John Lawson was born in England on December 27, 1674. A naturalist, he arrived in Carolina in 1700, where he collected specimens of North American flora and fauna. Lawson sent these specimens, as well as information about the American Indian people that lived there back to England. The journals from his expedition are an important early work in the history of Carolina. He later helped establish a settlement on the Neuse River at present-day New Bern. Later, when he and Christopher von Graffenried trespassed on Tuscarora land while on a surveying mission, they were captured and the Tuscarora killed Lawson on September 16, 1711.