BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION* 



SIR JOHN BENNET LAWES, BART., 1814-1900 



* 



THE manor-house of E-othamsted, situated in the parish of 

 Harpenden, 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 Rotham- 

 sted 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 



* Largely reprinted from the Obituary Notices of the Royal Society, 

 by the late K. Warington. 



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