William Beach Lawrence was born c 1823 at New York City, New York County, New York. He was the son of
Isaac Lawrence and
Cornelia Ann Beach. Walter Barrett, from "The Old Merchants of New York City," 1863:
"Isaac Lawrence had but one son, William Beach Lawrence. He received all the advantages of an excellent education, and was intended for a public career. He became Secretary of Legation at London, shortly after Mr. John Quincy Adams became president of the United States in 1825. While in London he was extremely popular with all classes. Upon the accession to power of General Jackson, Mr. Lawrence was supplanted by a partisan of that gentleman. Mr. Beach Lawrence moved to Rhode Island some years ago, and was adopted there by the Democrats. He was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State. He would have made an excellent merchant had he entered upon the career. He married a daughter of Archibald Gracie, the great merchant, alluded to so frequently in these pages, and thus became a brother-in-law of James G. and Charles King, who had married [Gracie] sisters, and to the brothers Gracie.
No man was ever placed in a pleasanter position in life than "Beach," as his relations called him. Surrounded by loving sisters, a doting father who left him rich, he has known or felt but few of the thorns of life; and even now is quite a young man, and no one who meets him would suppose that he was only forty years old. He has children. One of them, William Beach Lawrence, Jr., is a young man of uncommon promise and bids fair to keep up the reputation of the race he springs from. There was one very painful matter connected with "Beach," and his father; I allude to the father's indorsement[sic] for the son, and his final ruin in consequence. In 1834 a lot of lots on Murray Hill of Isaac Lawrence were sold to pay Beach's debts for some $50,000, that last year were worth $800,000."
S.R. Durand:
"Some time after this incident in 1834, Dr. Benjamin McVickar went into partnership with his brother-in-law, Beach Lawrence, between about 1838 and 1846. Because of excessive speculations by Beach Lawrence, Dr. McVickar in his turn had to use a large part of his fortune to pay up more debts of his brother-in-law. It was after this, and after a bad yellow fever epidemic in New York that he moved with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin." William Beach Lawrence held the position of Lt. Governor of Rhode Island bt 1851 - 1852.