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Literature &
Theology
by post
Jackie Wilson
077 824 77 364
All types of
damp proofing
and wood
preservation
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Tel 07850 574122
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& House Clearance
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Mobile 0775 842 847/8
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Why replace what can be fixed?
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Tel 01228 536 536
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through music
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Contact Tel: 01228 548550
Thomas Lawson
1630 -
Following the persecution of the Catholics in the 16th century, the pendiulum swung
the other way and Dissenters were the object of Government wrath. In particular,
Quakers suffered, and Lancaster gaol was the scene of the sufferings of some from
our part of the country. For one, his conversion to Quakerism, insulted in his becoming
famous in an unexpected sphere'.
Thomas Lawson, born in 1630, and educated at Giggleswick
and Cambridge, followed the usual course of scholars in those days and took Holy
Orders, and became Vicar of Rampside, in Furness. Rampside is not far from Swarthmoor,
the cradle of Quakerism. Thomas met George Fox and was converted. He left the Church
of England, became tutor to Margaret Fell's two daughters at Swarthmoor, and published
several books of a dissenting nature. He was excommulicated, and it is thought that
he was imprisoned at
Lancaster.
The Lord Lonsdale of the time was tolerant of Dissenters,
and he offered Lawson a dwelling in Great Strickland, and helped him to set up a
school. He was a fine teacher and the school prospered, many pupils going to Cambridge
and Oxford.
Thomas Lawson developed (and, doubtless, taught) his interest in plants,
until he became the most noted Northern botanist of his day. In Camden's 'Britannia'
the botanical notes were compiled by John Ray, who commissioned Lawson to report
the flora of Westmorland. Lawson's notebooks are now with the Linnean Society of
London, and it is fascinating to find some of the plants growing in the same spot
today.
Thomas married Frances Wilkinson and they had three children. His descendants
are known to this day and include Prof Brinton Thompson and his present-
A Wilson Flora Of Westmorland
(Arbroath 1938).
LLeweilyn Jewitt Life and Works of Jacob Thompson (London 18