George Frederick Lawley was born in 1823 and emigrated to the United States in 1851 with wife Martha and sons George Frederick and Edward Ainge. In the 1860s the Lawleys established a small boat yard at Scituate and within a few years they established a larger yard at South Boston. In 1885 they built the sloop PURITAN with defeated the English cutter GENESTA in the fifth match for the America's Cup. The next year the firm built another cup defender, the MAYFLOWER, which defeated the British cutter GALATEA.
Among the larger craft constructed during the period of the eighties and nineties were the schooners SACHEM, IDLER, SAVARONA, LATONA, and MARGARET. Owing to the demand for iron and steel construction, the plant was moved to Neponset and the elder Lawley retired from the business. Constructed in the Neposet yard were schooners GUINEVERE and SPEEJACKS, yachts such as SEA CALL and power boats such as TAORMINA and the ATHERO II. George F. Lawley, II retired in 1925 and son Frederick Damon Lawley continued work in the yard he had established in Quincy.
From the description of Lawley family collection, 1839-1990. (Mystic Seaport Museum, G W Blunt White Library). WorldCat record id: 55040931
