Sarah Lawrence and Gateacre Academies

[charlesgc]

I was very interested to read Joan Borrowscale's piece because I am descended from Sarah Lawrence's brother Nathaniel. He was a Liverpool merchant who brought back an American wife after a trip prolonged by being interned during the war of 1812 - with the Ogden family on the St. Lawrence whose youngest daughter he married.
They both died young & Sarah brought up her small nephews and nieces.
She was an extremely interesting woman whose poems and educational books for children (including an exciting play suitable for a girls' school!) are in the British Library. She also compiled a list of the descendants of her ancestor the Revd Philip Henry, one of the original Nonconformists in 1662 (see ODNB &c).
The Lawrences did not come from Banbury but from Wem in Shropshire and were Presbyterians before Sarah turned Unitarian first under the influence of Priestley in Birmingham and then of William Roscoe, the Liverpool historian, art patron, and anti-slavery campaigner.
Sarah's grandfather, a younger son of a yeoman farmer, moved to Birmingham as a hatter and haberdasher, and set his son Nathaniel up as a wine and spirit merchant. Nathaniel went bankrupt when the Napoleonic Wars started, but fortunately the daughters had been well educated and all became governesses and school teachers (including the eldest Eliza, not mentioned by Joan, who was the only one to marry but died in childbirth - Sarah wrote her life which I've only seen once & can't now trace). The daughters and their widowed mother first started a school in Birmingham; why they moved to Liverpool I haven't discovered, but possibly because of their brother's work there. Eliza was the first principal of the Gateacre academy in 1807 and Sarah took over with some trepidation when her sister married and moved to Dublin in 1809.
Their brother Nathaniel's sons both became solicitors in London; Susan Lawrence the early Labour MP and minister was the daughter of one, and the founders of Roedean school were the daughters of the other.
If Joan or anyone else would like to know more please email me.

[charlesgc]

I should have said that the Lawrence sisters started a school near Liverpool in 1807 - where I don't know - not that the Gateacre academy was that date.

[joan]

Hello - I am Joan Borrowscale. I am sorry you don't agree with what I wrote, but I did a lot of research into it. I think I did not mention Nathaniel, as I was only researching Sarah Lawrence and her Academy!
Sarah Lawrence before coming to Gateacre, taught the children of Dr.Crompton at Eaton Lodge - he was a Unitarian also. She then in about 1830 opened her Academy in 'Higher Grange' which is where Gateacre Grange is now. I have a booklet about the Lawrence sisters and their connection with Roedean, which shows pictures of some of the Lawrence sisters. I also have the Will of Sarah Sarah Lawrence, which is all very interesting. She names some of the Benton family.
There is something you could tell me - what is the connection between the Lawrence and Holland families.
The school which Sarah Lawrence had, was taken over by Sarah Ann Holland, this she remarked on in her Will.
Sarah Lawrence and other members of this family are buried in the Vaults of the Birmingham Independant Chapel, of which I have copies of the Monumental Inscriptions.
If you look inside Gateacre Chapel, you will see a large Monument to the family of Sarah.
Also there is a book in Liverpool library which was given to her friend by Sarah (cannot remember her name offhand) of her poems.
As I said I WAS ONLY RESEARCHING SARAH LAWRENCE AND HER ACADEMY.
Some years ago, I was in touch with a woman in Australia, who was also a relative of Sarah, and she was
trying to find a portrait !
I have not come across a Susan Lawrence in all the documents I have found.
Joan

[joan]

PS I would have thought that Rev. William Shepherd would have had a lot of influence in Sarah Lawrence coming to Gateacre. William Shepherd was Minister at the Chapel for 56 years, and was a friend of most of the Unitarian people in Liverpool - and was also a friend of William Roscoe.
This is well documented. What documents do you have to corroborate your family history ?
Joan

[andrew]

Where in Birmingham is (?was) the "Independant Chapel" please?

[charlesgc]

Dear Joan
I'm so sorry to have been so long in replying - having posted my messages I completely forgot to check the site again until now.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that you hadn't done a lot of work! I was adding other material about Sarah and her family. Sarah's "Descendants of Revd Philip Henry" makes the origins of the Lawrences in Wem, Shropshire, quite clear. There is a pile of family papers in the Bristol Record Office (including her aunt Deborah's will), and a miscellaneous collection of papers of her grandfather Thomas, the Birmingham hatter, in Birmingham Record Office. As I said, I have only once seen the life of her elder sister Eliza which Sarah wrote; it's not in the British Library.

I'm sure you are right that the Revd William Shepherd had an influence in their moving to Gateacre, though the choice of the Liverpool area may be connected with their only brother working there. She also particularly admired William Roscoe, and one of her poems praises him.

The Hollands and the Lawrences were interrelated, with several marriages. But I can't find a Sarah Ann Holland in Sarah Lawrence's family book (which is incredibly difficult to use!) Perhaps she was a cousin of a cousin.

Sarah's great niece Susan Lawrence MP is a good deal later - born 1871.

I must come to Gateacre some time; I have to come to Liverpool in the New Year to try to puzzle out in the Record Office more about Nathaniel's mercantile career . It would be good to meet you. I learnt a lot from your article.

I would love to see Sarah's will.

It's easiest to email me, [e-mail].

compliments of the seaon!

Charles