Engraving after Alonzo Chappel, 1862, Collection of U.S. House of Representatives

LAWRENCE, Abbott, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Groton, Mass., December 16, 1792; attended Groton Academy; became a merchant and importer in Boston; member of the Boston Common Council in 1831; elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1835-March 3, 1837); was not a candidate for renomination in 1836; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1839, to September 18, 1840, when he resigned; appointed a commissioner in 1842 to settle the northeastern boundary dispute between Canada and the United States; delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1844; temporarily appointed by President Taylor to be United States Minister to Great Britain August 20, 1849; reappointed January 4, 1850; confirmed June 24, 1850, and served until October 1852, when he resigned and resumed his former business pursuits in Boston; founded the Lawrence Scientific School in Harvard University; died in Boston, Mass., on August 18, 1855; interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.