Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet

Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, 7th Baronet (6 November 1846 – 8 April 1919) was an Anglo-Irish landowner, the last of the Chapman baronets of Killua Castle in County Westmeath, Ireland. For many years he lived under the name of Thomas Robert Lawrence, taking the name of his partner, Sarah Lawrence, the mother of his five sons, one of whom was T. E. Lawrence, also known as 'Lawrence of Arabia'.

Early life and background Thomas Chapman was born in Southill, Westmeath, Ireland in 1846, the second of the three sons of William Chapman (who was the son of Sir Thomas Chapman, 2nd Baronet of Kilua) and Louisa Vansittart, the daughter of Colonel Arthur Vansittart of Shottesbrooke.

The family belonged to the Anglo-Irish landowning class and for generations its members had married into families of a similar standing in England and Ireland.

Thomas Chapman was brought up to lead the life of a country gentleman, at a house called South Hill, near the village of Delvin, County Westmeath, Ireland, a modest property of some 170 acres, and also at the family's town house in Dublin. He was educated in England, at Eton College. and they had four daughters, Eva Jane Louisa (born 1874), Rose Isabel (born 1878), Florence Livia (born 1880) and Mabel Cecele (born 1881). Lawrence, who had been born on 31 August 1861 in Sunderland, County Durham, had been registered at birth under the surname of her unmarried mother, Elizabeth Junner, who at the time was working as a servant in the house of Thomas Lawrence, a Lloyd's surveyor, whose son John Lawrence is thought to be Sarah Lawrence's father. The purpose of this move was largely to enable them to educate their sons, despite their limited means.

Chapman lived a life of leisure and spent much of his time with his sons. He was a photographer, hunted, spoke good French, was interested in medieval architecture, taught his sons carpentry, and even in old age would quote from Homer and Horace. He bought smart new bicycles and liked to cycle long distances.

In 1914, Chapman succeeded his cousin Sir Benjamin Rupert Chapman, 6th Baronet (1865–1914), to the baronetcy. As he left no legitimate male heirs, the Chapman Baronetcy of Killua Castle became extinct. In 1911, his widow made a will which divided the Killua estate, leaving £20,000 to her brother, Chapman, and separate large amounts to his four daughters. However, when she died in 1920, the £20,000 went to the daughters, as her residuary legatees, as Chapman had himself died a few months before and she had not specified that the bequest was to go elsewhere in that event. The loss of the £20,000 may explain the bitterness of an allusion to the Chapmans which T. E. Lawrence added to Liddell Hart's biography of him: "The father's family seemed unconscious of his sons, even when after his death recognition of their achievement might have done honour to the name."

His second son, Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, died childless in a motorcycle accident in 1935, while his third and fourth sons, William George Lawrence (1889–1915) and Frank Helier Lawrence (1893–1915), also childless, were killed during the First World War. Second Lieutenant William George Lawrence died on 23 October 1915 while serving with the 13th Sqdn. Royal Flying Corps and the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry; he is buried at St Souplet British Cemetery. Second Lieutenant Frank Helier Lawrence died on 9 May 1915 while serving with the 3rd Bn. attd. 1st Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment; he is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial.

His fifth son, Arnold Walter Lawrence (1900–1991), married Barbara Thompson in 1925 and had one child, Jane Helen Thera Lawrence. who became Lyon Jones Professor of Physics in the University of Liverpool in 1960, and they had two children.

Sarah Lawrence died in 1959, aged 98, in the Acland Nursing Home, Oxford.