MISS SARAH LAWRENCE 1780-1859:
SCHOOL MISTRESS

Sarah Lawrence was born 1780 and baptised in the 'Old Meeting House' Presbyterian/Unitarian in Birmingham, a daughter of Nathaniel Lawrence and Mary (Johnson). She was sister to Nathaniel 1782, Frances 1785, Henry 1788, Arabella 1788, Harriett 1789, and Catherine 1792.

The Lawrence family are well documented as they were a very prominent Unitarian family coming originally from Banbury, Oxfordshire. Amongst the early family were Ministers of the Church of England. In the year 1662 most of these Ministers dissented from the Church of England and were ejected, and became teachers, and opened their Academies/or Private Schools over a large part of the Country.

Sarah Lawrence came to Little Woolton about 1823, and according to research done by Sylvia Lewis, she was governess to the children of Dr Crompton of Eaton Lodge, a Unitarian, and friend of Dr. William Shepherd. Dr Crompton is buried in the Churchyard of Gateacre Chapel. The Academy of Sarah Lawrence was at 'Higher Grange' Rose Brow on the site which is now Gateacre Grange. The previous building was then known as New Grange, a rather imposing building and according to the Land Tax for 1794 for Little Woolton the proprietor was Henry Fairclough and occupied by him. Henry Fairclough continued to pay the Land Tax until 1816, but in 1817 the entry states 'the Executors of Henry Fairclough'.

In 1822 the Land Tax shows Sarah Lawrence as proprietor and occupier. In the Binns Collection in Liverpool Library there is a sketch of Gateacre Brow looking up the brow, with on the left the Bear and Ragged Staff Hotel. On the right in a similar position to the present Grange appears a three story building with 5 windows facing the road. As Sylvia Lewis says 'it is only speculation that this sketch represents the Grange built by Henry Fairclough in 1794 and occupied by the girls boarding school. From the tythe map it is clear there is a sizeable building there'. This sketch will be dated sometime in the 18th century.

Continued . . .