SIR JOHN BENNET LAWES, BART., 18141900. 



The manor-house of Rothamsted, situated in the parish of Har- 

 penden, Herts, was the birthplace of John Bennet Lawes, and the 

 Rothamsted farm became, in subsequent years, the scene of the great 

 work of his long life. So far-reaching have been the results which he 

 achieved, that the name of Rothamsted is now a household word 

 wherever the science of Agriculture is studied. 



The ancestors of Sir John Lawes had occupied Rothamsted for 

 many generations. Jaques Wittewronge came to England from 

 Flanders in 1564, owing to the religious persecution then prevailing. 

 The manor of Rothamsted was purchased in 1623 for his grandson, 

 John Wittewronge, who was then a minor. John Wittewronge 

 was knighted by Charles I, and afterwards created a baronet 

 by Charles II. In consequence of the failure of male heirs, the 

 manor passed to the Bennet family by the marriage of Elizabeth 

 Wittewronge with Thomas Bennet, and finally to the Lawes family 

 by the marriage of Mary Bennet (great-granddaughter of James 

 Wittewronge) with Thomas Lawes. His son, John Bennet Lawes, was 

 the father of the John Bennet Lawes of whom we have to speak, who 

 was born at Rothamsted on December 28, 1814. 



John Bennet Lawes was an only son. He lost his father when 

 eight years old, and owed much to his mother's bringing up. He 

 seems to have led the life of a country boy, and his studies he after- 

 wards described as being " of a most desultory character." Experi- 

 ments in chemistry, made at home, seem to have been one of his 

 favourite occupations. He was sent successively to Eton, and to 

 Brasenose College, Oxford, which he entered in 1832. While at 

 Oxford he attended some of the lectures of Dr. Daubeny, the professor 

 of chemistry. He left the University without taking a degree. 



In 1834 Mr. Lawes entered on the personal management of the 

 home farm at Rothamsted, then of about 250 acres ; he at the same 

 time threw himself heartily into chemical investigations. He tells us : 

 " At the age of twenty I gave an order to a London firm to fit up a 

 complete laboratory, and I am afraid it sadly disturbed the peace of 

 mind of my mother to see one of the best bedrooms in the house fitted 

 up with stoves, retorts, and all the apparatus and reagerius necessary 

 for chemical research. At the time my attention was very much 

 directed to the composition of drugs ; I almost knew liie Pharma- 

 copeia by heart, and I was not satisfied until I had made the acquaint- 

 ance of the author. Dr. A. T. Thomson. The active principle of a 



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