suc. bro. May 1709 (a minor) as 6th Bar. LOVELACE.
First sat 13 Jan. 1730; last sat 20 May 1736
b. 1708, 2nd surv. s. of John Lovelace, 4th Bar. Lovelace and Charlotte, da. of Sir John Clayton. educ. travelled abroad (Italy).1 unm. d. 28 July 1736; admon. 24 Sept. 1736 to sis. Martha Lovelace.2
Associated with: St James, Westminster; Lady Place, Hurley, Berks.3
Lovelace succeeded to the title while still an infant following the deaths of both his father and brother in New York.4 Two other brothers, Wentworth and Charles Lovelace also died young. Thus by the time of his succession only Lovelace himself, his mother and sister, Martha, remained of the family. Besides the title, there was little else for the young lord to inherit. The Lovelace estates based on the manors of Hurley and Water Eaton had descended to Sir Henry Johnson‡ on the death of the 3rd Baron and it had been in part financial necessity that had led the 4th Baron to accept the post of governor of New York, having previously attempted to sell most of his remaining lands.5 At his death, his baroness pleaded destitution.6 She was compelled to petition for payment of expenses and although it appears that there was no improvement in the family’s fortunes in the ensuing years, the dowager Lady Lovelace presumably wielded what residual influence remained throughout Lovelace’s minority.7 At barely two years old he was included as a minor in a list detailing the Lords’ votes on the Sacheverell trial. Details of the later part of his (brief) career will be covered in full in the second phase of this work.
Lovelace died of consumption at Rumsford in Essex in July 1736, ‘greatly esteemed, greatly lamented’.8 He was buried at Water Eaton leaving his sister, Martha, who later married Lord Henry Beauclerk‡, as his sole heir.9 He did not leave a will but was prudent enough to have insured his life with the Amicable Society.10 At his demise the barony became extinct.
R.D.E.E.- 1 London Evening Post, 3 July 1729.
- 2 TNA, PROB 6/112, f. 174.
- 3 London Letters of Samuel Molyneux, 1712-13 ed. P. Holden, 84.
- 4 Longleat, Bath mss, Thynne pprs. 46, f. 101.
- 5 VCH Oxon. xii. 192-3; Marlborough Godolphin Corresp. 876, 881-2, 902.
- 6 Add. 61623, f. 44.
- 7 HMC Hastings, iii. 12.
- 8 London Evening Post, 31 July 1736.
- 9 Daily Gazetteer, 7 Aug. 1736.
- 10 London Evening Post, 2-5 July 1737.