Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lovelace, Francis
LOVELACE, FRANCIS (1618?–1675?), governor of New York, second son of Richard, first baron Lovelace, by his second wife, Margaret, only daughter and heiress of William Dodsworth of London, was born at Hurley, Berkshire, about 1618. Like his brother, John, second baron, he was a devoted royalist, and attended Charles II during his travels (Clarendon Corresp. passim; cf. Thurloe State Papers, ed. Birch, vi. 151). In May 1650 he obtained a license from the council of state to pass with six servants to Long Island on his way to Virginia; and two years later he was selected by the governor to convey to the king an account of the surrender of the colony to the parliamentary commissioners (Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1574–1660, pp. 339, 376, 379). After the Restoration he appears to have attached himself to the Duke of York, and owing to his influence was either in 1664 or 1665 appointed deputy-governor of Long Island (State Papers, Dom. 1665, p. 148), and in 1667 lieutenant-colonel of one of the regiments raised in that year, his colonel being Sir Walter Vane (ib. 1667, p. 181). In 1668 he succeeded Colonel Richard Nicholls or Nicholas as governor of New York and New Jersey. His task as governor was to bring the preponderant Dutch population quietly but surely under the newly established English authority. Lovelace adopted a paternal policy. He established toleration in religious matters, bought lands of the red men, and started a regular post between New York and Boston. The prosperity of his capital was measured by its possession of four hundred houses. On the other hand, he resisted all demands for popular representation, decreed a severe tax for defensive purposes, and ordered to be burnt the protest which the Long Island towns preferred against it; so that when a hostile Dutch fleet, under Admiral Eversen, anchored off Fort James in July 1673, the inhabitants showed themselves indifferent or inclined to fraternise with the Dutch. Lovelace, who was absent at Newhaven at the moment, hurried back to find that his lieutenants had struck their flag, and that New Netherlands was again the name of the colony, while the city had become New Orange. He made his way to Long Island, where he was arrested, ostensibly on account of a debt owing to the Duke of York, and sent back to England (30 July 1673). On 2 March 1674 he was examined at the Cockpit respecting the surrender of the city; his answers were found unsatisfactory, and he was re-examined on 9 March; it is not known with what result (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. vii. 47, 117). He is said to have died shortly afterwards. New York was restored to the English in October 1674. By his wife, Mary, daughter of William King, ‘a person much below his quality and condition, whom he was inveighled to marry without the privity of his relations’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 144), he had a son, William, the father of John Lovelace, fourth baron [see under Lovelace, John, third Baron]. The governor of New York must be carefully distinguished from Francis Lovelace (d. 1664), the recorder of Canterbury, and from Colonel Francis, brother of Richard Lovelace the poet [q. v.]
[Burke's Extinct Peerage, p. 334; Herald and Genealogist, iv. 381; Lords' Journals, xi. 285; Croke's Genealog. Hist. of Croke Family, i. 666 (pedigree); Cal. State Papers, Col. Ser. passim; O'Callaghan's Documentary Hist. of New York State, iii. 327–9; Ellis H. Roberts's New York, i. 101–7; Lossing's New York City, i. 16; Appleton's Cyclop. of American Biog. iv. 35; Robinson's Colonial Chronology, p. 62.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.186
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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