LAWSON, James, author, born in Glasgow, Scotland. 9 November, 1'799; died in Yonkers, New York, 20 March, 1880. He was educated at Glasgow university, came to the United States in 1815, and entered the counting house of a maternal uncle at New York. On the failure in 1826 of a mercantile house in which Mr. Lawson had become a partner, he turned his attention to literature, wrote for the New York "Literary Gazette," and was associate editor of the "Morning Courier" in 1827-'9, and of the "Mercantile Advertiser" in 1829-'33. He afterward pursued the business of marine insurance in New York. Mr. Lawson was the intimate friend of Edwin Forrest and William Gilmore Simms. He published "Tales and Sketches by a Cosmopolite" (New York, 1830); "Poems" (1857); "Giordano," a tragedy that was first performed at the Park theatre in November, 1828; and contributed many criticisms, essays, tales, and verses to periodicals. See Wilson's "Poets and Poetry of Scotland" (2 vols., New York, 1876).