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George Willmott Lawrence (1854-1930)

George Willmott Lawrence was born on 9th May 1854 in Haslingfield, a village about 4 miles south west of Cambridge. He was the third child of William and Sarah (nee Wilmott) and his father worked on farms all his life, working his way up to become farm bailiff at Asplin’s Farm in Hardwick. The Lawrence family have been traced back in this area of Cambridgeshire to the early 1700s.

George followed his father into farming, staying in Haslingfield for a few years although his parents had moved out to Hardwick Heath. His youngest brother, William George Lawrence also played and made dulcimers. He married in 1877 and his oldest son Herbert George Lawrence, who later took up the dulcimer too, was born the following year. By 1881 he and his young family had moved to Thriplow, where he lived for the rest of his life, where, in his fifties, the census records him as a gamekeeper.

According to his daughter, Mrs Sarah Wills, he used to play standing up, and she believed him to have made the instrument now in the Museum of Cambridge (formerly known as the Cambridge Folk Museum). This seems to have been donated in 1963, by her daughter (Mrs Smoothy) when Mrs Wills died. This date is supported by a report from the museum stating that Mr Billy Cooper, then ‘aged 80’ had restrung it. Billy was 80 in 1963 and died in 1964.
 

George Lawrence died in 1930.

George Lawrence dulcimer (1886?) in the Museum of Cambridge

a

     b

     c

      d

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Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture

Dimensions of this dulcimer

Photo descriptions & sources

Main photo: George Willmott Lawrence and his wife Jane (Haggar) (The Triplow Journal Spring 2006)

a. George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (from the museum)

b. George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (John Howson)

c. George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (John Howson)

d. George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (John Howson)

e. George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (John Howson)

f.  George Lawrence dulcimer in the Museum of Cambridge (John Howson)