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Lawrence Edwin Dawson

Gender:
Male
Born:
December 9, 1799
Died:
February 8, 1848
Home Town:
Charleston, SC
Later Residences:
Charleston, SC
Prince William's Parish, SC
Dallas County, AL
Marriage(s):
Mary Rhodes Dawson (1826 or 1822)
Biographical Notes:
Lawrence Edwin Dawson was the sixth child of John and Mary (Huger) Dawson. Dawson studies with Moses Waddell at his Willington Academy and then read law with Colonel William Drayton of Charleston, SC. He was admitted to the bar there in 1821 however he then went for further schooling at the Litchfield Law School in 1822. After the law school, he worked as a lawyer in Charleston, SC until 1829. He married and he and his wife had six children. In 1829 he moved to the Prince WIlliam's Parish in the Beaufort District of South Carolina. He represented that parish in the state house from 1832 to 1835 but declined a nomination to run for the U.S. Congress in 1833. He retired in ill health in 1834 and instead began work as a planter. He moved again in 1842 to Dallas County, Alabama.
Education
Years at LLS:
1821-1823
Other Education:
Attended Willington Academy.
Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Political Office
Admitted To Bar:
Charleston, SC in 1821
Training with Other Lawyers:
After attending the Litchfield Law School he studied with Col. William Drayton and Mr. Petigru.
State Posts:
State Representative (SC) 1832-1835
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Litchfield Eagle, October 7, 1822; Litchfield Eagle, October 6, 1823; Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849), 18.
Secondary Sources:
Dawson, Charles Carroll. A Record of the Descendants of Robert Dawson of East Haven, Conn. New York: Russells' American Steam Printing House, 1871.; O'Neall,Stephen. Biographical Sketches of the Bench and Bar of South Carolina, vol. 2. Charleston, SC: S.G. Courtenay & Co., 1859.
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