Other Matters of Lovelock Interest


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We had been led to believe that at some point in the 17th Century King Charles 1 introduced the Lovelock - as a long ringlet or plait usually separated from the rest of the hair, brought forward on the shoulder and tied with a ribbon or rosette. Amongst European "men of fashion" the lovelock was apparently made to rest over the left shoulder (the heart side) to show devotion to a loved one, as in the portrait to the right, or, with considerable exaggeration, as in the engraving of Sir Thomas Meautys (1592 - 1649) to the left.




   
However, "Fairholt's Costumes in England", published in 1896, states that Lovelocks "... were sometimes called French locks. In the play 'Rub and a great Cast' of 1614 'a long French lock' is mentioned. In Green's 'Quip for an Upstart Courtier' of 1592 a barber asks "Will you be Frenchified, with a love-lock down to your shoulders, in which you may weave your mistress's favour?""

So King Charles was apparently adopting a well-established custom, but one which royal patronage would do nothing to diminish. We might guess that Charles was influenced by his Queen - Henriette Marie of France - as she certainly at times wore a lovelock as the portrait to the left demonstrates.

A curious addition concerning Charles and his Queen was contained in a letter to the Editor published in ‘Country Life’ magazine on 21 December 1901. The writer, one E Turner Powell, described Salisbury House – a building of the Tudor period which formed part of the marriage settlement of Henriette Marie. The writer related that during some repairs to the house the workmen threw out some rubbish from between the flooring joists of a disused room that contained ‘an ancient leather bag secured by strange locks’. The then owner of the house opened the bag and discovered within ‘roll after roll of many-coloured silks and black satin, which for two centuries had protected a Cavalier’s lovelock’. The lovelock, for reasons not explained by the writer, had, since its discovery, been considered to have been actually shorn from the head of King Charles. The writer opined that the care with which the lovelock had been so successfully preserved pointed to its having been regarded as some almost sacred relic. He gave no indication of its then whereabouts.


Charles and Henriette were by no means the only European royals to indulge in the fashion. To the right is a portrait of Christian IV, king of Denmark and Norway from 1596 to 1648. His is the longest reign of Danish monarchs or Scandinavian monarchies. 

The portrait was painted by Karel van Mander III, probably towards the end of Christian's life.

A stricter mood influenced other 17th Century English hairstyles as the poorer population and those of a Puritan persuasion wore shorter, uncurled haircuts, generally under caps.  However, when Charles II was restored to the throne one of the commemorative medals issued shortly afterwards featured him with a lovelock on his left shoulder:             
                       
The lovelock retained royal favour in the early 18th Century, with Queen Anne being depicted on some of her coinage with one lying upon her right shoulder as we see here:

In the New World in 1634 the students at Harvard (they were all men) were forbidden to engage in the fashion extremes of hairdressing, including long hair, Lovelocks, and hair powdering. See also Variants on the Lovelock Surname.

You might not expect a hairstyle to feature in military matters - unless it was a crew cut - but 'The Lewisham Borough News' was pleased to publish  on 17 October 1895
the following item:
"Beauty, as the poet has it, draws us with a single hair, but so far as the use of military lovelocks is concerned, Tommy Atkins is no longer to be allowed to resort to capillary attraction, even of this extremely limited character, while he is in uniform. For some time past he has been in the habit of wearing his hair curled outside the front of his forage cap. Now, to wear the hair in this fashion is found to be contrary to the Queen's Regulations, and a fiat has gone forth in various districts against the continuance of the practice. No mention is made of the precise form of punishment which will be inflicted on those who disobey the order and cling to their fringes, but we can mage, to adapt Mr. Gilbert, that there is boiling hair oil in it."




But to the right is a photograph to prove that the style could still find a place in a London alehouse frequented in December 2019, adorning the head of a young lady.

 On the other hand there is the problem shared by too many gentlemen in their later years - the loss of their once crowning glory. Joseph Ashby Sterry (1836-1917) captured some thoughts upon the matter in his poem entitled Love-Locks, which you can mull over here.


There was a time recently when, if you ever found yourself at a loose end in Liverpool, Lancashire you could have made your way to Unit 6 in the Old Haymarket, postcode L1 6ER, where you would have found the Coffee Shop opened by Sarah Lovelock on 9 May 2016.

The business was affected by the Coronaviruus pandemic - for instance having to shut whilst the staff were self-isolating - but thankfully is up and running again.


Another of the Company's products, pictured on the left below, generated a degree of on-line discussion in an attempt to discover what it is and how it was used, but all, originally, to no avail. However, a chance viewing of an item in a television programme about restoring family keepsakes and heirlooms has suggested that it might be an implement to remove the flesh from coconut shells.
If you know differently please let us know!

The picture on the right is a knife-grinding and sharpening machine which was yet one more of the Company's products.


