John Strachan Lawrence was born in Waterford, New York, 15 April 1849, the oldest son of John and Cornelia Porter Lawrence. The family moved to Chicago when John Jr. was 14. John went on a trip to Europe with his parents in 1867, only to receive word upon their return to New York where his younger siblings had been staying, that his younger brother Porter had accidentally drowned.

John S. Lawrence graduated from Harvard University in 1871, and after studying modern languages at the University of Berlin, he returned to the United States to manage his father's lumber interests in Newago, Michigan for about five years. In 1877 he moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he studied law in the offices of Hughes, O'Brien, and Smillie.

Lawrence was admitted to the bar in 1879 and appointed Master in Chancery of the United States District Court in 1887, a position he held for 37 years. In 1887, the Comptroller of Currency appointed him receiver of Lowell National Bank and, in 1893, he was appointed receiver of Northern National Bank in Big Rapids, Michigan.

An active member of the Democratic Party, Lawrence was nominated for state senator in 1876 and was a candidate for regent of the University of Michigan in 1889. He was defeated by Charles Belknap in the congressional election of 1891. Lawrence was a member of numerous civic organizations including the Grand Rapids Historical Association, the Grand Rapids Library Commission, Police and Fire Commission, one of the original organizers of the Peninsular Club, and the University Club.

Lawrence maintained a lifelong interest in literature. He studied Romance languages under James Russell Lowell at Harvard and attended lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. He acquired a large personal library and a fine collection of rare books.

Of interest in the collection is a document related to a libel suit, Lawrence vs Mayor George Ellis and the GR Herald, dated 1909. It provides primarily autobiographical information by Lawrence, and mentions his windowed sister & family living in Muskegon, as well as his cousin and wife in Lansing, and relatives in Detroit. On July 31, 1922, the Grand Rapids Herald reported that Lawrence was the main beneficiary of the million dollar will of his cousin, William L. Porter of Horicom, N.Y. No research has been done to determine the final disposition of these funds, either before or at Lawrence's own death. He never married, but his sister Mary Lawrence Loomis of Princeton, New Jersey, as well as his name sake nephew John L. Loomis of Ann Arbor, were with him in Grand Rapids at his death 20 July 1924.