John Lovelace, 4th Baron Lovelace (16721709) was the Governor of both
New York and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Biography
He was the son of William Lovelace of
Hurst, Berkshire
Hurst is a village in the civil parish of St Nicholas Hurst in the English county of Berkshire.
Geography
The parish of St Nicholas Hurst, is about north of Wokingham and south of Twyford in the county of Berkshire. It covers about and is t ...
. He was the grandson of Francis Lovelace, son of
Richard Lovelace, 1st Baron Lovelace. Despite being born into an aristocratic family, the
3rd Baron Lovelace had weakened the family's fortunes through gambling, leaving John heavily in debt. He served in the military following the inheritance of his peerage. In 1701, Lord Lovelace married Charlotte, the daughter of Sir John Clayton, but her poor dowry little improved his financial situation. The couple had six children:
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
(d. 1709), Charlotte (d. 1705), Charles (d. 1707), Wentworth (d. 1709),
Neville (d. 1736) and
Martha
Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...
(d. 1788), who married
Lord Henry Beauclerk
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
in 1739.
No portraits of the 4th Baron Lovelace have surfaced to date. However, in 1705 he was described by an English writer named John Macky as follows: "Lieutenant Colonel of the Horse Guards; a very pretty gentleman of good sense and well at court; a short, fat brown man, not forty years old."
On 21 March 1708, Lord Lovelace was appointed to the governorship of New York and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
to replace
Lord Cornbury
Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (28 November 1661 – 31 March 1723), styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was an English aristocrat and politician. Better known by his noble title Lord Cornbury, he was propelled into the forefr ...
. After a harrowing nine-week trans-Atlantic voyage Governor Lovelace, his wife and three sons John, Wentworth, and Neville arrived in New York on 18 December 1708. Well received by the Assemblies of both colonies, he proceeded to convict several of Cornbury's supporters, members of the corrupt
Cornbury Ring, including former Governor
Jeremiah Basse
Jeremiah Basse (died 1725) was a governor of both West Jersey and East Jersey. He became governor of West Jersey in 1697, and became governor of East Jersey in 1697.
Basse was not an effective governor, however, after Andrew Hamilton returned ...
.
Lord Lovelace was granted £1,600 by a revenue bill on 5 May 1709. However, during the last month of his six-month tenure, two of the Governor's sons—John and Wentworth—died, probably of pneumonia, and he himself died on 6 May 1709.
[E.B. O'Callaghan (Ed.) Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York. Vol. V, pp.80-81.] His funeral was held in
Trinity Church, New York City and he was buried on 12 May in the
Trinity Church Cemetery
The parish of Trinity Church has three separate burial grounds associated with it in New York City. The first, Trinity Churchyard, is located in Lower Manhattan at 74 Trinity Place, near Wall Street and Broadway. Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gal ...
. His widow and two-year-old son Neville returned to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where Lady Charlotte gave birth to
Martha
Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness ...
who was baptised in Westminster on 14 January 1710.
See also
*
List of colonial governors of New Jersey
The territory which would later become the state of New Jersey was settled by Dutch and Swedish colonists in the early seventeenth century. In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, English forces under Richard Nicolls ousted the Du ...
*
List of colonial governors of New York
The territory which would later become the state of New York was settled by European colonists as part of the New Netherland colony (parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware) under the command of the Dutch West India C ...
References
External links
NJ State Library: John Lovelace*
Online article about Lovelace with the information that he was the grandson of Francis Lovelace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelace, John, 4th Baron
1672 births
1709 deaths
People from Hurley, Berkshire
Colonial governors of New Jersey
Governors of the Province of New York
John, Baron 4th
4
Burials at Trinity Church Cemetery
People of colonial New Jersey
People of the Province of New York
English emigrants