Welsh Journals

Dec. 7, 1892. BYE-GONES. 457 branch of the Reserve, and was gazetted the first Lieutenant-Colonel > of the Second Shropshire Battalion, with which he continued to be connected up to the time of his death. For some years he dis¬ charged the duties of Lieutenant-Colonel with characteristic zeal, and after he resigned he was ap¬ pointed Honorary Colonel in 1873, and so continued during the remainder of his life. To those who had the happiness of knowing Colonel Lovetb it is scarcely necessary to say that he was held in high esteem among the Volunteers. His conscientious devotion to duty, and the frankness and geniality of his disposition, were just the qualities to com¬ mend him to the citizen-soldiers with whom he was so long and so happily associated. In Nov., 1851, Colonel Lovett married Cecil Eliza- beth.eldest daughter of the late Wilson Jones.Esq.,of Hartsheath Park, Mold, and ten children were born of the marriage. Nine of them survive, but Mrs Lovett died in 1876. For some years Colonel Lovett resided at Ebnal Lodge, but in 1866, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the Belmont estate. Since that time he has continued to live at Bel¬ mont, discharging the duties of a landowner and i'ustice of the peace, and enjoying the regard of all is neighbours. Colonel Lovett never took a very prominent part in public affairs ; but when the Shropshire County Council was formed in 1889 he was elected without opposition to represent his own electoral division. At the end of his first term of office, in the beginning of the present year, he did not offer himself for re-election. For many years Colonel Lovett was Chairman of the Oswestry Bench of County Magistrates, a position which he resigned on April 25,1889. As a magistrate he was punctual and painstaking; his high sense of in¬ tegrity and love of justice qualify ing him above most men for the discharge of his duties. One instance of his willingness to admit and repair a mistake- about the only mistake we ever heard of in his long career on the Bench—may be worth mentioning. A man, who had been convicted of an offence and im¬ prisoned in default of paying the fine,was afterwards, through the exertions of private persons, shown to be innocent. Colonel Lovett, on being convinced of his innocence, called on the present writer and entrusted to him a sum of money to be given to the Erisoner as some compensation for the injury which e had suffered. In politics Colonel Lovett was a Conservative.but he was never an aggressive partisan. Colonel Lovett's retirement from the chairman¬ ship of the Oswestry Bench was marked by a pre¬ sentation from his fellow justices, privately made at Belmont on August 18th, 1891; the present, which was handed to the Colonel by Lord Harlech, con¬ sisting of a silver inkstand. It was mentioned at the time that Colonel Lovett had been a justice of the peace for over thirty years—he was appointed in 1855—and that for twenty-two he had been Chairman of the Oswestry Bench. Colonel Lovett was an admirable example of the English country gentleman: without a touch of arrog¬ ance or unworthy pride, of an open, cheerful dis¬ position, honest in thought and deed ; and his death must be deplored by all who knew his worth, and who know also the rarity of this excellent type of manhood. Of the loss to his family we cannot speak; but there are many who, only knowing Colonel Lovett outside the circle of his intimate friends, will Vol. II, long miss his familiar figure, and feel a keen pane of regret that they will see his face no more! He is succeeded by Major Hubert Richard Lovett, who was born in 1854. Maior Lovett married in July last Mrs H. Howard Brooke, widow of Lieutenant H. Howard Brooke, R.N., and daughter of the late Mr Lauderdale Maitland of Eecles, Dumfriesshire. Colonel Lovett's eldest daughter, Margaret Josephine, was married ?£.,,^ew Year's D»y» 1887, to Captain Francis William Egerton of the Bengal Staff Corps • his second daughter was married in November, 1884, to the Rev T. Stamford Raffles, a son of the well- known Liverpool Stipendiary; and his son Arthur married a daughter of the late Mrs Willes Johnson of Llanerchydol, Welshpool. Another son is a captain in the Somerset Light Infantry, and, like his eldest brother, has seen active service. We meet with mention of the Lovett family several times in Mr Stanley Leighton's Records of the Corporation of Oswestry. In 1790 John Lovett, "a surgeon of skill and integrity in his profession,' was an alderman and served the office of mayor. In 1793 Thomas Lovett was elected a member of the Common Council, together with Lord Clive, the Rev J. R. Lloyd, and Mr Owen Ormsby, and in 1797 he was mayor. During a period of'great scarcity in 1795 his waggons (apparently containing grain and flour) were stopped by a mob and taken to Oswestry. In 1800 he was an active promoter of the Old Bank. In 1820 Mr Joseph Venables Lovett, father of Col. Lovett, and son of the Mayor of 1790, was Mayor. The funeral of the late Colonel Lovett took place at Whittington on Thursday, amidst every sign of respect, the remains being buried in the family vault in the churchyard, in the presence of a'large gathering of the inhabitants of the district. DECEMBER 7, 1892. NOTES. A BATTLE NEAR MACHYNLLETH IN THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD.—Sir Thomas Middleton, writing to the Committee of both Kingdoms in London on the 8th December, 1644, from Red Castle (Powis Castle), says that he had received intelli¬ gence from his foot forces, which had landed in Pembrokeshire, four months previously, from Lon¬ don, that they were on their march through Cardi¬ ganshire, and other counties in possession of the enemy, towards him ; and that he thereupon drew out the remainder of his horse and dragoons (about 200), and with these few forces, after a tedious march of four days, met with his foot at Lampeter- Pont-Stephen under the personal command of Ser- geant-Major-General Langhorne (1). The enemy, (1) Sic in the Calendar, and also in the original volume of State Papers, which does not contain the original letter, but only a contemporary copy of it. It may be added that in the same vol. of the Calendar the same person is repeatedly called "Langhorne" or "Langherne" ("Laugharne " not occurring in the Index); but there seems no doubt that the person intended was the famous General Laugharne, who took Cardigan Castle towards the end of December, 1644. Phillips, in his Civil War, tod ed., 1878, p. 275, says that Capt. Beal was not accompanied on his inarch to Lampeter by Gen. Laugharne.—E. P. 58