Lawrance was the son of Thomas Munton Lawrance of Dunsby Hall, Lincolnshire and his wife Louisa Compton. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1859, and became a QC in 1877. He became Recorder of Derby in 1879 and was a J. P. for Lincolnshire. In 1878, Lawrance stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at a by-election in Peterborough, but at the 1880 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for South Lincolnshire. That constituency was abolished under Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and at the 1885 general election Lawrance was elected MP for Stamford. He was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire in September 1886. Lawrence became a High Court Judge in 1890 and was also appointed as one of the Judges for the trial of election petitions. Giving the Plymouth Law Society's Annual Pilgrim Fathers Lecture in December 2009, Lord Justice Toulson recounted that Lawrance's appointment to the High Court had been greeted with ‘hoots of derision’ and that the Law Times had written "This is a bad appointment, for although a popular man and a thorough English gentleman, Mr. Lawrance has no reputation as a lawyer, and has been rarely seen of recent years in the Royal Courts of Justice". Lawrance's tardiness in giving judgements led to his nickname of ‘Long’ Lawrance, Toulson observing that: "the shameful way in which commercial disputes were being dealt with – or not dealt with – by hopelessly bad judges, especially Lawrance, was causing serious damage to the City of London and its commercial reputation". As a consequence, the Commercial Court was created; Toulson recalled that in 1944 Lord Justice MacKinnon had said: "When I was the pupil of T. E. Scrutton from 1896 to 1897, he told me that the Only Begetter of the Commercial Court was ‘Long’ Lawrance. Mr Justice J. C. Lawrance was a stupid man, a very ill-equipped lawyer, and a bad judge....". Lawrance lived at Dunsby Hall, near Bourne, Lincolnshire and died at the age of 80 Lawrance married Charlotte Georgina Smart in 1861.
