This interesting surname derives from the male given name Lawrence, originally the Latin "Laurentius", from Laurentium, the "city of laurels", in Italy. The idea of the laurel as a symbol of victory was probably the principal reason for the popularity of the name. Among Christians it became a favourite name through St. Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome in the mid 3rd Century, who was martyred under Valerian in 258 A.D., and the church of Edzel in Scotland is dedicated to him. There is only one example of the name in the Domesday Book of 1086; however, a century later, the name became popular, giving us clearly recognisable modern surnames, such as Lawrence, Laurence and Lawrance and such variants as Laurie and Lowrie.
Recordings from London Church Registers include: the christening of Ann, daughter of William Lawrence, on January 12th 1555, at St. Pancras', Soper Lane; the marriage of William Lawrence and Elizabeth White in July 1556, at St. Lawrence Jewry and St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street; and the christening of Matthew, son of Thomas Lawrance, on March 25th 1610, at St. James' Clerkenwell. Henry Lawrance was a landowner in the parish of St. James', the Barbadoes, according to records dated December 20th 1679. A Coat of Arms was granted to a Lawrance family at Foxhall in Gloucestershire, which depicts a red cross raguly and in the first quarter a red lion passant on a silver shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Magister Laurentius, a cleric, which was dated circa 1150, in the "Episcopal Records of Glasgow", Scotland, during the reign of King David 1 of Scotland, 1124 - 1153. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
The origin, the coat of arms or the different heraldic shields, and the bibliography in which the surname lawrance is mentioned are part of this exciting investigation.
The list of countries with a higher presence of people with the surname lawrance provides us with a perspective on the history of the surname, beyond its origins, focusing on its migrations.
For those like you, who are interested in the history hidden behind the surname lawrance, it is essential to find all kinds of information, both direct and tangential, that helps to construct a solid narrative of how the birth and expansion of lawrance developed.
We keep our website updated through our own research and also thanks to contributions from people like you, after verification; so if you have information about lawrance and send it to us, we will update it on this website.
Sadly, not all the contributions of those who bore the surname lawrance were recorded by the chroniclers of the time.
The origin, history, coat of arms or different coats of arms, and the heraldry of lawrance are recorded in a wide variety of sources and documents that are essential to know for better compilation.
These sources are essential for initiating the understanding of lawrance, and at the same time, of surnames in general.