522 William Lawrence

Constituency : City  of  London  1865-85

William  replaced  Sir  James  Duke  at  the  City  of  London  and  came  third  in  the  poll.

William  was  the  son  of  a  London  alderman  and  the  brother  of  James,  MP  for  Lambeth  and  Edwin,  much  later  MP  for  Truro. He  was  a  partner  in  his  father's  building  firm. He  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London  in  1863-4. The  family  were  Unitarian.

In  1868  William  came  third  again  but  ominously  the  Conservatives  claimed  the  fourth  seat. In  1874  they  took  three  of  the  seats  and  William  came  fifth. In  1880  William  was  the  highest  polling  Liberal  and  scraped  in  in  fourth  place making  him  the  last  Liberal  to  represent  the  seat. In  1885  it  was  reduced  to  a  two-member  seat  and  the  Liberals  rarely  even  contested  it.

In  1885  William  contested  Paddington  South  as  an  independent  Liberal  but  received  a  derisory vote.

He  died  in  1897  aged  78.