Lawrence, Robert

  General Notes:

Robert, was a silversmith and worked for the resident Lord
of Lancaster Castle. Lancaster Castle, built on the remains of three
Roman forts, was first established in about the year 1100 A.D.
Today it serves as a prison for Britain.

The first individual of this name who lived in England , yet ascertained, Lawrence , The monk. Collier, in his Dictionary, has the name Laurentius. In Harris's " History of Kent," it is Lawrence . Hecame from Italy with Austin, who was sent to Britain for The propagation of Christianity in the island.
Upon the death of Austin, he succeeded him to the Arzhbishopric of Canterbury. He is said to have been both learned and pious; and, at his death, was buried in the Abbey of St. Austins, A.D. 916. Also, " He beareth Ermine, a cross raguled gules, by the name of Lawrence , of Lancashire." "Raguled" is a term used " to have been rudely lopped."
Proceeding with the successive generation of ancestry, we have, in order of time, the first,--------Sir Robert Lawrence , of Ashton Hall.

I am familiar with this lineage, thru the 8th generation. My wife & I
spent a great deal of time in SLC researching the Lawrence family.
Unfortunately, professional genealogists have debunked the whole thing (at
least to the 8th generation here). They say that it was a forgery. It
comes from an 1869 genealogy by John Lawrence , and also a book by H.G.
Somersby, who is accused by current professionals as having deliberately
written phony genealogies for wealthy clients. One later generation shows
John Lawrence marrying Mary de Welles. I found no proof of the existence
of Mary de Welles. I looked in some of the "Complete Peerage" volumes.
Mary de Welles supposedly was a dau of Margaret de Mowbray. Gary Boyd
Roberts told me that the Lawrence s had no Mowbray descent. He is the
foremost expert on the Mowbrays. Professionals also say that our "Sir
Robert Lawrence of Ashton Hall" is purely fictional. There are
fairly-recent articles that deal with this problem. David L. Green,
publisher of "The American Genealogist" is working on a article about the
Lawrence family, & it will be published (in the NYGBR) hopefully within the
next year. The Lawrence line does have a royal descent (going back to Louis
IV, King of France) - see Gary Boyd Roberts' book "Royal Descents of 500
Colonists". Sorry to have to tell you all this. It was a great
disappointment for us, after all the work we had done. Dennis
"Dennis Lorensen" <lorensen@mato.com>

Robert married.