Frances Eleanor Laurens

Frances Eleanor Laurens

Frances Laurens was the daughter of John Laurens and Martha Manning Laurens. She was born sometime in January 1777.-

John Baker wrote in his diary that he visited newborn Frances and her mother on January 28, 1777, so she had to have been born on or before that date.

John Laurens started his journey back to America on December 27, 1776, so he did not witness his daughter’s birth. The delivery was a difficult one, and Frances was born with a swollen hip and thigh, prompting a doctor to cut some flesh from her hip. Frances was later baptized on February 18, 1777.

Frances would grow up in England with her mother while John was fighting in the war. Martha traveled with Frances down to France in an attempt to meet her father John while he was in France to secure more aid, but they arrived after he had already set sail back to America.

John Laurens would never meet his daughter. Frances did meet other members of the Laurens family though. Martha and Frances visited Henry Laurens while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London (sometime in 1780, I believe).

Martha died in the end of 1781 (around October/November) while still in France. John would die less than a year later, leaving Frances orphaned.

I can’t recall who took Frances in immediately after she was orphaned, but John’s sister Martha Laurens Ramsay ended up acting as her guardian along with her husband David Ramsay. Martha Ramsay seemed very interested in giving Frances a quality education and read the lectures Thoughts upon Female Education by Benjamin Rush.

Henry Laurens, her paternal grandfather, would bequeath his plantation at Long Canes and his lots in Hampstead (and I think possibly some money as well) to Frances in his will. Frances and her son repeatedly petitioned Congress to receive money that was owed to John Laurens from his time serving in the military. They eventually were paid $7,335.86.

Frances married twice in her life. First she eloped with Francis Henderson, a Scottish merchant who was not well-liked by her family. They had a son and named him Francis Henderson, Jr. (I would like to ask them WHY).

Frances separated from Francis Henderson, Sr. by 1801, and she did not have custody of her son.

Frances later married James Cunnington.

She died on April 25, 1860.

Her only son Francis became an alcoholic, had no children of his own, and died in 1847.

With the deaths of Frances Laurens and Francis Henderson, Jr., the line of John Laurens ended.