Basics

People

Properties

Can You Help?

Roads Off

Janet's Research

Sources & More

Brentford Families - Lockyer, Sharp and Loveday

In 2015 Bob Loveday wrote with comprehensive details of his branch of the Lockyer, Sharp and Loveday families. The name Lockyer already features on this site:Maurice Lockyer replied to my advert in Family Tree seeking family research and any memories for the Brentford website in the early 2000s. Maurice provided a summary of his Lockyers and Underhill families who lived in Brentford in the 19th century; the Lockyers were butchers. Around a decade later Bob Loveday has provided a possible link between Maurice's family of butchers and Bob's family of landowners. Loveday Road in Ealing ('a sought-after road' according to estate agents in 2016) is named after the Loveday family.

Although Bob's ancestors lived in Ealing, not Brentford, family wills name servants, gardeners and tenants of property who may be Brentford people. Will transcripts can be downloaded for more information (thanks to Bob for providing full transcriptions).

Author

Bob Loveday is a direct descendant of the Lockyer/Sharp/Loveday family and wrote in 2015: my Great x 7 grandfather was Charles Lockyer from the prominent Lockyer family of Ilchester, Somersetshire. A brief biography: he was the Member of Parliament from 1727 - 1747, a position formerly occupied by his elder brother Thomas Lockyer. He had East India and Bank Stock and sailed off for three years all over Asia on a ship owned by the East India Company named the Stretham. He wrote An Account of the Trade in India published in 1711 and was also a donor to Sir Hans Sloane of the Holotype of Pongo Pygmaeus. He was the South Sea Company Chief Accomptant in 1713. On 15 May 1740, Charles Lockyer of Ealing was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; his first proposer was Hans Sloane. He had an illegitimate son with Anna Green, named John Lockyer. His granddaughter was Eliza Loveday (nee Sharp), daughter of Henry Burgoyne Sharp and Elizabeth Lockyer.

In brief the line of descendants from Charles start with Eliza Loveday (nee Sharp), my great x4 grandmother. She inherited 84 acres and ten manors in Ealing plus two farms in Somerset as well as wharfs and properties in Bermondsey. Her son William Lockyer Loveday moved to the U.S. in 1850.

Bob has provided a much more detailed account of Charles Loveday and his descendants for download (PDF).

The family held land at Ealing which was passed down from generation to generation, later wills providing more detail:

Family wills

In 1762 John Lockyer was living in Ealing when he wrote his will (full transcript). This includes an unusual bequest: 'Also I give and bequeath unto a female Child now in the foundling hospital and delivered in there by the name of Cassandra Fisher the seventeenth or eighteenth of May One Thousand Seven hundred and fifty eight the Sum of One Thousand pounds'. and he added 'And I do also beg my dear Wife Elizabeth Lockyer to to take it out from the said Hospital if it be living and place it under her own Eye.'

His will makes reference to the manor of Colehall or Coldhall in Ealing; he requested 'that I may be buried in my New Vault at Ealing with a little Marble Monument erected over the same at the Expense of Thirty Pounds'.

John died the year after preparing his will, in Lyons, France. A note dated 1803 added to the will refers to some aspects of the estate not handled by the original executor, who had since died, and notes that John's granddaughter Elizabeth Loveday, nee Sharp was the residuary legatee in place of her mother Elizabeth, who had also died by this date.

John's wife Elizabeth was 'of Coldhall, in the parish of Great Ealing' when her will was prepared in 1765 (full transcript). She refers to 'freehold farm called Knevetts farm ... in the parish of Little Ealing ... now in the ... Occupation of Jonathan Knevett'. She was specific in her burial requirements: 'my Body I commit to the Earth to be Interred in my family vault in the Church Yard of Great Ealing ... with my late dear Husband John Lockyer Esquire deceased by Mr Nicholles of Great Ealing aforesaid undertaker'. The will refers to just one child, daughter Elizabeth.

The same daughter, Elizabeth Lockyer, married Henry Burgoyne Sharp who was born in Ealing around 1747 (according to public trees on ancestry). When his relatively brief will was prepared in 1813 he described himself: 'of Bloomsbury Square London Esquire' and makes no reference to the Ealing estate. He made bequests to his son Lockyer Sharp and daughter 'Eliza Loveday Wife of Douglas Charles Loveday of Bloomsbury Square aforesaid' and also gave an annuity to his brother John Sharp. The will was proved in 1817 (full transcript).

The son, Lockyer Sharp, left a will dated 1826, proved 1828; he was of Hammersmith and made no reference to Ealing. The daughter, Eliza(beth) Loveday (nee Sharp), died in 1861 and left a detailed will describing her property in Ealing: 'All my real and Landed Property of whatsoever kind that I possess at Ealing ... consisting of a House & Land called Castlebear Cottage about Sixteen Acres more or less another House & Land called Dane Lodge about Ten Acres Three Fields at Ealing Dane about twenty acres & twenty seven of arable Land Let to Thos. Meacock Eight small Cottages near the Church Let to Taylor Also five Cottages with several pieces of Land about twenty Acres, more or less, Let to Stevens' (full transcript). It appears the family had moved out of Ealing; she was of 42 George Street, Edgware Road when she died.

One of the children of Douglas Charles and Eliza was William Lockyer Loveday who emigrated to the US; it is his son who sold the Ealing family land in 1896 for development.

Top

The link between the landowners and butchers

Bob Loveday's gt7 grandfather was Charles Lockyer of Ilchester, born in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The distance between the two gt7 grandfathers - around 11 miles as the crow flies - would be walkable in half a day or so. However there is nothing, apart from a shared surname and proximity, to link the two lines. It is possible to trace Bob Loveday's line back a little further but until the same can be achieved for Maurice Lockyer's line no shared ancestor will be found.

Published September 2016