John Lawrence (writer)

English writer (1753–1839)

John Lawrence

Portrait of John Lawrence, 1832

Born| (1753-01-22)22 January 1753

Colchester, England

Died| 17 January 1839(1839-01-17) (aged 85)

Peckham, England

Occupation| Writer
Spouse|

Ann Barton

(m. 1783)​

Children| 6
Signature

John Lawrence (22 January 1753 – 17 January 1839) was an English writer on political and agricultural subjects and an early advocate of animal welfare and rights.

Title page of 3rd edition (1810) of John Lawrence's "A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses"

## Early life

[edit]

Lawrence was born 22 January 1753 in or near Colchester, the son and grandson of brewers. His father John died when Lawrence was 10, and Lawrence later invested his inheritance in a stock farm. When he was 15 he wrote a school essay "in favour of kindness to animals". His first publications were political and showed admiration of the French Revolution and advancing the rights of man.

## Works on animals and animal rights

[edit]

In 1796 he published the first volume of his most successful work, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses and on the Moral Duties of Man towards the Brute Creation. In his New Farmer's Calendar (1800) and The Modern Land Steward (1801) he advocated for killing food animals painlessly. In an 1805 Dictionary of the Veterinary Art, Lawrence's "enlightened" views on the rights of beasts are recommended to veterinarians.[1] In his British Field Sports (1818) he proposed a system of "sporting ethics" "to root out 'that horrible propensity in the human breast, a sense of sport and delight in witnessing the tortures of brute animals.'" He was consulted by Richard Martin about Martin's Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822, one of the first pieces of animal welfare legislation.

Lawrence was considered in his time an authority on horses; his History of the Horse went through fourteen editions in his lifetime, and he was a regular contributor to publications such as The Sporting Magazine.[2]

After a period in which he was largely forgotten, Lawrence's arguments for animal rights were republished in 1879 by Edward Nicholson in his The Rights of an Animal: A New Essay in Ethics. Lawrence was also quoted extensively in Henry Stephens Salt's 1894 Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress.

## Quotes

[edit]

This section is a candidate for copying over to Wikiquote using the Transwiki process.

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In his 1796 "Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses", Lawrence wrote of the rights of animals: They arise then, spontaneously, from the conscience, or sense of moral obligation in man, who is indispensably bound to bestow upon animals, in return for the benefit he derives from their services, "good and sufficient nourishment, comfortable shelter, and merciful treatment; to commit no wanton outrage upon their feelings, whilst alive, and to put them to the speediest and least painful death, when it shall be necessary to deprive them of life."[3]

Lawrence was one of the first to call for laws to protect animals. I therefore propose, that the Rights of Beasts be formally acknowledged by the state, and that a law be framed upon that principle, to guard and protect them from acts of flagrant and wanton cruelty, whether committed by their owners or others.[4]

## Family and death

[edit]

Lawrence spent time living in Bury St. Edmunds, close to his farm, in London in Lambeth Marsh and Somers Town, and at the end of his life in Peckham, then just outside London. About 1783 Lawrence married Ann Barton, with whom he had a son and five daughters. Only his youngest daughter left descendants.

Lawrence died of influenza on 17 January 1839 and was buried in Norwood.

## Works

[edit]

* "The Patriot's Calendar" (3 editions, for the years 1794, 1795, and 1796)
* 'Rights and Remedies, or the Theory and Practice of true Politics, with a View of the Evils of the Present War and a Proposal of immediate Peace,' London, 1795, 2 parts
* 'The Sportsman, Farrier, and Shoeing Smith's New Guide, being the substance of the Works of the late Charles Vial de St. Bell,' London, 1796
* 'A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses and on the Moral Duties of Man Towards the Brute Creation,' London, 1796-1798, 2 vols. (2nd rev. ed. 1802, 3rd rev. ed. 1810)
* 'The New Farmer's Calendar, a Monthly Remembrancer for all kinds of Country Business, comprehending all the Material Improvements in the New Husbandry with the Management of Live Stock, by a Farmer and Breeder.' London, 1800 (rev. ed. 1801)
* 'The Modern Land Steward, in which the Duties and Functions of Stewardship are considered and explained, with their several relations to the interests of the Landlord, Tenant, and the Public.' London, 1801
* 'A General Treatise on Cattle, the Ox, the Sheep, and the Swine, comprehending their Breeding, Management, Improvement, and Diseases.' London, 1806 (2nd ed. with additions 1809)
* 'The History and Delineation of the Horse in all his Varieties, with an Investigation of the Character of the Racehorse and the Business of the Turf, the engravings from original paintings, with instructions for the General Management of the Horse.' London, 1809
* 'Practical Treatise on Breeding, Rearing, and Fattening all kinds of Domestic Poultry, Pheasants, Pigeons, and Rabbits, Swine, Bees, Cows, &c..' "Bonington Moubray" (i.e. Lawrence), London, 1813 (eight editions by 1842)
* 'British Field Sports, embracing Practical Instructions in Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Racing, Cocking, Fishing, &c, with Observations on the Breaking and Training of Dogs and Horses and the Management of Fowling-pieces, by "W. H. Scott" (i.e. Lawrence), London, 1818
* 'The Sportsman's Repository, comprising a series of engravings representing the Horse and the Dog by John Scott, with a description of the different species of each.' London, 1820
* 'A Memoir of the late Sir T. C. Bunbury.' Ipswich, 1821 (Bunbury was a prominent figure in English horse-racing.)
* 'The National Sports of Great Britain, by Henry Aiken, with descriptions in English and French.' London, 1821, fol. (coloured lithographs by Aiken, text by Lawrence, anonymous)
* 'The Horse in all his Varieties and Uses: His Breeding, Rearing, and Management'. London, 1829

