Levett

Bookplate of the Rev. Thomas Levett, Arms of Levett impaling Gresley, Packington Hall, Staffordshire

Levett is an Anglo-Norman territorial surname deriving from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Ancestors of the earliest Levett family in England, the de Livets were lords of the village of Livet,[1] and undertenants of the de Ferrers, among the most powerful of William the Conqueror's Norman lords.[2]

History

Assembled partygoers at Tranby Croft, 11 September 1890. The Royal Baccarat Scandal. Pictured are Capt. Berkeley Levett and Edward, Prince of Wales and others

One branch of the de Livet family came to England during the Norman Conquest, nearly a thousand years ago, and were prominent first in Leicestershire, and later in Derbyshire,[3] Cheshire, Ireland and Sussex,[4] where they held many manors, including the lordship of Firle.[5] The name Livet (first recorded as Lived in the 11th century), of Gaulish etymology, may mean a "place where yew-trees grow".[6][7] Like most Normans, the family's origins are probably partly Scandinavian.[8]

The year of the family's arrival in England is uncertain. But the family name appears in the records of William the Conqueror.[9] The first family member in England, Roger de Livet, appears in Domesday as a tenant of the Norman magnate Henry de Ferrers. de Livet held land in Leicestershire, and was, along with Ferrers, a benefactor of Tutbury Priory.[10] By about 1270, when the Dering Roll was crafted to display the coats of arms of 324 of England's most powerful lords, the coat of arms of Robert Livet, Knight, was among them.[11]

Ancient English deeds subsequently refer to many lands across Sussex as 'Levetts,' indicating family possession of broad swaths of Sussex countryside.[12][13] Among the family's holdings was the manor of Catsfield Levett, today known simply as Catsfield, located a scant three miles (5 km) from the battlefield where Duke William of Normandy ('William the Bastard,' as he was dubbed) thrashed the English forces to become King.

Like most medieval Norman families, the Levetts depended on the web of feudal hierarchy. They held their lands as overlords in return for knight's service (commonly called Knight's fees). As their feudal overlords thrived, so did they; conversely, their fate was tied to the unpredictable fortunes of those same overlords.

The Levetts and their descendants eventually held land in Gloucestershire, Yorkshire,[14] Worcestershire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Bedfordshire and later in Staffordshire. The Anglicisation of this Norman French surname took many forms, including Levett, Levet, Lyvet, Levytt,[15] Livett, Delivett, Levete, Leavett, Leavitt,[16] Lovett[17] and others.[18]

Levett family members were early knights and Crusaders — many members of both English and French branches of the family were Knights Hospitallers[19][20] — and they occupied a place in the English landed gentry for centuries.[21] Unlike the French branch of the family, no members of the English branch were ennobled, although they intermarried with nobility[22] and served as courtiers.[23] The Levett name was joined with such well-known English clans as the Byrons, the Darwins, the Ashley-Coopers, the Hulses, the Bagots, the Prinseps, the Ansons, the Feildings, the Holdsworths, the Reresbys, the Breretons, the Suttons, the Kennedys, the Cullums, the Gargraves, the Gresleys, the Legges and others.[24]

Capt. Levett Landon Boscawen Ibbetson, descendant of merchant Francis Levett, dueling in an trilobite exoskeleton. Drawn by his friend Gideon Mantell, fellow member of The Royal Society

But the most common choice of professions among Levett men down the ages was the Anglican clergy – although one combined the ministry with the secular in an unusual way. Rev. William Levett of Buxted, East Sussex, inherited the iron foundries built by his brother John in the 16th century. Rather than sell them, Parson Levett became the first to cast iron cannon in England, served as 'Chief Gunstonemaker' to the King, and laid the foundation for an English industry.

A branch of the Levett family still occupies Milford Hall,[25] a family home in Staffordshire, England, where Richard Byrd Levett Haszard, a Levett descendant, recently served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire.[26][27] Members of the family formerly occupied Wychnor Park (or Hall) and Packington Hall, two country mansions in the same county, where English artist James Ward painted three Levett children playing in 1811.[28] Ultimately, the two distant branches of the Levett family of Sussex, living nearby each other in Staffordshire, intermarried.[29] Another branch of the Milford Hall Levetts occupy the family residence The Hall, Angle, Pembrokeshire, Wales, although the name is now Mirehouse because of an inheritance.[30]

As with many families of Anglo-Norman extraction, some branches thrived, while others fell on hard times. The vicissitudes of character — and the collapsing feudal order — played havoc with the fortunes of some family members. The lordship of Firle, East Sussex, for instance, longtime seat of the family, passed from family control in 1440 on the indebtedness of then-lord Thomas Levett.[31] The bankrupt Levett also forfeited his inherited lordship of Catsfield, East Sussex.

