SIR

See also:

• JOHN
• JOHN (1167–1216)
• JOHN (1290-c. 1320)
• JOHN (1296-1346)
• JOHN (1371–1419)
• JOHN (1468-1532)
• JOHN (1801-1873)
• JOHN (Heb. llni')
• JOHN (ZAPOLYA) (1487-1540)
• JOHN, 4TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (c. 1695-1762)
• JOHN, DON (1545-1578)
• JOHN, DON (1629–1679)
• JOHN, GOSPEL OF ST
• JOHN, THE APOSTLE
• JOHN, THE EPISTLES OF
• JOHN, or HAYS (1513–1571)

JOHN

See also:

• LAWSON, CECIL GORDON (1851—1882)
• SIR JOHN LAWSON (d. 1665)
• LAWSON, SIR WILFRID

LAWSON (d. 1665)  , British sailor, was born at Scarborough . Joining the parliamentary navy in 1642, he accompanied Penn to the Mediterranean in 165o, where he served for some time . In 1652 he served under Blake in the Dutch War and was present at the first action in the Downs and the battle of the Kentish Knock . At Portland, early in 1653, he was vice-admiral of the red, and his ship was severely handled . Lawson took part in the battles of June and July in the following summer . In 1654—1655 he commanded in the North Sea andq the Channel . Appointed in January 1655—1656 as Blake's second-in-command, Lawson was a few weeks later summarily dismissed from his command, probably for political reasons . He was a Republican and Anabaptist, and therefore an enemy to Cromwell . It is not improbable that like Penn and others he was detected in correspondence with the exiled Charles II., who certainly hoped for his support . In 1657, along with Harrison and others, he was arrested and, for a short time, imprisoned for conspiring against Cromwell . Afterwards he lived at Scarborough until the fall of Richard Cromwell's government . During the troubled months which succeeded that event Lawson, flying his flag as admiral of the Channel fleet, played a marked political role .

His

ships escorted Charles to England, and he was soon afterwards knighted . Sent out in 1661 with Montagu, earl of Sandwich, to the Mediterranean, Lawson conducted a series of campaigns against the piratical states of the Algerian coast . Thence summoned to a command in the Dutch War, he was mortally wounded at Lowestoft . He died on the 29th of June 1665 . See Charnock, Biographia navalis, i . 20; Campbell, Lives of the Admirals, ii . 251; Penn, Life of Sir William Penn; Pepys, Diary .