The following article on Major Samuel Lawrence, written by a great-grandaughter, Miss Emily Seaver of Rutland, Vermont, was printed in "The American Monthly Magazine" Vol. 107-110 for August, 1894.

It is a just tribute to the memory of a Revolutionary hero, and gives an interesting account of certain events in his life. He ended his days at Groton, on November 8, 1827, surrounded by a large family of children whom he lived to see grow up and prosper.

Samuel Lawrence

The following is a brief account of a soldier of the Revolution, written not because he was distinguished or great, but just because he was an example of the spirit and tone of the common people, for the time has passed away forever when History concerned itself only with the heroic deeds of kings and knights and lords, and we realize that we can best understand any great struggle by the record of the popular sentiment: "by the sacrifices the common people were willing to make for it." Samuel Lawrence, farmer, was a true son of the soil, and with "unfailing loyalty he gave all he had to give to the cause of their country's independence."

Samuel Lawrence was the son of Captain Amos Lawrence and descended from John Lawrence, who came over from England about 1630. John settled originally in Watertown near Boston, but afterwards removed to Groton [Mass.] about thirty miles inland, and was one of the original proprietors. Many of his descendants of the 8th generation are still living there. Samuel Lawrence was born April 24, 1754.

He was consequently just twenty-one at the commencement of the War of Independence. The news of the Concord fight reached Groton about ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th of April. Samuel was a corporal in one of the Groton companies of Minute Men and as he was plowing his father's field in the sweet April sunshine, his neighbor, General Oliver Prescott rode up shouting "Samuel, the British are coming: notify your men!"

Leaving the plow and mounting the general's horse, Samuel made a circuit of seven miles, calling on all the men of his company, and returned to his father's house in fifty minutes. The company met at the church, where a brief religious service was held, arms and ammunition were distributed, and at one o'clock the two Groton companies and the Pepperell company were on the road and marched with all possible dispatch to Concord and Lexington. They were, however, too late to take part in the battle and so marched on to Cambridge, where were the headquarters of the American Army, and that night, which marked the commencement of the siege of Boston, the Middlesex companies were on duty guarding the roads which led to the town. And now the militia from far and near flocked to Cambridge.

Most of the farmers, hastening from the fields, brought nothing with them but their guns and the clothes they had on. It was therefore, a welcome sight,, when, as soon as he could collect a wagonload of provisions, Capt. Amos Lawrence drove to the lines with welcome stores for his son and neighbors.

The Middlesex regiment was commissioned May 26 and he was orderly to its commander, Colonel William Prescott. The regiment took an active part in the battle of Bunker Hill. Ensign Lawrence was near Dr. Joseph Warren when he was shot. Capt. Farwell of his company was severely wounded, and he himself received a wound in the arm, while a bullet passed through his hat. Had he been a little taller, it would have passed through his brain.

Ensign, afterwards Adjutant and then Major Samuel Lawrence, remained in the Army for more than three years, his regiment being in active service all the time in Massachusetts and New York where he was on General John Sullivan's staff; in New London and finally at the battle of Rhode Island, during which time he was at home for only two brief furloughs. The first of these was in July, 1777, when the regiment being again in Cambridge, he asked and obtained leave to go home for a few days for the express purpose of marrying Miss Susanna Parker, to whom he had been engaged for more than two years.

The marriage took place at this time in compliance with the advice of Major Lawrence's mother, who said that if anything happened to him, Susan had better be his widow than his forlorn damsel. Not a very cheerful reason for a wedding; nor was the ceremony concluded before the ringing of the bell gave the alarm calling all soldiers to arms.

Hardly were the young couple pronounced man and wife, when they were separated and within an hour the bridegroom was on his march again to Cambridge. The alarm proved to have been unnecessary, and his colonel granted the young soldier leave to return for a few days to provide for his bride's comfortable sojourn in his father's house. He was allowed another short furlough at the end of the year, the regiment being in winter quarters in Rhode Island. In September 1778 immediately after the battle of Rhode Island, the last battle fought on New England soil, Major Lawrence resigned his commission and left the Army, returning home to his native town. Here he lived for nearly fifty years, rearing a large family excercising a boundless hospitatlity (his daughters said they might as well keep a tavern), interested in every undertaking for the growth and welfare of the town, and one of the trustees of the Groton (now Lawrence) Academy.

It is a curious illustration of the way in which his military life was merged in that of a civilian that he was never called "Major" but always "Deacon" Lawrence, having been made a deacon of the church at the age of twenty-nine. The brief romance of his early life seemed to have quite faded with the light of common day, yet not wholly so, for with his Groton comrades he formed a club where the veterans met to recall the stirring events of their youth; and as at the close of a wintry day we have seen the eatern hills all glowing with crimson splendor from the rays of the setting sun, so one last gleam gilded the last days of the good man's life. On the 17th of June, 1825, the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument was laid. General Lafayette, the idol of the American Army, was present by special invitation, having crossed the ocean in a vessel sent by the American Government to bring him, and Daniel Webster pronounced the oration. Seated before him were the veterans who had "toiled all night and fought all day" fifty years before, and among them was Major Samuel Lawrence, now Deacon Lawrence.

Into every human life, comes at some time, sooner or later, one drop at least of perfect and unmixed happiness, and when Mr. Webster in the course of his oration, (one of the three finest that he ever delivered), addressed these old soldiers, "And you, venerable men," and they rose by a common impulse to their feet, and they tasted the perfect draught. It was too much bliss for the hero of this sketch, for he received the next day a paralytic stroke from which he never recovered, though he lived for more than two years.