The William Lawrence Family Burial Ground was located on the property of William Lawrence (1622 — 1680) on Tew's Neck in present-day College Point, Queens County, New York.

At the time of the arrival of the William Lawrence from Massachusetts in 1645, the area was known as Vlissingen, New Netherland. Under the British in 1664, it became Flushing, New York.

William Lawrence came to own all 900 acres of Tew's Neck via his patent with the Dutch in 1645. At the time, the peninsula was separated from the remainder of Flushing to the south by a swamp (presently filled in). It had been named for Michael Tew, the first settler, but it became known as Lawrence's Neck during the family's tenure.

Although he also owned land elsewhere in Flushing, William Lawrence made his home on Tew's Neck. The peninsular property as a whole remained in the hands of the descendants of William Lawrence for its first century, with the Lawrences having been the only white inhabitants. Beginning in the mid 18th century, however, portions of the Lawrence property were gradually sold off.

Knowledge of the exact site of the family cemetery on Tew's Neck has been lost to time. Although it may have been located on the former farmlands of Gilbert Lawrence in the northeastern portion of College Point, there are no remaining signs of it, with the former peninsula now covered by the modern city grid.

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▫ Years of use: Uncertain (from about 1645 to about 1795).

▫ Disposition: Destroyed.

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NOTE: Later descendants of William Lawrence became Quakers and many were interred in the Flushing Meeting House Burial Ground.

Thomas Lawrence (brother of William Lawrence) is buried in his own family burial ground founded in 1703, together with his descendants (the "Newtown branch" of the Lawrence family) in present-day Astoria, Queens County, New York.





The cemetery map location is approximate.