## References

[edit]

1. ^ A Dictionary of the Veterinary Art: Containing All the Modern Improvements..., Thomas Boardman, London: G. Kearsley, 1805, entry "Beast"
2. ^ The Sporting Magazine, May 1839, p. 63.
3. ^ A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses: And on the Moral Duties of Man Towards the Brute Creation, John Lawrence, London: T. Longman, 1796, p. 119-120.
4. ^ A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses: And on the Moral Duties of Man Towards the Brute Creation, John Lawrence, London: T. Longman, 1796, p. 123

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Lawrence, John (1753-1839)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32\. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

## External links

[edit]

* Works by or about John Lawrence at Wikisource

* v
* t
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Animal rights

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases)

| Overviews|

* Animal rights movement
* Animal rights by country or territory
* Anarchism and animal rights
* Animal rights and punk subculture
* Animal cruelty–Holocaust analogies
* Animal rights in Indian religions
* Christianity and animal rights
* History of animal rights
* List of international animal welfare conventions
* Moral status of animals in the ancient world
* Timeline of animal welfare and rights
* Total liberation
* Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare

|

Concepts|

* Abolitionism
* Ahimsa
* Animal cognition
* Animal consciousness
* Animal ethics
* Animal–industrial complex
* Animal law
* Animal protectionism
* Animal welfare
* Animal-free agriculture
* Anthrozoology
* Argument from marginal cases
* Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness
* Carnism
* Equal consideration of interests
* Emotion in animals
* Ethics of eating meat
* Ethics of uncertain sentience
* Ethology
* Insects in ethics
* Meat paradox
* Nonviolence
* Open rescue
* Opposition to hunting
* Personism
* Replaceability argument
* Sentiocentrism
* Speciesism
* Veganism
* Vegaphobia
* Vegetarianism

Issues|

| Animal agriculture|

* Animal product
* Battery cage
* Bile bear
* Chick culling
* Concentrated animal feeding operation
* Fish farming
* Fur farming
* Fur trade
* Insect farming
* Intensive animal farming
* Intensive pig farming
* Livestock
* Poultry farming
* Slaughterhouse
* Wildlife farming
* Working animal
* Feedback (pork industry)
* Foam depopulation
* Ventilation shutdown

|

Animal testing|

* Alternatives to animal testing
* Animal testing on non-human primates
* Animal testing regulations
* Labcorp Drug Development
* Great ape research ban
* Green Scare
* Huntingdon Life Sciences
* Model organism
* Nafovanny
* Operation Backfire
* Vivisection

Animal welfare|

* Animal euthanasia
* Cruelty to animals
* Pain in animals
* Pain in amphibians
* Pain in cephalopods
* Pain in crustaceans
* Pain in fish
* Pain in invertebrates
* Pain and suffering in laboratory animals
* Welfare of farmed insects

Fishing|

* Commercial fishing
* Fishing bait
* Recreational fishing

Wild animals|

* Culling wildlife
* Hare coursing
* Hunting
* International primate trade
* Ivory trade
* Predation problem
* Seal hunting
* Wild animal suffering
* Wildlife management

Other|

* Abandoned pets
* Animal sacrifice
* Animal slaughter
* Animal trial
* Animals in sport
* Live food
* Live export

