also, only somewhat off topic, because Prescott is the only researcher I know of (and I think, all things equal, he’s a pretty reliable one)  who definitively places Samuel Lawrence at Bunker Hill, in the thick of the fighting.

I think, also, that Uncle Johnny (John Endicott Lawrence, Sr.) must have read this account and really internalized it, as it contains several of the stories he related to me on my visits to him.

At any rate, have a read…

 

_______

.

MEMOIR

HONORABLE ABBOTT LAWRENCE,

PREPARED FOR THE

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY,

by

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, ESQ.

EXTRACTED FROM THE WORK BV PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHERS.

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION.

1856.

.

 

MEMOIR.

 

IN the following pages, we shall endeavor to present a sketch of the life and character of Abbott Lawrence, now that the grave has closed over him, and while his virtues are yet fresh in the memory of his countrymen.

The name of Lawrence is one of the earliest to be found among the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. John Lawrence, the first emigrant of the name, was established in Watertown as early as 1635, and may have come over at the same time with Governor Winthrop. He afterwards removed, with his wife, to Groton, where lie lived to a good old age; leaving, at his death, a numerous family of sons and daughters. From one of the former was descended the subject of the present memoir. His father, Samuel Lawrence, was a soldier of the Revolution. On the breaking out of the war with the mother-country, he was among the first to bear arms; and was one of the little band of heroes who accompanied Colonel Prescott, and fought by his side at the battle of Bunker’s Hill. His regiment was accordingly in the hottest of the action; being stationed at the redoubt, the principal point of attack. It had nearly proved a fatal day to the young soldier, who, besides a wound in the arm, had his hat pierced by a musket-ball, which grazed his temples, and carried off part of the hair. He remained in the army till 1778, filling the post of adjutant under General Sullivan at Rhode Island. He was a man of much firmness of character, of unblemished integrity, and of such frank and open manners as made him popular with his townsmen. He lived till 1827; long enough to receive the best reward of a parent, in witnessing the complete success of his children.

Continue reading →