Origins of the Glamorgan Loveluck Line |
The origins of the Glamorgan Loveluck Line can be traced back to
John Lovelock/Loveluck who married Ann John at St Mary, Margam on
23 Nov 1765.
Janet Hearle suggested (see the notes on The
Early Loveluck Family of Glamorgan) that John Lovelock moved
from Wiltshire to Glamorgan and that this move was associated with
the fact that the Talbot family had estates in both areas. She
also suggested that he changed his surname from Lovelock to
Loveluck on moving to Wales, due to the Welsh pronunciation of his
name. No conclusive evidence to support this hypothesis has been
found, either in Janet's notes or elsewhere, although it is
certainly the case that several Lovelucks rented farms and land on
the Margam estates and, according to Janet, Margam Estate accounts
for 1788-9 record that John L. held land in Kenfig and a cot and
garden in Margam.
A number of people, and in particular Janet Hearle, have attempted
to trace the origins of John Lovelock/Loveluck in Wiltshire (or
elsewhere) but no-one has succeeded so far in establishing with
certainty where he came from. However, some likely candidates have
been identified. In particular, the Parish Register for Ramsbury
Wilts. includes the following baptism record:
1739 Oct 21, John son of Thomas & Mary Lovelock
as well as a baptism record for the Thomas Lovelock, probably the father of this John Lovelock:
1704 July 21 Thomas the son of Thomas Lovelock, Labourer, was baptised same day
We have the transcript
of the will of John Lovelock (bap Ramsbury 9 Oct 1707, d Feb
1790), who was almost certainly the brother of the above Thomas
Lovelock. In his will, John left one shilling to John, son of his
brother Thomas, which seems a rather miserly sum, considering that
he bequeathed fifteen pounds to an Edward Johnson of Burbage and a
similar sum to John Andrews, blacksmith of Ramsbury, neither of
whom appears to have been related to him. Could it be that John
was punished for having left the village and moved to Wales?
However, there are a quite a few John Lovelocks born in
Wiltshire and surrounding counties at about this time, and it is
far from easy to sort out which of them belong to other Lovelock
lines, and which are potential candidates for the progenitor of
the Glamorgan Loveluck line. Robert Sterry has produced a collection of
John Lovelocks born about 1740 (revised in 2013), with some suggestions as to which of them might belong
to the different Lovelock trees which have been constructed.