Individual Details

OLD WAIKATO SETTLER.
On July 25, 1869, Mrs. Beresford was married by the Rev. (later Archdeacon) Lonsdale Pritt to the late Mr. Frederick James Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence had had an adventurous career as a naval seaman and had taken part in the Crimean and China Wars. When the Maori War broke out he enlisted in Captain F. M. P. Brookfield's company of Onehunga volunteers. A month later he joined the Third Waikato Regiment, his first share in the war being at Kennedy's Farm at Clevedon, where two of the sons of the manager, Mr. Trust, were shot by the Maoris. Burning of a Redoubt. Later Mr. Lawrence joined a boat corps which had been formed for the purpose of delivering supplies at the camps all the way up the river as far as Mercer, but after the fall of Orakau he returned to the forces, becoming a member of No. 6 Company, with headquarters at Cambridge. It was at the Pukekura Redoubt that the company met with disaster. The redoubt was set on fire by a soldier. It happened that the magazine was to windward, but the rest of the hutments were totally destroyed. Shortly after Mr. Lawrence married and settled at Cambridge, the Maoris made a raid on the district, and the Lawrence family was awakened at dead of night by a Miss O'Neil, the daughter of a neighbour. The women and children were hurried across the Waikato River, but Mr. O'Neil and Mr. Lawrence, in spite of orders to the contrary, cut a tunnel into a patch of gorse near the house and rigged up a tent. Every morning a patrol of cavalry reconnoitred to make sure that there were no Maoris lurking in the vicinity, and on one occasion a trooper fired at Mr. Lawrence, mistaking him for a Maori. The natives were eventually quietened by Mr. James Mackay, who entered into a pact with the famous Rewi Maniapoto that there should be no more attacks.
Varied Later Life.
After other exciting adventures with hostile natives, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence and their children moved to the Te Aroha goldfield, where they opened dining rooms. At the conclusion of the gold rush they followed a farming life for 11 years at Herekino, North Auckland. During that period Mr. Lawrence was three times elected as the representative of the Whangapehi riding on the Hokianga County Council. Over 50 years ago Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence went to Auckland and established an orchard at Henderson. They later lived at Onehunga, and two years ago removed to Newstead. Mr. Lawrence died at Newstead on May 14 last, aged 91 years.

• 

Birth	25 Dec 1840	Southampton, Hampshire, England
Marriage	25 Jul 1869	Cambridge, Waikato, New Zealand - Georgina Dalton
Death	14 May 1932	Newstead, Auckland, New Zealand
Obituary	16 May 1932	New Zealand
Obituary	23 May 1932	New Zealand
Burial		Waikumete Cemetery & Crematorium, Glen Eden, Auckland Council, Auckland, New Zealand

Spouse	Georgina Dalton (1842 - 1933)
Child	Arthur Richard Lawrence (1871 - 1872)
Child	Francis Edwin Lawrence (1873 - 1948)
Child	Daisy Lawrence (1877 - 1911)
Child	Violet Lawrence (1880 - 1963)
Child	Leonard James Lawrence (1883 - 1896)
Child	Lillian May Lawrence (1886 - 1959)

Notes