°i8Q6 ni J Elliot, George Newbold Lawrence. i 



progress, and attainment to its present important position in 

 Natural Science, of American Ornithology. In 1806 there were 

 no American ornithologists. He who was to shed so great a 

 lustre upon the science by his immortal work, had as yet given 

 no outward sign, and at this date Audubon, a young man, was 

 unknown. Wilson was busy preparing his work upon our birds, 

 which, however, did not make its appearance until two years 

 after Mr. Lawrence's birth. As we come down the years 

 hearken to the catalogue of names of celebrated men who have 

 adorned the annals of ornithology in this land, finished their 

 work, and passed over the river beyond the unknown farther 

 shore. Beside the two already mentioned we recall Bonaparte, 

 Jameson, Jardine, Ord, Say, Swainson, Richardson, Nuttall, 

 Prince of Wied, Giraud, UeKay, Townsend, Cassin, Baird, 

 Hermann, Suckley, Kennicott, beside many that are still active 

 workers in the cause. But all of these who have been men- 

 tioned were the friends and acquaintances of Mr. Lawrence. 

 They died not, most of them, in their early youth, cut off in 

 the midst of their powers, with the hand still guiding the plough 

 of investigation and research through an unfinished scientific 

 furrow, but, on the contrary, many of them saw the accomplish- 

 ment of their desires in their completed works and the attain- 

 ment of advanced years. But time seemed to take no heed 

 of our friend, touched not his powers, but left him unscathed, 

 alert and active in the midst of his contemporaries falling about 

 him on every side. 



The Lawrence family from which the ornithologist descended 

 was English, residing at Great St. Albans, Hertfordshire, and the 

 first members to come to this country, where they arrived in 1635, 

 were John and William, aged seventeen and twelve respectively, 

 with their mother and sister. They settled first at Plymouth 

 Colony, and then, in 1644, removed to Long Island where John 

 became one of the Patentees of Hempstead. In the following year 

 they moved to Flushing where the brothers, with others, obtained 

 the patent of that place. John, in 1658, removed to New Amster- 

 dam, and was one of the first aldermen of New York after 

 its incorporation and change of name by the English, and its 

 mayor in 1672. William, from whom Lawrence's branch decended, 