Cases|

* Brown Dog affair
* Cambridge University primates
* McLibel case
* Monkey selfie copyright dispute
* Pit of despair
* SHAC
* Silver Spring monkeys
* University of California, Riverside 1985 laboratory raid
* Unnecessary Fuss
* War of the currents

Methodologies|

* Direct Action Everywhere
* Hunt sabotage

Observances|

* World Animal Day
* World Day for the End of Speciesism
* World Day for Laboratory Animals
* World Day for the End of Fishing

Advocates (academics, writers, activists)

| Academics
and writers|

| Contemporary|

* Carol J. Adams
* Aysha Akhtar
* Kristin Andrews
* Tom Beauchamp
* Marc Bekoff
* Steven Best
* Stephen St. C. Bostock
* Paola Cavalieri
* Stephen R. L. Clark
* Alasdair Cochrane
* J. M. Coetzee
* Alice Crary
* David DeGrazia
* Daniel Dombrowski
* Sue Donaldson
* Josephine Donovan
* Joan Dunayer
* Mylan Engel
* Catia Faria
* Lawrence Finsen
* Gary L. Francione
* Robert Garner
* Valéry Giroux
* Lori Gruen
* John Hadley
* Oscar Horta
* Dale Jamieson
* Kyle Johannsen
* Melanie Joy
* Hilda Kean
* Will Kymlicka
* Renan Larue
* Thomas Lepeltier
* Andrew Linzey
* Clair Linzey
* Dan Lyons
* David Nibert
* Martha Nussbaum
* Clare Palmer
* Charles Patterson
* David Pearce
* Jessica Pierce
* Evelyn Pluhar
* Mark Rowlands
* Richard D. Ryder
* Steve F. Sapontzis
* Jeff Sebo
* Jérôme Segal
* Peter Singer
* Gary Steiner
* Cass Sunstein
* David Sztybel
* Michael Tye
* Tatjana Višak
* Paul Waldau
* Corey Lee Wrenn

|

Historical|

* Jeremy Bentham
* David Renaud Boullier
* Brigid Brophy
* Peter Buchan
* Mona Caird
* Priscilla Cohn
* Henry Crowe
* Herman Daggett
* Richard Dean
* Wilhelm Dietler
* William Hamilton Drummond
* Edward Payson Evans
* T. Forster
* John Galsworthy
* Thomas G. Gentry
* Arthur Helps
* John Hildrop
* John Zephaniah Holwell
* Soame Jenyns
* Karl Christian Friedrich Krause
* John Lawrence
* Charles R. Magel
* Jean Meslier
* Mary Midgley
* J. Howard Moore
* José Ferrater Mora
* Leonard Nelson
* Edward Nicholson
* Siobhan O'Sullivan
* Rod Preece
* Humphrey Primatt
* James Rachels
* Tom Regan
* Nathaniel Peabody Rogers
* Bernard Rollin
* Henry Stephens Salt
* Arthur Schopenhauer
* Laurids Smith
* John Styles
* Thomas Tryon
* Gary Varner
* Johann Friedrich Ludwig Volckmann
* Mary Anne Warren
* Adam Gottlieb Weigen
* Johann Heinrich Winckler
* Steven M. Wise
* Jon Wynne-Tyson
* Voltaire

Activists|

| Contemporary|

* James Aspey
* Greg Avery
* Matt Ball
* Martin Balluch
* Carole Baskin
* Barbi Twins
* Brigitte Bardot
* Gene Baur
* Yves Bonnardel
* Joey Carbstrong
* Aymeric Caron
* Jake Conroy
* Rod Coronado
* Karen Dawn
* Chris DeRose
* John Feldmann
* Bruce Friedrich
* Juliet Gellatley
* Tal Gilboa
* Antoine Goetschel
* Mark Gold
* Brigitte Gothière
* Wayne Hsiung
* Charlotte Laws
* Ronnie Lee
* Howard Lyman
* Evanna Lynch
* Bill Maher
* Keith Mann
* Jim Mason
* Dan Mathews
* Jo-Anne McArthur
* Luísa Mell
* Virginia McKenna
* Morrissey
* Ingrid Newkirk
* Heather Nicholson
* Jack Norris
* Ric O'Barry
* David Olivier
* Alex Pacheco
* Craig Rosebraugh
* Nathan Runkle
* Jasmin Singer
* Kim Stallwood
* Lynda Stoner
* Marianne Thieme
* Darren Thurston
* Christine Townend
* Wendy Turner-Webster
* Jerry Vlasak
* Louise Wallis
* Gary Yourofsky
* That Vegan Teacher

