The earliest Lovelock records from each English County |
The questions that non-Lovelocks often ask are "Where did the Lovelocks originate and how did they spread throughout England?"
These are not easy questions to answer. The research carried out by the late Gwen Eastment and the late Janet Hearle turned up some early variants of the name, the earliest of all possibly being Igod Luveloc who is mentioned in the Subsidy Rolls (records of taxation in England made between the 12th and 17th Centuries) from Suffolk.
However, since there is no evidence that Lovelocks were ever part of England's aristocracy there are unlikely to be any undiscovered records using a recognisable variant of the name that provide details of families rather than individuals until the advent of Parish Registers. Searching through our extensive collections of such entries enables us to assemble the following table showing the earliest mentions in each of the historical Counties of England, and on the Isles of Man and Wight. For some Counties the earliest mentions are only to be found in the annals of the General Record Office, as any related Parish Register entries for those events have yet to be identified. Many of the individuals appearing in entries before the 19th Century can not be positively identified as members of any of the existing Lovelock Family Trees, and these are indicated by the lack of entries in the 'Comments' column.
Links in the 'Comments' column lead to appropriate pages of additional information, including Webtrees entries.
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| Bedfordshire | 21 July 1867 | Eversholt | Baptism of Winifred Muriel Sandys Lovelock, daughter of Samuel and Fanny Sarah | Members of the Islington Tree. |
| Berkshire | 22 March 1538 | Reading | Burial of William Lovelocke | |
| Buckinghamshire | 13 August 1701 | Turville | Baptism of Isaac Lovelock, son of ? and Elizabeth | |
| Cambridgeshire | 13 January 1782 | Cambridge | Marriage of Thomas Lovelock and Jane Radford | |
| Cheshire | 1631 | Chester | Marriage of Zacheus Lovelock and Joan Kirks | According to an entry in the Shrewsbury Burgess Roll for 1633 Zaccheus (sic) was a Vintner, and the son of William Lovelock of Clifton, Gloucestershire - a Yeoman. He may therefore be the son of the couple recorded as William Lovelake and Anne Saule who married in Clifton on 6 December 1586. |
| Cornwall | 15 Oct 1815 | Budock | Marriage of Robert Lovelock and Jane Taye | Members of the Wiltshire-Cornwall Tree. Robert also appears in the Devon entry below. |
| Cumberland | 23 June 1799 | Cockermouth | Baptism of Henry Loveman Lovelock, son of James and Sarah | We can be sure of only 4 other Lovelock events in Cumberland, none occurring before 1946. |
| Derbyshire | 21 Oct 1874 | Church Gresley | Marriage of William John Lovelock and Edith Eyley | Members of the Wroughton-Tidcombe Tree |
| Devon | 2 February 1807 | Plymouth | Marriage of Robert Lovelock and Mary Downing | Members of the Wiltshire-Cornwall Tree. Robert also appears in the Cornwall entry above. |
| Dorset | December 1695 | Shaftesbury | Marriage of Ann Lovelock and James Winterburn | |
| Durham | Jan-Mar 1905 | Stockton RD* | Birth of Edith Ivy Lovelock | A member of the Shipton Moyne and Derbyshire Tree |
| Essex | 6 April 1662 | Romford | Baptism of Hannah Lovelock, daughter of John | |
| Gloucestershire | 25 February 1595 | Henbury | Baptism of Mary Lovelocke, daughter of John | |
| Hampshire | 20 July 1544 | Kingsclere | Marriage of John Lovlock and ? Wyllys | |
| Herefordshire | 9 September 1765 | Kington | Marriage of John Lovelock and Ann Lowe | John and Ann baptised a daughter in Dormington on 28 February 1768, but there were no other Lovelock events in Herefordshire until 1904. |
| Hertfordshire | 8 January 1761 | Rickmansworth | Marriage of Edward Lovelock and Joyce Mountague | |
| Huntingdonshire | Apr-Jun 1916 | Huntington RD | Marriage of Albert H Lovelock and Emily G Hilling | Members of the Lieflock Line |
| Isle of Man | 19 September 1946 | Braddan | Marriage of Arthur Victor Lovelock and Yvonne Frances Kermode | This may be the only Lovelock event to have taken place on the Isle of Man. They were members of the Ropley, Crondall and Dogmersfield Tree |
| Isle of Wight | Apr-Jun 1906 | Isle of Wight RD | Marriage of Sarah Ann Jane Lovelock and William Henry Trimmer | Members of the Lieflock Line |
| Kent | 5 April 1734 | Chatham | Marriage of Jane Lovelock and Robert Dove | |
| Lancashire | 17 May 1802 | Cheetham | Burial of Charles Lovelock | |
| Leicestershire | 3 June 1847 | Somerby | Marriage of James Lovelock and Elizabeth Wheeler | James Richard Lovelock was baptised in Walmer, Kent on 17 March 1816, the son of Henry and Ann, but the family have not been linked to a Lovelock Family Tree. |
