Abraham Lovelock |
Abraham Lovelock, erstwhile progenitor of what was named the Dowdeswell Tree, married Elizabeth Roberts at Dowdeswell on 12 May 1771. Until February 2019 we had no indication of Abraham's possible origins.
The Dowdeswell Marriage Register records that Abraham was a widower at the time of the marriage, and our 'Lovelocks in Gloucestershire' collection of records contains two other marriages of an Abraham Lovelock. There's one in Horsley in 1763 (although we suspect that to be a false entry), which does not name his wife, and there's nothing to indicate what happened to either of them. There is another marriage in Cherington, also in 1763, on 17 October, and this time we know that the wife was Mary Young, and that she was buried in 1766.
Speculation which began in February 2019 suggested that Abraham was the son of Thomas and Mary Lovelock who was baptised at Oldbury on the Hill in Gloucestershire on 5 Dec 1739. That would make him 23 or 24 at the time of his marriage to Mary Young - possibly about average for the times. In the burial entry for Mary Young Abraham is declared to be a labourer, so that there is no meaningful explanation for his move from Oldbury to Cherington, and later on to Dowdeswell.
Other entries that may bear on the story, or may just be coincidences, are that Jonathan, the son of Thomas and Mary baptised at Oldbury on the Hill on 31 Jan 1733 might be the man who married Elizabeth Alexander at Great Badminton on 18 May 1764. Jonathan and Elizabeth had two sons: William, baptised on 22 Jul 1764, and Abraham, baptised on 8 Sep 1765, both at Great Badminton. Elizabeth was buried at Great Badminton on 9 Feb 1766, and William apparently died on 20 Aug 1784.
Looking further, the Thomas and Mary baptisms at Oldbury on the Hill include son William, baptised on 22 Jul 1732, and just as his brother Jonathan may later have married at Great Badminton so may he - to Sarah Sugar on 18 Dec 1757. William and Sarah produced four children for baptism at Great Badminton, and possibly five if the incumbent's entry of Betty the 'daughter of Willm and Elizth' is an error and should have read 'daughter of Willm and Sarah' as seems most likely, there being no mention in the records we have collected of a candidate William-Elizabeth marriage.
Possibly stretching credibility a little too far, but if the sons of Thomas and Mary were all Journeymen then Richard baptised 25 Dec 1735 may be the man, although said to be 'of Rodmarton', who married Anna Powel at Kemble on 2 Jan 1760, and they in their turn the parents of the Mary Lovelock, baptised at Poole Keynes on 13 Jan 1765, who married Thomas Hamlett at Kemble on 24 Nov 1787; and lastly Thomas and Mary's daughter Mary baptised on 25 Sep 1743 could possibly be the lady who married Richard Davis at Great Badminton on 19 Dec 1774.
Further recent speculation suggested that, going back to the start of this note, Abraham's father was Thomas the son of John and Chatherine Lovelock from the Luckington Tree.
Based on all of the above a Luckington-Dowdeswell Tree was created on 25 February 2019, and awaits challenges to its validity, if any evidence supporting such an action should come to light.