p. 9 Bethiah (Fifth child of John Lovett I) baptized 1652. Married George Stanley and had son George.
LDS Family History Library
US/CAN
929.273
L947a
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1ST GENERATION JOHN LOVETT , born in 1610 in England, came to New England, it is believed, in the ship True Love, with his wife Mary Grant and infant son John, his mother Mary and his half-brother Daniel, in 1637, and settled in Salem, Mass. Daniel (and his step-mother) removed to – and had a grant in – Braintree, Mass. 1639; also had land in Boston 1650. About 1645 Daniel married Joanna Blott, b. about 1620 – d. Mar. 20, 1694. About 1662 he removed to Mendon, Mass.; died there Jan.. 24, 1692. His Will proved Apr. 28, 1692, named his wife and children: James, b. Sept. 5, 1648.; Mary Tyle r b. Jan. 7, 1651; Martha Fairbanks & Hannah Ryder. (Ref: Pope’s Pioneers; V . R. Braintree & Mendon, Mass; Holmes Directory of Ancestral Heads of N . E. Families) Newberry Library says Che sham, Buckinghamshire, was Daniel’s home in England, so probably also John’s.
Our knowledge of John and his family comes from Perley’s History of Salem, Stone’s History of Beverly, Mass., a printed pamphlet in the possession of the Beverly Historical Society, and page 1638 Volume 3 of the book Boston and Eastern Mass. , by Cutter.
Salem, Massachusetts, had been settled in 1627 by an English Puritan group including Roger Conant, John Woodbery and a few others. In 1628 a new company of English Puritans under John Endecott arrived by the ship Abigail, under Capt. Henry Gardner, and took charge. In this new band of settlers was Charles Gott, (His descendant, Frank Isaac Hall, would marry a descendant of John Lovett, Ahbie Lovett, 230 years later in Wisconsin) Charles Gott, after a few years in Salem, moved to nearby Wenham, Mass. In 1635 the town of Salem set aside to Conant, Woodbery and 3 other men, 1000 acres located across the rive r fr om Salem. This would some years later be named Beverly.
In 1637, 25 year old John Lovett and 22 year old Mary were living at Mackerel Cove – a part of present Beverly – then a part of Salem. On July 25, 1639, records show John and 7 others were admitted as inhabitants of Salem and received grants of land. Perley’s History states that John was in the employ of Daniel Rea, a cooper, at Mackerel Cove in 1641. John was given a grant of 2 acres of marsh land lying near the old Planter’s Meadow in the vicinity of Wenham common on Nov. 3, 1665, at the “seven mens meeting” at Beverly. The Lovetts settled according to the pamphlet in the Beverly Historical Society, “near the farm (1888) owned by General Pearson. ” His land grant was at present Cabot and Central Streets, Beverly.
Most of the early Lovetts spelled their names “Lovitt”, but marriage, birth, death and deed records show the name spelled some 6 different ways. A single deed contained 4 different spellings of the family name. Very few, in those days, could write, and drawers of instruments and records spelled names as they sounded. It is recorded that Lovitt was also the original name of the Leavitts and deviations of that name.
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From 1653 there had been no fear of Indian assault by the Beverly settlers, but in 1675 a commanding chief of much import ance named Metacum, the son of Massasoit, rose against the settlers. His EngLsh name was Phillip and the ensuing trouble would be known as Kir.g Phillips War. The chief, who lived at Mt. Hope, near the present town of Bristol,Rhode Island, had sold his tribal land so extensively that his people were feeling the pressure of the Colonists. In addition, the settlers had dealt most unfairly with the natives.
The Indians first struck June 24th, 1675, about 30 miles from Boston. On Aug. 2nd they ambushed a company of men at Brookfield, which included many Beverly and Salem volunteers – a group designated as “the Flower of Essex County”. Among the survivors were Paul Thorndike and John Dodge of Beverly (both ancestors of ours). Peter Woodbery and Josiah Dodge were amongst those killed. Both Thorndike and Dodge were commissioned Captains following the fray.
At Beverly three fortifications were erected by the Lovetts, Dodges, Thorndikes, Woodberys and other townspeople. Great was the fear of the elusive foe, who struck without warning, burned, pillaged, murdered and disappeared. Many settlers deserted their homes and fled to the villages. The Indians were most successful in their early attacks and did much damage particularly to the settlements of the Connecticut River Valley. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts gathered forces to combat the enemy, but friction arose between them impeding their effectiveness.
On Aug. 12, 1676 Chief Phillip was slain at Mt. Hope but this did not end hostilities. The Colonists had succeeded in forcing the Indians to retreat, but they moved their forces north and attacked the settler s around Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Casco, Wells, York and Spur wink, Maine. At Spurwink the Indians burned the home and all contents of Rev. Robert Jordon, a family that will later intermarry with the Lovetts. The family barely escaped with their lives.
The History of Ipswich, Mass. (located 10 miles from Beverly) by Walters, V o l 1, page 214, states: “that in Apr. 1677 the decisive event of the campaign happened at Black Point, where Captain Lovett’s company was led into an ambush and he and 40 of his command were slain. ” As many Ipswich men were in this combat it is certain that this group was made up of Essex County men and that Capt. Lovett – whose first name unfortunately is not given – was of our Beverly family. The only Lovett of those original. Beverlyites who could have been old enough and who didn’t live past that year of 1677 when Capt. Lovett was killed – was Simon, son of John (l), who was not mentioned in his father’s Will of 1686, so had evidently died.
Soon after, the War ended. The strain on the colonists of Massachusetts had been intense. The financial cost of equipment for troops, maintaining them in the field, and the losses of burned homes and entire towns, had been most oppressive. The tone of moral sentiment amongst these stern Puritan settlers was most morbid. They recognized the Indian’war calamities as coming from a displeased God, so stringent self-discipline was adopted. No more cutting and curling of hair. No elegance of apparel, No more idleness. The Sabbath day was not, to be defiled in any way„ The youth activities were curtailed.
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But treatment of Indians was anything but Godly. 200 of them – accused of no crime – were captured and sold into slavery. King Phillip’s 20 year old son was sold as a slave to Barbadoes. There was no compassion for the Red man. Indians captured during the war had been brutally treated and in many cases ruthlessly killed.
John Lovett was at different periods, surveyor of highways, constable and selectman. By his Will, dated Nov. 8, 1686, it appears he held much real estate, which was devised principally to his children, John, Joseph, Abigail, Mary, Bethiah, and his grandson, George Stanley. He bequeathed a set of cooper’s tools to his son, John, and also 20 acres of land on the east side of “dirty hole” lying between the lands of his son, Joseph, and his son-in-law George Stanley. This land, now so valuable, is on the east side of Cabot St. somewhere between the South meeting house and the bank. Mr Lovett’s wife, Mary, was admitted to the Salem church Sept. 1, 1650 and.was one of the petitioners for the formation of the church in Beverly.
John Lovett died on Mar. 5, 1686 at age 76 and his wife, Mary, in June 1695 at age 80. As there was only one Beverly cemetery until 1790 all of the early Lovetts were undoubtedly buried there.
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