William Lawrence

Sir William Lawrence, 1st Baronet (16 July 1783 - 5 July 1867) was an English surgeon who became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of London and Serjeant Surgeon to the Queen. In his mid-thirties, he published two books of his lectures which contained pre-Darwinian ideas on man's nature and, effectively, on evolution. He was forced to withdraw the second (1819) book after fierce criticism; the Lord Chancellor ruled it blasphemous. Lawrence's transition to respectability occurred gradually, and his surgical career was highly successful. Lawrence had a long and successful career as a surgeon. He reached the top of his profession, and just before his death the Queen rewarded him with a baronetcy (see Lawrence baronets) shortly before his death in 1867. Lawrence was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, the son of William Lawrence, the town's chief surgeon and physician, and Judith Wood. His father's side of the family were descended from the Fettiplace family; His great-great grandfather (also William Lawrence) married Elizabeth Fettiplace, granddaughter of Sir Edmund Fettiplace. His younger brother Charles Lawrence was one of the founding members of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. He was educated at Elmore Court School in Gloucester. At 15, he was apprenticed to, and lived with, John Abernethy (FRS 1796) for five years.