Anna Lawrence

Biography

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170127377/anna-lawrence

Anna Sprague was a daughter of Francis Sprague.

She married William Lawrence in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony (present-day Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts) before 1 April 1644 (PCR 12:138).

She removed to Vlissingen, New Netherland (later known as Flushing, but presently as College Point, Queens County, New York) with her husband in 1645.

Mother of three known children.

William Lawrence and Anna Sprague were the parents of three children.

• 1. William Lawrence, b. 1645 (m. Deborah Smith).
• 2. Elizabeth Lawrence, b. 1650 (m. Thomas Stevenson).
• 3. John Lawrence, b. 1655 (m. Elizabeth Cornell).

She died in Vlissingen, New Netherland about 1664 (before 4 March 1664/65).

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NOTE: Previously, the first wife of William Lawrence of Flushing had been referred to in various family histories as either "Elizabeth Hager" or "Elizabeth Gildersleeve" — neither identification with supporting evidence. The latter mistaken identification in particular appears to have been based on confusion with William Lawrence of Newtown who had a wife named Elizabeth (who was possibly a daughter of Richard Gildersleeve), who later moved to Monmouth County, New Jersey.

The identification of the first wife of William Lawrence of Flushing as Anna Sprague was made in The Great Migration series biography of her father, Francis Sprague.

Some sources list the husband of Ann/Anna Sprague as perhaps Robert Lawrence; Eugene Aubry's "Plymouth Colony" lists her husband as William Lawrence.