# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lovekyn, John

​LOVEKYN, JOHN (d. 1368), lord mayor of London, was descended from an ancient Surrey family. Edward Lovekyn, citizen of London, but a native of Kingston, built a chapel in that parish in 1305 (Manning and Bray, History of Surrey, i. 350). He and his brother (apparently Robert) also left lands and rents for the endowment there of various family obits. John is described in letters patent of 26 Edw. III as the son of Edward, but in the register of Bishops Stratford as the son and heir of Robert. He re-endowed the family chapel in 1352 with two messuages in the parish of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, of the yearly value of 4l.
A wealthy man, he carried on an extensive merchandise in salted or stock fish, and traded much abroad. In 1358 he claimed as a citizen of London the right to bring a freight of sea-coal from Newcastle to London free of custom (Cal. of Letters from the Mayor and Corporation of London, 1350–70, p. 94). In 1365 he successfully protested through the mayor and aldermen to the authorities of Nieuport in Flanders against the seizure of a cargo of red herrings which he and his agents at Great ‘Jernemouth’ were importing to London (ib. pp. 97–8, 134; cf. ib. p. 139).
He first lived in the parish of St. Mary-at-Hill, in a house afterwards occupied by his ‘servant,’ the famous Sir William Walworth [q. v.], ‘in the narrow way leading to Treyers warfe’ (Thomson, Chronicles of London Bridge, p. 258). Early in Edward III's reign he removed to the parish of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, where his large mansion in Thames Street looked on to the Thames between Oyster-gate and Ebb-gate by the bridge foot. Lovekyn brought with him his fellow-tradesmen, and the locality became known as Stockfishmongers' Row. Lovekyn's mansion descended to Walworth, and subsequently to Henry Preston, citizen and stockfishmonger, who left it in 1434 to the Fishmongers' Company for their hall.
Lovekyn was alderman of Bridge ward, became sheriff in 1342, and was one of the representatives of the city in parliament in 1347–8, and again in 1365. He was four times lord mayor, viz. in 1348, 1358, 1365, and 1366. He owed his third tenure of office to the direct appointment of the king on 21 Jan. 1365–6, in place of Adam of Bury, who was discharged by a royal order, although he had been re-elected after serving as mayor in the previous year. In 1338 he contributed the large sum of 200l. towards the loan of 20,000l. granted by the city to Edward III for his expedition to France.
Lovekyn benefited his ancestral home at Kingston-on-Thames by building and endowing in 1367 a hospital called Magdalen's. He was also the second founder of the church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane, which he entirely rebuilt at his own cost (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 484). According to Leland, he founded St. Michael's College, in connection with the church (Itinerary, vi. 24). Stow says that Walworth was the founder, ‘peradventure for John Lofkin his master’ (Herbert, History of St. Michael's, p. 125).
Lovekyn died on 4 Aug. 1368 (Weever, Funerall Monuments, p. 410), and was buried in the choir of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, under a handsome tomb, with images of himself and his wife in alabaster. Stow relates that Lovekyn's monument was removed, and a flat stone of grey marble, garnished with plates of copper, substituted. The brass plate containing his epitaph in three Latin verses found its way to Walkern Church, Hertfordshire, where it served as a palimpsest brass inside the church for Richard Humberstone, who died in 1581. Both Lovekyn's and Walworth's monuments were restored by the Fishmongers' Company in 1562, with the addition of an English inscription in doggerel verse (ib.) In the original Latin inscription Lovekyn is erroneously said to have died in 1370. His will, dated 25 July 1368, was enrolled in the court of hustings on 11 Nov. 1368 (Cal. of Hustings Wills, pt. ii. pp. 117–18). He appears to have possessed, besides his house in Thames Street, other houses further east towards Billingsgate, and property in St. Martin's Vintry, Crooked Lane, Candlewick Street, Oyster Hull, and Tower Street.
Lovekyn was twice married, but left no issue.
[Herbert's Hist. of the Livery Companies, ii. 53–8; Hist. and Antiquities of the Parish and Church of St. Michael, Crooked Lane; Notices of John Lovekyn. by John Gough Nichols and A. Heales in London and Middlesex Archæological Society's Trans. iii. 133–7, and vi. 341–70.]
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