It is stated in all the pedigrees of this family which I have seen, that
Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Astwell in Northamptonshire, who died in 1542,
married for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter (Burke calls her "heir,"
_Extinct Baronetage_, p. 110.) of John Boteler, Esq., of Woodhall Watton,
in Hertfordshire. The pedigree of the Botelers in Clutterbuck's
_Hertfordshire_ (vol. ii. p. 476.) does not notice this marriage, nor is
there any distinct allusion to it in the wills of either family. Thomas
Lovett's will, dated 20th November, 1542, and proved on the following 19th
January, does not contain the name of Boteler. (_Testamenta Vetusta_, vol.
ii. p. 697.) His father Thomas Lovett, indeed, in his will dated 29th
October, 7 Henry VII., and proved 28th January, 1492 (_Test. Vetust._, vol.
ii. p. 410.), bequeaths to Isabel Lovett and Margaret, his daughters, "Cl.
which John Boteler oweth me," but he refers to no relationship between the
families. Again, "John Butteler, Esquier," by his will, dated 7th
September, 1513, and proved at Lambeth 11th July, 1515, appoints "his most
gracious Maister, Maister Thomas Louett," to be supervisor of his will, and
bequeaths to him "a Sauterbook as a poore remembraunce;" but he alludes to
no marriage, nor does he mention a daughter Elizabeth. This John Boteler is
said by Clutterbuck to have married three wives: 1. Katherine, daughter of
Thomas Acton; 2. Margaret, daughter of Henry Belknap, who died 18th August,
1513; 3. Dorothy, daughter of William Tyrrell, Esq., of Gipping in Suffolk:
the last-mentioned was the mother of his heir, Sir Philip Boteler, Kt.; but
I can nowhere find who was the mother of the son Richard, and the daughters
Mary and Joyce mentioned in his will, {364} or of Thomas Lovett's wife. I
cannot help fancying that Elizabeth Lovett was his only child by one of his
wives, and was perhaps heir to her mother. Can one of your contributors
bring forward any authority to confirm or disprove this conjecture? Whilst
I am speaking of the Lovett pedigree, I would also advert to two other
contradictions in the popular accounts of it. That most inaccurate of
books, Betham's _Baronetage_, vol. v. p. 517., says, Giles Pulton, Esq., of
Desborough, married Anne, daughter of Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Astwell: the
same author, vol. i. p. 299., calls her Catherine; which is correct?
Neither Anne nor Catherine is mentioned in Thomas Lovett the Elder's will
(_Test. Vetust._, vol. ii. p. 410). Again, Betham, Burke, and Bridges
(_History of Northamptonshire_, "Astwell") have rolled out Thomas Lovett
into two persons, and in fact have made him appear the son of his second
wife Joan Billinge, who was not the ancestress of the Lovetts of Astwell at
all. Nor was it possible she could be; for Thomas Lovett, in his will,
dated 1492, speaks of her as "Joan, my wife, late the wife of John Hawys,
one of the Justices of the Common Pleas." Now this John Hawys was living in
1487, and Lovett's son and heir, Thomas, was seventeen years old in 1492.
The abstract of Lovett's will in the _Test. Vetust._, calling Thomas Lovett
the Younger "my son and heir by the said Joan my wife," must therefore be
manifestly incorrect. I will not apologise for the minuteness of this
account, as I believe the correction of detail in published pedigrees to be
one of the most valuable features of "N. & Q.;" but I am almost ashamed of
the length of my communication, which I hope some of your readers may throw
light upon.