Col. Timothy Bigelow Lawrence (1826-1869)

He was known as "T. Bigelow Lawrence" and graduated from Harvard. His first marriage to the Southern belle Sallie Ward so shocked him and Boston society that it was over within a year. He married again, but left no children by either wife. He lived with his second wife, Elizabeth Chapman, in London where he was an attaché with the U.S. legation while his father was serving as U.S. Minister to the Court of St. James. He resigned the post after his wealthy father died in 1855 and they returned to his native Boston, taking up residence at 97 Beacon Street - he owned significant land with William Warren Goddard on Beacon between Arlington and Berkeley that they sold off in lots. In 1862, he was appointed U.S. Consul-General to Italy, holding that office while resident in Florence until his death. Interested in military history, he "indulged in the purchase and arrangement of a very complete collection of armor and weapons in use during the age of chivalry in Europe; which, with various implements of warfare of different nations surpassed any other in the country." He died suddenly on an official visit to Washington D.C. in 1869. The $1-million inheritance he left to his widow she in turn left to her nephew, Henry Chapman Mercer, allowing him to build the fantastical "Fonthill Castle" as well as what is now termed "the Mercer Mile" in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.