Excerpt from Lord Lovelace and the Second Canadian Campaign: 1708-1710

To have immediately followed Lord Cornbury in the admin istration: of New York Province was to the advantage of the character of anyone succeeding him. By the side of the most incapable and discreditable governor of the colony even a per son of quite indifferent reputation would have shone brightly. But the character of John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, needed no such comparison to commend it. He appears to have been an amiable and worthy gentleman, bearing an hon crable name with dignity, and magnifying it by personal virtue. He had served his sovereign at home in positions of trust, and she now conferred on him the delicate task of assuming the government of New York. It was hoped that he might restore a better order to affairs brought into such disgraceful confusion by the queen's cousin.

The coincidence of two governors of New York within two score years of each other having borne the same name has natu rally led to the conjecture that they belonged to the same family; and the nearness and nature of the family tie has been variously stated by historians. While some assert that Lord Lovelace was the nephew, a greater number have made the statement that he was the grandson of Governor Francis Love lace. The subject, therefore, has assumed sufficient importance to justify a minute examination of the facts. As far back as the days of Henry VI there appears in the records of English genealogy the name of Richard Lovelace, of Queenthite, near London, who purchased Bayford, in Kent. To this individual and his son Lancelot both Francis Lovelace and Lord Lovelace traced their pedigree. Lancelot Lovelace had three sons, of whom the oldest died without issue; William, the second son, inherited the estate; and the name of the third was John.

From these two brothers descended two distinct lines of issue. From William Lovelace the descent is clearly traceable to Gov cruor Francis Lovelace. Ills grandfather and father were both knighted. His father was Sir William Lovelace, of Woolwich, Kent. Ilis elder brother was Richard Lovelace, the poet and dramatist, who died in 1658, before Francis came to New York. Francis himself, the third son, was also a poet and an artist. There is no record that he was married. Two brothers, Thomas and Dudley, accompanied him to the New World. Richard, perhaps the handsomest Englishman of his time, was among the favorites of Charles the First. His name survives, secure of its immortality, from two of the most faultless lyrics in our language.

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