We have a reasonable amount of information on Lovelocks who lived in the 18th Century and more modest amounts from earlier Centuries. We can guess, in the absence of much evidence to the contrary, that the majority of them, when of age, were engaged in agricultural activities of one sort or another, or married to or fathered by someone who was, and if not living below the poverty line, as we would view it today, were not so far above it that day-to-day life would not have been something of a challenge and a struggle.

One thing we can be sure of is that there would have been few if any Lovelocks in those times who could have afforded to send their children to any sort of school. There were no state-funded schools in England before the 19th Century, and the few schools that did exist were run by church authorities, with an emphasis on religious education - not seen, no doubt, as an essential prerequisite to working in agriculture.

In 1808 a Protestant Non-conformist organisation began to create so-called British Schools, and this was followed in 1811 by the establishment of an Anglican Society that founded what became known as the National Schools.

From 1833 onwards Parliament voted funding each year for the building of schools for poor children, marking the first time in England and Wales that the state had undertaken an involvement in education. Other important developments were the Elementary Education Act of 1870, which required schools managed by an elected board to be established wherever elementary (Primary as we would call it today) education provision was inadequate, and the Elementary Education Act of 1876, which made it the legal duty of parents to ensure that their children received an education.

Apart from the basic infrastructure the one thing that a school needs in order to educate is a supply of teachers. Whilst you will find a wealth of information on the internet about Education there is comparatively little about the supply of teachers, particularly from a historical perspective. One thing we do know from the data elsewhere on this Web Site is that teaching is a profession to which few Lovelocks seem to have been drawn. Consider, for instance, the information at Find my Past provided by papers from the 'Teachers Registration Council' covering the years 1914 to 1948 in England and Wales. There are just three Lovelock entries and one Loveluck, from which the following details have been transcribed:

A search of this Web Site for the word 'Teacher' returns no less than 72 items, but they are not all concerned with Lovelock or Loveluck occupations. However, those that are are as follows, listed by the first years in which they were recorded:

1851
John Lovelock - Teacher at Islington School (when aged only 14) residing in Islington, London in 1851

1871
John James Lovelock - Pupil Teacher (when aged only 16) residing in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1871

1891
Ann Loveluck - Pupil Teacher (when aged only 16) residing in Bridgend, Glamorgan in 1891
Florence Lovelock - Music Teacher residing in Beckenham, Kent in 1891
Julia E Lovelock - Teacher of Children residing in Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire in 1891
William R Lovelock - Teacher residing in St Pancras, London in 1891 (when aged only 13); also Schools Board Teacher in St Pancras in 1901, Assistant Elementary School Teacher residing in Dudding Hill, Middlesex in 1911, and Assistant Elementary School Teacher residing in Willesden, Middlesex in 1921

1901
Eliza Lovelock (as in the table above) - School Teacher residing in Burbage, Wiltshire in 1901; also Elementary School Teacher in Reading, Berkshire in 1911
Fanny Lovelock - Pupil Teacher (aged only 18) residing in Swindon in 1901
Hywel R L Loveluck - Pupil Teacher residing in Llangynwyd, Glamorgan in 1901
Mary Hughes Loveluck (as above) - Pupil Teacher residing in Bridgend, Glamorgan in 1901; also School Teacher in 1911 and Head Teacher in 1939

1911
Annie Loveluck - School Teacher residing in Bridgend, Glamorgan in 1911; also in 1939
Edith Lovelock - Assistant Teacher County Council residing in Swindon in 1911
Eva Lovelock - School Teacher residing in Portswood, Hampshire in 1911
Frederick G Lovelock - Board School Teacher residing in Southend on Sea, Essex in 1911
Herbert Lovelock - Music Teacher (Pianoforte) residing in Stockport, Cheshire in 1911; also in 1921 and 1939
Katherine Mary Lovelock - Certificated Teacher Elementary School residing in Stone, Staffordshire in 1911; also in 1921 and 1939
Katie Loveluck - School Teacher residing in Bridgend, Glamorgan in 1911
Sylvia May Odom Lovelock - Teacher residing in Ashbourne, Derbyshire in 1911

1921
Annie Lovelock - School Teacher residing in Stockport, Cheshire
William Lovelock - Teacher of Piano residing in Battersea, London
Thomas Loveluck - Certificated Elementary School Teacher residing in Bridgend, Glamorganshire
Bernard V Lovelock (as above) - School Teacher residing in Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1921 and 1939

1939
Alice F Lovelock - School Teacher residing in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1939
Charles P Lovelock (as above) - Secondary Teacher residing in Ilkley, Yorkshire in 1939
Gwen J Lovelock - School Teacher residing in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1939
Muriel J Lovelock - Uncertificated School Teacher residing in Lyneham, Wiltshire in 1939

1940
Frances Lovelock - Public School Teacher residing in Brooklyn, New Jersey in the USA

1950
Beverley J Lovelock - Teacher of Dance residing in Monmouth, New York in the USA

Just 28 individuals, and some of them - the 'Pupil Teachers' - had of course not received any teacher training, but were some of the brighter pupils in their schools who stayed on to assist the qualified teachers.

Looking further afield we must not forget Gwen Eastment (nee Lovelock) and Janet Hearle (nee Loveluck) who were such inspirational early Lovelock Family History researchers, the fruits of whose labours are scattered throughout the Web Site. Both Gwen and Janet were School Teachers by profession, and there is a detailed article on the life of Gwen written by her cousin Robert in the 7th edition of 'Lovelock Lines'.

Another person to feature in a couple of issues of 'Lovelock Lines' is the Reverend Canon Dr Graham Lovelock. He took Holy Orders in 1975, but prior to that had been a teacher.

As we might expect, the subscription Web Sites all have information relating to Education in general. For instance, Ancestry.co.uk has 'School Lists and Yearbooks' which, as at the date of this page, yields over 1600 responses to a search for Lovelock, and 39 for Loveluck, whilst Find my Past's category of 'Schools and Education' returns over 450 and 34 responses to similar searches. Although those entries are unlikely to tell us much about Lovelock or Loveluck academic achievement they do often furnish other useful information, such as dates of birth, names of a parent or guardian, and sometimes where the pupil went to upon leaving the school.

By comparison the 'New Zealand School Registers and Lists' collection at Ancestry contains, surprisingly, just one Lovelock entry - for Martyn Howard Lovelock. He apparently attended Nelson College between 1938 and 1940, and eventually became an accountant.