Bloomsbury.
_Lovett of Astwell_ (Vol. viii., p. 363.).--Since I wrote on this subject,
I have consulted Baker's excellent _History of Northamptonshire_, and I
find the pedigree (vol. i. p. 732.) fully bears out my strictures on Betham
and Burke's account of Thomas Lovett, and his marriage with Joan Billinger.
With regard to Elizabeth Boteler, Mr. Baker simply states that Thomas
Lovett, Esq., of Astwell, married to his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of
John Boteler, Esq., of Watton Woodhall, Herts; but I observe that (_Idem._
vol. i. p. 730.) there is in Wappenham Church (the parish of which Astwell
is hamlet) a brass to the memory of "Constance, late the wife of John
Boteler, Esq., and sister to Henry Vere, Esq., who died May 16, 1499:" this
lady, I conjecture, was the mother of Elizabeth Boteler, afterwards Lovett;
and her daughter must have been heir to her mother, as the arms of Vere and
Green are quartered on her grandson Thomas Lovett's tombstone in the same
church; as well as on another monument of the Lovetts, the inscription of
which is now obliterated. The pedigree of the Botelers in Clutterbuck
(_Herts_, vol. ii. p. 475.) does not give this marriage; but John Boteler,
Esq., of Watton Woodhall, who was of full age in 1456, and whose first wife
Elizabeth died Oct. 28, 1471, is said to have married to his second wife
Constance, daughter of ---- Downhall of Gedington, co. Northamptonshire.
Can this be the lady buried at Wappenham? She was the mother of John
Boteler, Esq., Watton Woodhall, Sheriff of Herts and Essex in 1490;
therefore her daughter would not be entitled to transmit her arms to her
descendants. Or could the last-mentioned John Boteler, who died in 1514,
have had another wife besides the three mentioned in Clutterbuck? There can
be no question that one of the two John Botelers of Watton Woodhall married
Constance de Vere, as the marriage is mentioned on the monument at
Wappenham. I hope some of your genealogical readers may examine this point.