Representative Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence

Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence (February 28, 1791 – February 20, 1861) was an American politician from New York who became the first popularly elected mayor of New York City after the law governing mayoral selection was changed in 1834 and who also served briefly as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was born in Flushing, Queens County, New York, on February 28, 1791. Lawrence was a cousin of Effingham Lawrence and a descendant of John Lawrence and John Bowne, both Quakers and pioneer English settlers of Queens, giving him deep familial roots in the early colonial history of the region. He attended the public schools of Flushing and worked on his father’s farm during his youth, gaining an early familiarity with agricultural life before turning to commerce and politics.

In 1812, Lawrence moved from Flushing to New York City to embark on a business career. He first found employment with the auctioneering firm of Shotwell, Hicks & Co., where he gained experience in mercantile transactions and the commercial life of the growing city. Demonstrating ability in business, he later became a partner in the wholesale dry goods firm of Hicks, Lawrence & Co. His success in commerce and his connections in the city’s business community helped establish his public reputation and provided a foundation for his subsequent involvement in banking and politics.

Lawrence’s prominence in New York’s commercial circles led to positions of responsibility in financial institutions. He served as a director in several banks and trust companies, reflecting the confidence placed in him by the city’s financial community. Most notably, he became president of the Bank of the State of New York, a position he held for more than twenty years. In that role, he was an important figure in the state’s banking sector during a period of rapid economic expansion and recurrent financial instability, helping to oversee the institution’s operations and its role in New York’s broader financial system.

As a member of the Jackson Party representing New York, Lawrence entered national politics at a time of intense partisan conflict and institutional change. He was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1833, to May 14, 1834. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, marked by President Andrew Jackson’s battles over the Bank of the United States and debates over federal power and economic policy. During his one term in office, Lawrence contributed to the legislative process, participating in the democratic governance of the nation and representing the interests of his New York constituents before resigning his seat.

Lawrence resigned from Congress on May 14, 1834, after being chosen mayor of New York City. That year, a change in state law ended the practice of mayoral appointment and instituted popular election for the office, and Lawrence became the first popularly elected mayor of New York City. He served as mayor from 1834 to 1837, a period that included the onset of the Panic of 1837 and significant growth and political contention in the city. As mayor, he presided over municipal affairs at a time when New York was emerging as the nation’s leading commercial center, and his administration was closely tied to the Jacksonian Democratic movement in state and local politics.

After his mayoralty, Lawrence continued to hold important federal and financial posts. From 1845 to 1849, he served as Collector of the Port of New York, one of the most influential and lucrative federal offices of the era, responsible for overseeing the collection of customs duties at the nation’s busiest port. His tenure as collector coincided with the administration of President James K. Polk and the period of the Mexican–American War, when customs revenues were a critical component of federal finance. In addition to his public roles, he maintained his longstanding connections to banking and commerce in New York, reinforcing his status as a leading Democratic figure in both political and business circles.

In his personal life, Lawrence was the father of at least one son, James Ogden Lawrence, who died on August 1, 1904, extending the family’s presence in New York into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence spent his later years in the community where he had been born, maintaining ties to Flushing even after a long career centered in New York City. He died in Flushing on February 20, 1861, eight days shy of his seventieth birthday. He was interred in the family burying ground in Bayside, New York, closing a life that linked early Quaker settlement in Queens to the rise of New York City as a major urban and political center.