|

Historical|

* Cleveland Amory
* Henry B. Amos
* Bob Barker
* Ernest Bell
* Edith Carrington
* Frances Power Cobbe
* Joan Court
* Karen Davis
* Royal Dixon
* Muriel Dowding
* Elizabeth Farians
* Emarel Freshel
* André Géraud
* Lewis Gompertz
* James Granger
* Nina Douglas-Hamilton
* Barry Horne
* Marie Huot
* Lizzy Lind af Hageby
* Jessie Mackay
* Norm Phelps
* Jill Phipps
* Maud Ingersoll Probasco
* Hans Ruesch
* Nell Shipman
* Henry Spira
* Andrew Tyler
* Gretchen Wyler

Movement (groups, parties)

| Groups|

| Contemporary|

* American Anti-Vivisection Society
* Animal Aid
* Animal Ethics
* Animal Justice
* Animal Justice Project
* Animal Legal Defense Fund
* Animal Liberation
* Animal Liberation Front
* Animal Rising
* AnimaNaturalis
* Anti-Vivisection Coalition
* Anonymous for the Voiceless
* Beauty Without Cruelty
* Born Free Foundation
* Centre for Animals and Social Justice
* Chinese Animal Protection Network
* Cruelty Free International
* Direct Action Everywhere
* Doctors Against Animal Experiments
* Equanimal
* Every Animal
* Farm Animal Rights Movement
* Faunalytics
* Great Ape Project
* Hunt Saboteurs Association
* In Defense of Animals
* Korea Animal Rights Advocates
* L214
* Last Chance for Animals
* Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition
* Mercy for Animals
* Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics
* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
* Rise for Animals
* Sentience Politics
* Uncaged Campaigns
* United Activists for Animal Rights
* United Poultry Concerns
* UPF-Centre for Animal Ethics
* Viva!
* Voice for Animals Humane Society

|

Historical|

* Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society
* Canadian Anti-Vivisection Society
* Humanitarian League (1891–1919)
* Oxford Group

Parties|

* Animal Justice Party (Australia)
* Animal Politics EU (Europe)
* Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
* Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
* Animals' Party (Sweden)
* Animalist Movement (Italy)
* Animalist Party with the Environment (Spain)
* DierAnimal (Belgium)
* Human Environment Animal Protection Party (Germany)
* Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
* Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
* People Animals Nature (Portugal)
* V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism|

* Animal Rights National Conference

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums)

| Books|

* On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
* Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
* The Rights of Animals (1838)
* The Ethics of Diet (1883)
* Animals' Rights (1892)
* Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1897)
* Better-World Philosophy (1899)
* The Universal Kinship (1906)
* The New Ethics (1907)
* Animals, Men and Morals (1971)
* Animal Liberation (1975)
* The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
* Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
* Zoos and Animal Rights (1993)
* Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)
* The Lives of Animals (1999)
* Eternal Treblinka (2001)
* Do Animals Have Rights? (2005)
* Striking at the Roots (2008)
* An American Trilogy (2009)
* An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory (2010)
* Animal Rights Without Liberation (2012)
* Political Animals and Animal Politics (2014)
* Animal (De)liberation (2016)
* Sentientist Politics (2018)
* Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
* Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
* Making a Stand for Animals (2022)

|

Films|

* The Animals Film (1981)
* A Cow at My Table (1998)
* Shores of Silence (2000)
* The Witness (2000)
* Meet Your Meat (2002)
* Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
* The Meatrix (2003)
* Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
* Earthlings (2005)
* Behind the Mask (2006)
* Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007)
* The Cove (2009)
* Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (2009)
* Forks Over Knives (2011)
* Vegucated (2011)
* An Apology to Elephants (2013)
* Speciesism: The Movie (2013)
* The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)
* Unlocking the Cage (2016)
* Dominion (2018)
* Seaspiracy (2021)

Periodicals|

| Journals|

* Animal Sentience
* Between the Species
* Cahiers antispécistes
* Etica & Animali
* Journal of Animal Ethics
* Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism
* The Animals' Defender

|

Magazines|

* Arkangel
* Bite Back
* Muutoksen kevät
* No Compromise
* Satya

Albums|

* Animal Liberation (1987)
* Tame Yourself (1991)
* Manifesto (2008)
* Salvation of Innocents (2014)
* Onward to Freedom (2014)

Fairs and exhibitions|

* Holocaust on your Plate (2003)

* Category ( 139 )

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Italy
* Netherlands
* Israel
* Belgium

People|

* Trove
* 2

Other|

* IdRef

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