Biography:
An immigrant to the United States, Mr. Laurence Bradford Clements was the father of Ms. Edith Clements (who’s story we shared last week).
Mr. Clements was born on Saint Lucia, an island in the West Indies. In September of 1847, at the time of his birth, St. Lucia was under British control. He is likely descended from those enslaved people who supported the sugar industry on the island. They have been manumitted as part of the general abolition of slavery in 1836. Following a four year “apprenticeship,” formally enslaved people were free.
His parents would have been free, and he would be born free. They have not yet been found, nor has his passage to Maryland. It’s unclear why he would choose to move to the United States. Nor why, upon his arrival, he moved to rural Maryland, to a small farming community.
The mid 1870s found him in Westminster. On the day after Christmas, in 1877, Mr. Clements married Ms. Clementine Snowden. By 1900, the Clements family was living in Baltimore, where Mr. Clements worked as a cook.
Mr. Clements died in 1902, and is buried in Ellsworth Cemetery, in Westminster, Maryland.
Headstone
Find additional information about Lawrence Clements Sr. Family on FamilySearch.