James Henry Lawrence

James Henry Lawrence (1773–1840) was a British writer. He is known for his utopian novel The Empire of the Nairs, or the Rights of Women, which appeared in English in 1811. It was influenced by the political writing of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin.[1]

Life

He was the son of Richard James Lawrence, a slave-owner of Fairfield, Jamaica, He was educated at Eton College, where he was Montem poet in 1790.[2] He then studied in Germany, at the University of Göttingen.[3]

Lawrence led an itinerant life, mainly in continental Europe. In 1803, in France with his father, he was arrested, along with other English residents and tourists, and was detained for several years at Verdun. He escaped by passing himself off as an Austrian.[2] He received compensation for the Fairfield estate, under the Slave Compensation Act 1837.[4]

Lawrence died unmarried 26 September 1840, and was interred with his father in the burying-ground of St. John's Wood Chapel. He claimed to be a Knight of Malta, and was known as the Chevalier Lawrence.[2]

Works

The "utopian romance" The Empire of the Nairs, Lawrence's major work, developed in stages. In 1793 he published in Der Teutsche Merkur an essay on the Nair castes of Malabar, examining their customs of marriage and inheritance. In 1800 Lawrence completed a novel on the topic, in German. It was published in the Journal der Romane the following year, as Das Paradies der Liebe, then reprinted as Das Reich der Nairen. The book was subsequently translated into French and English by the author, and published in both versions; the English translation, as The Empire of the Nairs (1811), was much modified from the original, and had an introduction advocating the customs.[2] The content is a description of a search for sexual freedom and independence for women.[5][6]

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Lawrence about the book, in 1812.[7] Aaron Burr admired it, and called on Lawrence in London.[8] Other works were:[2]

  • A Picture of Verdun, or the English detained in France (London 1810, 2 vols.)
  • On the Nobility of the British Gentry (1824, 4th ed. 1840)
  • The Etonian out of Bounds (1828), a collection of writings.

Notes
  1. Claeys, Gregory (2010). The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780521714143.
  2. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Lawrence, James Henry" . Dictionary of National Biography. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. Leask, Nigel. "Lawrence, James Henry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16180. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. "Summary of Individual James Henry Lawrence 1773-1840, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  5. Anne Verjus; Une société sans pères peut-elle être féministe ?: L'empire des Nairs de James H. Lawrence. French Historical Studies 1 August 2019; 42 (3): 359–389. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00161071-7558292
  6. Claeys, Gregory (2010). The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 157. ISBN 9780521714143.
  7. Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1980). Shelley on Love: An Anthology. University of California Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780520043220. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  8. Burr, Aaron (1858). The Private Journal of Aaron Burr: During His Residence of Four Years in Europe: with Selections from His Correspondence. Harper & brothers. p. 342. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Lawrence, James Henry". Dictionary of National Biography. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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