Biography
Robert Lawrence
About Robert Lawrence
Robert Lawrence was a Carthusian monk who became prior of Beauvale in Nottinghamshire. The New Catholic Encyclopedia records his earlier profession at the London Charterhouse and his succession to John Houghton at Beauvale in 1531. It also associates him with Cambridge legal studies and service as a chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. His birth date is not established.
Beauvale was a small contemplative foundation. Historic England records its establishment in 1343 for a prior and twelve monks. Its layout gave individual monks cells and gardens around a large cloister, alongside a church and buildings for shared needs. This arrangement provided space for solitude within an organized community. The house also depended on land and income; its religious life was part of the surrounding social and economic world.
The dispute over Henry VIII’s authority brought Lawrence to London. He joined Houghton and Augustine Webster in seeking a form of the royal demand that they could accept in conscience. Instead, they were imprisoned in the Tower. Their refusal to recognize the king’s spiritual supremacy led to a treason prosecution. Lawrence was executed at Tyburn on May 4, 1535, with the other two Carthusian priors, Richard Reynolds and John Haile.
The Carthusian Order remembers the three priors together. Its historical account records their arrest in April 1535 and their canonization on October 25, 1970. Their shared remembrance preserves the connection between the houses of London, Beauvale and Axholme during the crisis.
Lawrence’s death did not immediately end the Beauvale community. Historic England dates the priory’s surrender to July 18, 1539. Portions of the church and the building identified as the prior’s lodging remain, together with other standing and buried features. These remains allow visitors to recognize something of the place he governed, even though much of the monastery has disappeared.
A chapel at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Eastwood honors Lawrence and Houghton together. The bishops’ conference heritage survey describes a medieval altar slab brought from Beauvale and incorporated into the chapel’s altar. A painting behind it shows the martyrs being led from the Tower toward execution, and carved wooden figures by Theodore Kern represent the two saints. These are later devotional images, not authenticated portraits. The chapel connects remembrance of their deaths with a surviving object from their monastic home.
The Priory Catholic Voluntary Academy in Eastwood also names both men as its patrons. Its April 2024 newsletter describes a school pilgrimage to Beauvale around their May 4 feast, with older children walking to the ruins and younger pupils observing the day at school.
A separate account of the 2022 diocesan pilgrimage records staff, students and parents gathering at Eastwood before walking to Beauvale. Pupils helped prepare the celebration and participated in the readings and offertory. Such local gatherings keep Lawrence’s memory connected with particular schools, families and the landscape around his former monastery, rather than leaving it only in accounts of his trial.
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