Mystery Implement Knife-grinder

Photograph (left) Copyright Farmers Insurance, 218 South Main Street, Livingston, Montana, USA





Photograph (right) Copyright GracesGuides








And here's an Agricultural Implement
rather than a domestic one, but still
with a Lovelock connection as the
name appears on the bulge at the
front.

We believe it is a Chaff Cutter, and
it resides in a museum in Brisbane,
Queensland, Australia.		 Chaff Cutter ?


It is possible that there is a link between
the machine and an article that appeared
in 'The Queenslander' newspaper on 12
August 1905 which provided details of
'W. Lovelock and Co., Agricultural Machinery
Merchants and Importers' who operated out
of Russell Street in Toowoomba.


If you think that one of the characteristics of the British is their propensity for queuing - for the bus, for tickets (for anything), at the supermarket checkout - then you will be surprised by the story of Mrs Irene Lovelock, the Anti-Queue Champion. British Pathe made a short film about her which you can view at Mrs-Lovelock - anti-queue champion. Irene also founded the British Housewives' League as a campaigning response to food shortages in Britain after the end of the Second World War.




Harry Alfred Loveluck (1908-1977) is mentioned in a book entitled 'Tiger Tales from South-West Tasmania' in connection with the capture of a Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine, a creature now thought to be extinct, with the last one known in the wild shot in 1930 and the last in captivity dying in 1933:

"Fitzgerald trapper, Jim Salter, is on the record books as having caught a tiger at Adamsfield in July 1923. In company with his hunting companion, Harry Loveluck, they managed to transport the young tiger back to Loveluck's Fitzgerald home where it was kept overnight in a wooden box. The next day it arrived by train in Hobart where it was sold to Beaumaris Zoo for twenty five pounds. It is believed that this animal died shortly after of natural causes."





'HMS Blanche' towing the 'Pique' into port
  

On the 15th day of June, 1796 Charles Lovelock and Diana Elizabeth Hopkins (a native of London) were united together in holy wedlock in the British Chapel at Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. The ceremony, conducted according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England, was carried out by Thomas Hall, and witnessed by Edward Dowdy and John Warren. At the time of the marriage Charles was serving on HMS Blanche. The ship, a 32-gun 'fifth rate' of the Royal Navy, was ordered from the yards of Thomas Calhoun and John Nowlan, of Bursledon, Hampshire, on 9 August 1782. She enjoyed a number of successful cruises against privateers in the West Indies, capturing her opponents in three separate engagements, before coming under the command of Captain Robert Faulknor in 1794. He took the Blanche into battle off Guadeloupe on 5 January 1795 and eventually, after 5 hours of manoeuvering and fighting forced the surrender of the 36-gun French frigate 'Pique'. Faulknor was among the 8 men killed on the Blanche, whose crew had killed 76 on the Pique and wounded another 110. Blanche subsequently served in the Mediterranean, where she had the misfortune of forcing a large Spanish frigate to surrender but, being unable to secure the prize, had to watch her escape. Returning to British waters she was converted to a storeship and then a troopship, but did not serve for long before being run aground and wrecked off the Texel in 1799. Just who Charles Lovelock was has yet to be established. Did he join the ship in time to take part in any of her actions?
While Louis Napoleon was Prince President [of France], and just before he made himself Emperor, a decree was issued ordering a five-franc silver piece to be coined bearing his image. The dies were made, and one coin was struck off as a sample, and sent to the Prince President for approval. But some time passed before he examined it. When at last he gave it his attention he was annoyed to find that he had been represented on the coin with a 'love-lock', or hooked lock of hair on the temple, which he did actually wear at that period, but which he thought unsuitable to so dignified and permanent a representation of himself as an effigy upon a coin. The Prince President sent for the director of the mint, and ordered him to remove the 'love-lock'. Then he found that his silence with regard to the piece had been taken for approval, and that the stamping of the coins had commenced. The work was stopped, and the image deprived of its undignified lock; but the 23 coins that had already been struck off were not destroyed, and are now regarded as of great value.      
Even in Spain:

The 'Eastern Daily Press' of 31 March 1889 reported that according to the 'St James's Gazette' one of the most distinguished public characters in Spain had just taken his leave of the public stage and retired into the obscurity of private life. The man in question was Frascuelo, the famous torero or bullfighter, who had also a few days previously cut off the coleta or lovelock which adorned the forehead of every member of the profession.

Be that as it may, the only photograph of Frascuelo without his hat on that seems to exist shows a very clear forehead as on the right. 		      



Frascuelo
Pull's Ferry and Cathedral Gatehouse, Norwich in more recent times



A Travelling Tombstone
 Scattered around this Web Site we have a few Monumental Inscriptions providing transcripts of the wording on various Lovelock tombstones. Such a collection is hardly ever likely to be complete, requiring as it would a considerable amount of travel and time to ensure that nothing had been missed. Sometimes it is already too late, for instance where the wording has been effectively erased by the actions of the weather. And sometimes there are losses that we could probably not have been aware of before it was too late. An example of such a loss came to light in 2021, which in itself still poses an intriguing question.

