FIFTEENTH GENERATION

28314. Sir William Lovelace ^{(114) (179)} was born before Feb 12 1583/84 in County Kent, England. He died in 1628 in Groenlo, the Netherlands. Sir William Lovelace was a professional soldier and a member of the Virginia Company nd subscriber to the second charter of 1609. He was married to Anne Barne about 1610.

28315. Anne Barne ⁽¹¹⁴⁾ was born about 1590. She died in 1633. Children were:

14157 i. Anne Lovelace.
ii. Richard Lovelace^{(179) (105)} was born on Dec 9 1617. He died in Apr 1658 in London. Richard Lovelace was one of the most interesting figures in early Stuart and Commonwealth England, described by a contemporary as a "Souldier, Gentleman & Lover, and a fair pretender to the Title of Poet."

Probably born in Holland, where his father was in the military service of the Dutch, Lovelace was educated at Charterhouse and at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where he was "accounted the most amiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld."

In 1639-40 he took part in two expeditions to Scotland. In 1642, in Kent, where his estates lay, he was chosen to present a royalist petition to the House of Commons. The Commons, firmly in the grip of the Puritans, had him imprisoned and it was there that he wrote his most famous poem, "To Althea, from Prison." Released after about seven weeks, he spent much of tbe next four years abroad and was wounded fighting for the French in 1646. In 1648, now holding the rank of colonel, he was again imprisoned, on a spurious charge, and there prepared "Lucasta" for publication.

Having sold most his estates, he seems to have been in some want near the end of his life and was helped by friends, including Charles Cotton. But there is no evideince that he died in poverty and misery as some have stated. He was planning a second volume of verse when he died.

If Lovelace was not a poet of the first rank, he was certainly in the upper reaches of the second. The editor of the 1925 edition of his poems states that "Obvious criticism [of Lovelace] is summed up by John Ferriar's 'Lovelace strikes by fits a note divine,' but even when Lovelace's verses are only exercises in ingenuity there is audible the voice of one whose conversation was 'witty and incomparably graceful,' and who succeeded in giving to plain emotions the utterance that is most effective and memorable in song."
iii. Thomas Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born about 1619. He died after 1671. Thomas Lovelace emigrated to New HYork City, where he served as an alderman in 1671. He also served as Sheriff of Richmond County.
iv. Francis Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born about 1621. He died before Dec 22 1675. Francis Lovelace served as Governor of New York from 1668 to 1673.
v. Joan Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born in 1622.
vi. William Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born about 1624. He died in 1644 or 1645 in Caermarthen, Scotland.
vii. Elizabeth Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born about 1625.
viii. Dudley Lovelace⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ was born about 1627.

Return to Table of Contents