The first three generations of Lawrences and their connections with Tarbells, Holdens, and Morses are highly complex, with several Johns, Hannahs, and other common names in each generation, and with multiple marriages. The information provided here may not be entirely correct.

This treatment of the immigrant John Lawrence and his descendants follows Bond’s Watertown238, but I have rejected Bond’s Appendix III on John Lawrence’s ancestry. This appendix was based on the work of Horatio B. Somerby and is now regarded as spurious (Moriarty in TAG, Oct. 1933; TAG July 1942; not seen).

According to Bond239 (with square brackets in the original), John Lawrence “settled in Watertown, probably in 1635, as his eldest child was born there, Mar. 14, 1635-6. His name is on the earliest list of proprietors extant, and he was adm. freeman Ap. 17, 1637. The date of his arrival in America has not been ascertained, nor is it known whether he was married before or after his arrival. Nothing has yet been ascertained from American records or archives, with respect to his parentage or ancestry. It has been supposed that he was the John Lawrence [[a footnote on some of the passengers of the Planter appears here]] of great St. Albans, Hertfordshire, who embarked in the Planter, for New England, in 1635, then aged 17 years. This is evidently a mistake, as the passenger in the Planter was only 19 years old when John Lawrence, of Watertown, was admitted freeman.

“By his first wife, ELIZABETH, he had 12 children, all born between his settlement in Watertown, and his removal to Groton, whither he moved in the autumn of 1662. His wife, Elizabeth, d. there the next summer, Aug. 29, 1663, and he m. (2d), Nov. 2, 1664, SUSANNAH BATCHELDER, dr. of William Batchelder, of Charlestown. He d. July 11, 1667, and his wid. Susanna d. July 8, 1668. His Will, dated Ap. 24, proved Oct. 1, 1667, appoints his wife, and sons Nathaniel and Joseph, ex’rs; mentions sons Enoch, Samuel, Isaac, Jonathan, and Zechariah; of the three at home, Elizabeth ‘to live with Mr. Ensigne Buss, of Concord, till of age; the other two, Enoch and Zechariah, be trust to Samuel Willard and William Lakin, till of age.’ To his dr. Mary he gave only half a portion with the rest, ‘to teach her a remembrance of her disobedience and unfaithfulness to me in my distress.’ [She had married two days before the decease of her mother.] Inventory, £278 0s. 4d. House and 10 acres of land, from the street to the hill, taking an equal breadth, apprized at £60. The Will of his wid. Susanna, dated at Charlestown, July, proved Dec. 16, 1668, mentions her two daughters, Abigail and Susanna; her father and mother Bachelder; two sisters, Rachel Atwood and Abigail Asting; her father Bachelder, and brother Atwood, of Malden, ex’rs.

“The date of his removal to Groton is determined with sufficient precision by the following facts. Oct. 23, 1662, he sold land in Watertown to John Barnard. Oct. 27, 1662, he sold another lot to William Page, and on the same day another lot to Joseph Underwood, and on the same day he sold to John Biscoe his homestead in Watertown, a dwelling-house, &c., and about thirteen acres, ‘being the now mansion-house of said John Lawrence,’ bounded on the E. by the highway; N. by Timothy Hawkins and John Hammond; W. by the meadow of said Biscoe; S. by land of John Flemming, deceased; wid. Dix, and her sonne; wid. Bartlett, and said Biscoe. In Dec. 1662, ‘meet men were found amongst the inhabitants [of Groton], when Dea. James Parker, John Lawrence, William Martin, Richard Blood, and James Fiske, were chosen selectmen’ [Butler, p. 17]. His early admission as freeman, and this election to the first board of selectmen of Groton, show that he was well known, and of good repute. According to the list of possessions in Watertown in 1642, he then owned 7 lots, amounting to 154 1/2 acres. In legal instruments he was designated a carpenter, although, from the amount of his land, it might be presumed that he was chiefly devoted to agriculture. The birth [[p. 820]] of his dr. Elizabeth is recorded in Boston, and as no births of his family are recorded in Wat., from 1649 until 1659, perhaps he resided in Boston for several years, in the exercise of his trade.” A record of his children follows.