An image at Ancestry.co.uk shows a page from a 'Register of Memorials Removed' from the City of London Cemetery, in Manor Park, E12. The particular entry of interest to us reads 'Painted headstone, footstone & curbs. Headstone leaning curbs buried. '. The 'Method of Disposal' recorded reads 'Remove footstone & curbs. Set upright', and the work was carried out in November 1958. The implication of the wording seems to suggest that the Headstone itself was retained, and the removal of footstone and curbs was part of a tidying up programme.

However, what causes the aforementioned intrigue is that the entry of 'Name of Owner or Last Person Interred' reads 'William Hudswell Lovelock, and George William Lovelock'. Both gentlemen seem to have been members of the Wallingford Line, William Hudswell Lovelock dying in 1917 and his son George William Lovelock in 1920. Neither, therefore, can be the Owner of the Headstone et al, if that term implies a living person, so presumably the stone marks their place of interment.

But William Hudswell Lovelock was recorded living in Oxfordshire in 1835, 1841, 1851 and 1861, and then in Sussex in 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911, and his death seems to have occurred in Sussex - it was certainly registered in the Midhurst, Sussex Registration District. George William Lovelock was recorded living in Midhurst in 1870, 1871 and 1881, in Kent in 1891 and in Berkshire in 1901 and 1911. His death apparently occurred in Great Shefford in Berkshire, and was recorded in the Hungerford Registration District. So far as online records go there seems to be only one William Hudswell Lovelock, and even if there was another, linking him also to a George William Lovelock would represent an almost unbelievable coincidence.

But, then, how did two men who lived and died in Oxfordshire, Sussex and Berkshire come to have an apparent grave in the East End of London?

In the Royal Society Archive

Amongst the treasures in the Royal Society Archive is a letter which was read on 9 April 1701, as follows:

'An Account of a Person who took great Quantities of Opium without it's Causing Sleep, attested by Several Physitians.
Newbury, 28 January 1700/1
There happened here a very remarkable Case of one Mrs Lovelock, who had been seized ill of a Fever about eleven days before this Instant; which affected her so, as to make her Light-headed to a great degree, Convulsed, and Restless; upon which the Physicians, whose Names are mentioned below, agreed to give her great Quantities of Opiats in Order to Compose her. But, as an instance against the Sleeping Quality of this Medicine , with the doses below attested, they could never procure any thing like Sleep, but still as she took them, they seem'd to refresh her, and make her Sensible, but caused nothing of Rest. And, what was very remarkable, the good women about her, began at last to Scruple her taking any more, upon the Notion they had, that by the Effects, this Medicine was too high a Cordial for her, and still kept her Waking; upon which, her Physicians were forc'd to alter the form. The Quantity she took from Tuesday night 12 a clock, to Friday night 12 a clock was as follow's.
Jan 28th 4 Boluses with 2 gr. each of Laud. Lond. made up in Venice Treacle. Six Pills with 2 Grains each of the same. A Bolus with 8 gr. of the same in Venice Treacle
Jan 30th Twelve Pills with 2 gr. each & one Bolus with 10 gr. of the same in Venice Treacle.
Jan 31st 4 Draughts with 10 gr. of the said Laud. London, and one ounce of Syr. de mecon. in each Draught. So that in all, she took in the time abovemention'd 102 gr. of Laud. Lond. & Ziij of Venice Treacle, and Ziiij of Syr. de meconio.
This is attested under the hands of her 3 Physicians & the Apothecary.
        Dr Franc. Willis of Oxford.
        Dr Step Flavell      }
        Dr John Cooke        } Newbury
        Ri. Fanner Apoth  }

Signed in the presence of
       Rich. Smith
        Rich. Spicer
        Rogr. Garnham

She died the first of Feb. about five of the clock in the Afternoon.'

Other Lovelocks in Print
Thomas Lovelock, born in 1832, was a member of the Islington Tree who spent most of his adult working life with the East India Railway Company of Calcutta, operating as a Clerk, Senior Clerk and finally Company Secretary, but always in London. Whatever his work actually required of him he obviously had an interest in matters that went far beyond the Railway, for in 1862 he authored "Investment Tables for Stocks and Debentures". Surprisingly, a paperback version of the book was produced in 2009, and was available from Amazon.co.uk for some time, although currently apparently unavailable.

Many Lovelocks will have been employed at one time or another as Secretaries, of whom it might have been expected that they would be able to use Shorthand. If they could it was probably Pitman's Shorthand. In 1963 Gertrude Lovelock, nee Weaving, produced a training manual for this as shown below.