Lawson, John

John Lawson, explorer, surveyor, and naturalist, was from the Yorkshire region of England. He arrived in the Carolinas in 1700 and soon after began the first of a series of travels in the region. Eventually, he took up residence in present-day Bath, North Carolina, and in 1708 became the official surveyor for the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. In the late summer of 1711, on another trip to explore the interior of the region, Lawson was captured and put to death by Tuscarora Indians.