One name on the family tree that thrilled Arthur and Marguerite Quimbys’ granddaughters was “Freelove Lovejoy” (1720-after 1790). It was a one-of-a-kind name, redolent of possibility to us, children of the Age of Aquarius.  If you stood on our grandparents’ couch and followed Freelove’s line, you found that she gave birth to Isaac Cory, who begat Eunice Cory, who married Jonathan Nash, the son of Littlefield Nash, who was one of the first white men to winter over in Plainfield, New Hampshire.  (Littlefield was my 5 greats grandfather.)

When I went to Colby College in 1973, the first thing President Strider mentioned to me, as the daughter of a newspaperman, was that the famous martyr to the First Amendment, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, had attended Colby.  He had founded a newspaper in St. Louis in which he wrote scathing attacks on the institution of slavery.  Defending his beliefs and his right to express them in front of the presses that printed his words, Elijah was killed by a bullet fired from an angry mob.  His fiery brother Owen became friends with Abraham Lincoln and was elected as a Congressman from Illinois; Owen devoted his political career to overturning slavery and was considered the most aggressive abolitionist in public office.

I’ve always wondered whether Freelove was connected in any way to the famous Elijah Lovejoy and his brother Owen.

So, first, here is what I now know about Freelove.  Born in 1720, she was of the fourth generation of the Lovejoys in America.  Beginning with John Lovejoy the immigrant, the family lived in Andover, Massachusetts for more than 100 years.  The Magistrates’ Court at Haverhill records that Freelove’s grandmother Naomi (Hoyt) Lovejoy was taken to court in 1683 to answer charges of fornication.  Naomi’s husband John (2) Lovejoy had died a few short years after his marriage, in 1680.  Naomi subsequently accused Benjamin Abbot of making her “grow big with child.”  Widow Lovejoy seems to have escaped punishment, and a man named Lieutenant Thomas Chandler paid Benjamin’s fine of 40 shillings after the court put up a “hue and cry” for the recreant, who most likely ran away to avoid prosecution (typically whipping and a fine). Naomi left Andover shortly thereafter to marry Richard Stratton of Charlestown, MA.

The slight stain on her grandmother’s reputation would not have touched Freelove, who was born 40 years after her grandmother’s scandal.* Sadly, I know very little of Freelove’s life in Plainfield, Connecticut, where she and her husband Joseph Cory moved and lived out their lives.

Now for the more famous Lovejoys.  By the time the brothers Elijah and Owen were born, in Albion, Maine, Freelove’s grandchildren were busy populating Plainfield, New Hampshire.  But like Owen and Elijah, these grandchildren were all descended from John Lovejoy, who had migrated to New England in 1638.  (Freelove’s great-grandfather and Elijah’s great-great grandfather were brothers.) We can wonder whether Freelove’s grandchildren knew that the famous brothers were distant relatives.  My guess is that they did not, since everyone born in New England at that time was related to everyone else.  Are YOU aware of the names of your great grandfather’s brothers? 

So, one of the questions of my genealogical research is answered. I still love the name Freelove.

---

* Freelove’s great-granddaughter had a similar mishap in Plainfield, New Hampshire (i.e., Huldah Nash apparently bore Fannie Nash Lewin out of wedlock).