John Lawson

John Lawson (1787-1825) moved to London at sixteen to become a wood engraver and artist. He attended the Baptist meeting at Eagle Street and through the preaching of Joseph Ivimey was called to be a missionary. He left London in 1808 to study with Sutcliff in Olney. He returned to London and joined the Baptist church in Eagle Street, serving an apprenticeship with a Mr. Colwell in an effort to become a miniature painter. He also published some poetry during this time. After his marriage to Frances Butterworth (she was a member at Devonshire Square), Lawson and his new wife sailed for Calcutta, accompanied by William Johns and a Miss Chafin, early in 1811. After a considerable stay in America, the new BMS missionaries arrived in India on 10 August 1812. Lawson was to begin working with the printing department at Serampore, cutting types, and Johns was to assist Wallich, the medical doctor. The East India Company rejected Johns, but Lawson was allowed to stay, primarily because Marshman intervened on his behalf, claiming his skills were needed in creating Chinese fonts. Lawson would eventually leave the Serampore group and join the other junior BMS missionaries in Calcutta—Eustace Carey, William Yates, James Penney, W. H. Pearce, and William Adam. Lawson spent most of his time there as co-pastor (along with Eustace Carey) of the Baptist church in Calcutta, and later as pastor of the second Baptist church on Circular Road. He was also involved with the school in Calcutta, run by his wife and Mrs. Pearce, providing instruction in writing, grammar, composition, geography, and drawing. An excellent musician and poet, Lawson was best known for his work in perfecting certain fonts used in publishing Bengalee and Chinese works. In a letter to Joseph Ivimey, dated 30 July 1813, Lawson states that since his arrival in India he had been principally engaged as an artist, teaching drawing in the school at Serampore and even being offered money by the local Europeans for his work. Lawson also composed Woman in India, a Poem (London: Samuel Lawson [and others], 1821), of which ‘Part 1. Female Influence’ appeared that year. He writes in his Advertisement to this poem, dated March 20, 1820, from Calcutta, ‘It is the design of the poem to exhibit in some slight sketches, woman, with respect to the influence she possesses – the excellency to which she may attain – the state of degradation in which she is sometimes found – and the obligations, especially of the Christian female, to lift the voice of pity against the revolting miseries of her sex in these heathen lands’ (viii). He does not see the them as ‘foreign to the character of poesy,’ but believes ‘that in a poetical dress it might obtain admittance to the consideration of many who are in general but little disposed to the perusal of more formidable compositions’ (ix). See Lawson’s letters in the Baptist Magazine Baptist Magazine 6 (1814), 172-173; 11 (1819): 134-137, 541-544; also F. A. Cox, History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, 2 vols. (London: T. Ward, and G. and J. Dyer, 1842), 1:225, 233-324, 333-335.