Amos Adams Lawrence was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1814, the son of famed philanthropist Amos Lawrence. He was educated at Groton Academy (now Lawrence Academy at Groton,) and at Harvard College. He died in 1886.
Amos Adams Lawrence was a key figue in the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. He contributed large amounts of capital to John Brown's abolitionism, and played a major role in the crucial border state of Kansas. (See Kansas-Nebraska Act.) There he played a role in founding University of Kansas. He also founded a college in Appleton, Wisconsin, which became Lawrence University. Lawrence was also a generous benefactor of Harvard and of the Episcopal Theological School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Amos Adams Lawrence is credited with founding an Episcopalian dynasty in Boston, Massachusetts, which prompted many Boston Brahmins covert from Unitarianism. Lawrence's son, William Lawrence, took an even more avid interest in the Episcopalian church, and became the long-time bishop of Massachusetts.
