Sir William Lovelace, the poet's grandfather who, according to
Berry, died in 1629, was a correspondent of Sir Dudley Carleton
(see CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC SERIES, 1611-18, pp. 443,
521, 533; Ibid. 1618-23, p. 17). It appears from some Latin lines
before the first portion of LUCASTA, that the poet's father served
with distinction in Holland, and probably it was this circumstance
which led to Lovelace himself turning his attention in a similar
direction: for the latter was on service in the Low Countries,
perhaps under his father (of whose death we do not know the date,
though Hasted intimates that he fell at the Gryll), when his friend
Tatham, afterwards the city poet, addressed to him some verses
printed in a volume entitled OSTELLA (printed in 1650).
<2.2> Mr. A. Keightley, Registrar of the Charterhouse, with his
usual kindness, examined for me the books of the institution,
in the hope of finding the date of Lovelace's admission, &c.,
but without success. Mr. Keightley has suggested to me that
perhaps Lovelace was not on the foundation, which is of course
highly probable, and which, as Mr. Keightley seems to think,
may account for the omission of his name from the registers.
<2.3> "He was matriculated at Gloucester Hall, June 27, 1634, as
"filius Gul. Lovelace de Woolwich in
Com. Kant. arm. au. nat. 16.'"--Dr. Bliss,
in a note on this passage in his edition of the ATHENAE.
<2.4> Bethersden is a parish in the Weald of Kent, eastward
of Smarden, near Surrenden. "The manor of Lovelace," says Hasted
(HISTORY OF KENT, iii. 239), "is situated at a very small distance
SOUTH-WESTWARD from the church [of Bethersden]. It was in early
times the property of a family named Grunsted, or Greenstreet,
as they were sometimes called; the last of whom, HENRY DE GRUNSTED,
a man of eminent repute, as all the records of this county testify,
in the reigns of both King Edward II. and III., passed away this
manor to KINET, in which name it did not remain long; for WILLIAM
KINET, in the 41st year of King Edward III., conveyed it by sale
to JOHN LOVELACE, who erected that mansion here, which from hence
bore his name in addition, being afterwards styled BETHERSDEN-LOVELACE,
from which sprang a race of gentlemen, who, in the
military line, acquired great reputation and honour, and by their
knowledge in the municipal laws, deserved well of the Commonwealth;
from whom descended those of this name seated at BAYFORD in
SITTINGBORNE, and at KINGSDOWN in this county, the Lords Lovelace
of Hurley, and others of the county of Berks." The same writer,
in his HISTORY OF CANTERBURY, has preserved many memorials
of the connexion of the Lovelaces from the earliest times
with Canterbury and its neighbourhood. William Lovelace,
in the reign of Philip and Mary, died possessed of the mansion
belonging to the abbey of St. Lawrence, near Canterbury;
after the death of his son William, it passed to other hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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