Dorothy Lawson

Dorothy Lawson (née Constable, 1580–26 March 1632) was an English noblewoman, recusant and harbourer of Catholic priests.

Early life Dorothy was born in 1580 in Wing, Buckinghamshire, Her parents' own home was Burton Constable Hall in East Yorkshire. Her father was Sir Henry Constable (c.1559–1608), Justice of the Peace and Knight of the Shire for Yorkshire. and his second wife Dorothy, Catesby.

In 1605, the Lawson family moved to Heaton Hall, Northumberland. home of St. Anthony’s near Walker, Newcastle-on-Tyne, naming each room after a saint. held religious services for the local community including clandestine Mass, and visited other Catholic recusants who were imprisoned in jail for their beliefs. He wrote a biography of her life, calling her "once my spirituall child, but now I hope my zealous advocate". and raised in the Catholic faith.

Their daughter Dorothy became an Augustinian canoness at Louvain in 1618, Their son Ralph attended a seminary in Douai. Other children married into local Catholic families, with several generations indicted for recusancy or becoming nuns and priests.