| Lincolnshire | 15 April 1886 | Lincoln | Marriage of George James Lovelock and Edethea Robinson | Members of the Cholderton Tree |
| London | 19 December 1614 | City | Marriage of Mary Lovelock and William Kempthorne | |
| Middlesex | 27 August 1580 | Stepney | Baptism of Hugh Lovelock, son of Thomas | |
| Norfolk | 13 March 1725 (Old Style) | Fincham | Marriage of John Lovelock and Lidia Philips | |
| Northamptonshire | 5 August 1858 | Duston | Marriage of George Sydney Lovelock and Mary Ann Burton | Members of the St Pancras (Main) Tree. George's second forename was actually William. |
| Northumberland | 28 May 1775 | Newcastle | Marriage of William Lovelock and Margaret Grant | There were no other Lovelock events in Northumberland until 1887. |
| Nottinghamshire | Oct-Dec 1879 | Basford RD | Birth of Emily Lovelock | Daughter of William John Lovelock and Edith Eyley (see above) Wroughton-Tidcombe Tree |
| Oxfordshire | 1607 | Harpsden | Baptism of Anne Lovelock, daughter of Henry | |
| Rutland | 19 April 1875 | Exton | Burial of William Thomas Lovelock | A member of the Wroughton-Tidcombe Tree |
| Shropshire | 6 August 1632 | Shrewsbury | Baptism of Charles Lovelocke, son of Zacheus | It seems probable that Zacheus is the man who married Joan Kirks at Chester in 1631 (see above). |
| Somerset | 29 December 1630 | Minehead | Baptism of Stephen Lovelock, son of Richard | |
| Staffordshire | 11 December 1831 | Newborough | Baptism of Ann Lovelock, daughter of William and Mary | |
| Suffolk | 1578 | Barham | Marriage of Rob Lovelock and Margaret King | |
| Surrey | 1653 | Camberwell | Marriage of Jane Lovelock and Jn Ferly | |
| Sussex | 7 May 1610 | Stoughton | Marriage of Annis Lovelock and Thomas Cachlove | |
| Warwickshire | 27 February 1843 | Birmingham | Marriage of Elizabeth Lovelock and William Newick | Members of the Lyneham Line |
| Westmorland | Oct-Dec 1870 | Kendal RD | Birth of Emily Lovelock | This may be the only Lovelock event to have taken place in Westmorland. |
| Wiltshire | 23 December 1552 | Mildenhall | Burial of John Lovelocke | |
| Worcestershire | 31 March 1839 | Kidderminster | Marriage of Charles Lovelock and Sarah Tandy | |
| Yorkshire | 25 December 1850 | Drypool | Baptism of Sarah Lovelock, daughter of Morrice and Louisa | Members of the Lieflock Line |
* RD = Registration District
The three earliest dates in the table are 1538, 1544 and 1552, from Berkshire, Hampshire and Wiltshire respectively, for two burials and a marriage. The Lovelock in the Hampshire marriage would probably have been baptised, but if so it would have been before Parish Registers were ordered to be kept. We do not know the ages of the two Lovelocks who were buried, but obviously no records of their baptisms have been identified, if they have survived, so those events may also pre-date the keeping of Registers.
The data suggests that Berkshire, Hampshire and Wiltshire may indeed be the area where the name first came into common use, and of course the three counties do all meet at a point very close to the village of Buttermere in Wiltshire which as late as 1905 was the birthplace of a Lovelock. The other three 16th Century dates in the table raise questions which at this remove are probably unanswerable. Could there be a credible reason for a man from the Berkshire-Hampshire-Wiltshire area to have moved to Suffolk and to be sufficiently settled to marry there? Could a Thomas from the Berkshire-Hampshire-Wiltshire area have left to seek his fortune in the environs of London, to have married, and to have sired a son? Could a John from the Berkshire-Hampshire-Wiltshire area have left to work in Gloucestershire, to have married and to have sired a daughter?
Not surprisingly we have been unable to link any of the Lovelocks in the 16th Century entries to one of our Family Trees. We have been slightly more successful with 17th Century entries. We have the record of baptisms in Warminster, Wiltshire in 1617, Sulhamstead Bannister in 1660 and Fawley in 1669, both in Berkshire, and a marriage in Newbury, Berkshire in 1695, in all of which we can identify the individuals concerned as members of one of our Family Trees. Of course there are many documented events in the early 18th Century which involve individuals who must have been born in the 1600s, but no details of their births, baptisms or marriages have survived, or if they have, they have yet to be identified and attributed.
As a consequence there is anything but a consistent date for the point in time where the various Lovelock Family Trees begin, as can be seen from the table here.