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William Miner Lawrence

American lawyer, judge, and historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ63198068 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Miner Lawrence (September 14, 1861 – November 23, 1935) was an American politician.

Early life

Lawrence was born on September 14, 1861, in New York City. He was the son of Abraham Riker Lawrence (1832–1917) and Eliza Williams (née Miner) Lawrence (1838–1915). His younger sister was Ruth Woodhull Lawrence, who did not marry and who was a founder of the National Society of Colonial Dames in New York in 1893.

His paternal grandparents were Sarah Augusta (née Smith) Lawrence and John L. Lawrence, a New York State Senator, Comptroller of New York City and diplomat (who served as chargé d'Affaires at Stockholm during the absence of U.S. Minister to Sweden Jonathan Russell). Among his extended family were great-uncles, Congressmen Samuel Lawrence and William T. Lawrence, and his great-grandfather Jonathan Lawrence, a merchant and New York State Senator. He was also a direct descendant of Capt. James Lawrence, a hero of the War of 1812, and Maj. Thomas Lawrence of the British Army who received a land grant in what became Queens in 1656, Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull, and General John Tangier Smith, a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from New York.

Editorial summary

“William Miner Lawrence” enters the record as american lawyer, judge, and historian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what William, Miner and Lawrence can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1861, 1935, 1832, 1917—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1861-09-14. Its strongest next move is a source search built around William, Miner and Lawrence.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“William Miner Lawrence” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, William, Miner and Lawrence provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q63198068. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1861, 1935, 1832 and 1917.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Miner Lawrence”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Miner Lawrence primary sources, William Miner Lawrence archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Miner Lawrence”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Miner Lawrence” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.