Similarly, in 1620 John Levett of Sedlescombe, Sussex, Gentleman, sold his half-interest in Bodiam Castle, as well as inherited family lands called Northlands, Parklands, Eastlands and Grovelands, as well as properties across Sussex and Kent, including in Bodiam, Ewhurst, Salehurst, Battle, Wartling, Penhurst, Newfield and Catsfield, Sussex, as well as Hawkhurst, Kent, to Sir Thomas Dyke for £1,000, from whom the properties subsequently passed to the Earl of Thanet. The distress sale left Levett's descendants listed as simple yeomen, instead of the knights, esquires and gentlemen of previous generations.[32]

Other ancestral lands passed from the family with the marriage of Levett heiresses. Those inheriting from the Levetts included the Eversfields, the Gildredges, the Chaloners, the Ashburnhams, the Hulses and other prominent Sussex, Kent and Yorkshire families.

Other Levetts fell on hard times as the family's fortunes sometimes dwindled, or were carried into other clans. John Levett, a guard on the London to Brighton coach, was convicted of petty theft and transported to Australia in the nineteenth century.[33] English records reveal Levetts embroiled in bastardy cases or relegated to poorhouses. As with Thomas Hardy's hapless d'Urbervilles, noble Norman lineage was no guarantor of rectitude, ability or fate.

The execution of King Charles I of England, to which he was accompanied on the scaffold by courtier William Levett, Esq.

Some Levetts moved abroad in search of opportunity. A Levett relation, a British clerk in India, was friend to Rudyard Kipling and a minor Victorian novelist. Another was an English factor living in Livorno, Italy, shuttling back and forth to Constantinople for the Levant Company. (Francis Levett later moved to British East Florida, became a planter and ultimately failed; his son Francis Jr. returned to America, where he became the first to grow Sea Island cotton.) [34]

The Levett family became part of the British Empire's expanding grasp. Sir Richard Levett was one of the first Governors of the Bank of England, a member of the original London East India Company and the Lord Mayor of London in 1699. He resided at his estate at Kew, later sold to the Royal Family. In the eighteenth century, John Levett, born in Turkey to an English merchant father and brother of planter Francis, became alderman and Mayor of Calcutta, India.

Among the earliest English explorers of North America was Captain Christopher Levett, granted some 6,000 acres (24 km2) by the King to found the third English colony. The settlement failed. Capt. Levett died on a return voyage to England in 1630 after conferring with John Winthrop.

Over the generations, Levett descendants spanned the social ranks: one family relation,[35] an English clergyman[36] who served as chaplain to the House of Commons, is memorialized in Westminster Abbey where he dropped dead reading the Ninth Commandment; another family ancestor was among the founders of an Oxford University college;[37] another, an assistant pantry steward aboard an ocean liner, perished when the RMS Titanic sank; a fourth, a simple Suffolk butcher, emerged as leader of populist Kett's Rebellion in the sixteenth century.[38] Another descendant, a Yorkshire knight and Speaker of the House of Commons, became one of the country's most powerful men, celebrated by Shakespeare. The family dynasty he built imploded when his son was hanged at York for murder, and his brother gambled away his legacy, dying in a London flophouse.

One family member was an unschooled Yorkshireman who, having worked as a Parisian waiter, then trained as an apothecary. Robert Levet returned to England, where he treated denizens of London's seedier neighbourhoods. Having married an apparent grifter and prostitute, Levet was taken in by the poet Samuel Johnson, who eulogized him as "officious, innocent, sincere, Of every friendless name the friend."[39] While Samuel Johnson adopted one Levet as boarder, he was apologizing to another better-placed Levett who held the mortgage on Johnson's mother's home in Lichfield.[40]

Sign for Buxted, Sussex, commemorating first iron cannon cast in the Weald by iron foundry of Parson William Levett

In a few cases Levetts were forced by religious belief to flee England for the colonies. Among these were John Leavitt and Thomas Leavitt, early English Puritan immigrants to Massachusetts and New Hampshire, respectively, whose names first appear in seventeenth-century New England records as Levet or Levett.[41] John Leavitt was a tailor; Thomas a simple farmer. No paternal family relationship existed between the two men, and their exact connection to the original family in England remains uncertain.[42][43]

Today there are many Levetts living outside England, including in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,[44][45] Canada and Ireland, where the first 'de Livet' ventured in the thirteenth century as part of the Norman invasion, becoming one of Dublin's earliest mayors. The spelling of the name varies from place to place.[46]

Members of the original de Livet family continue to reside in France.[47] The Normandy branch traces its descent to Jean de Livet, chevalier and banneret in 1216 to King Philip II of France, builder of the first Louvre fortress in Paris.[48][49] Chevalier Thomas de Livet, noted Crusader and son of Jean, was knighted by King Philip II's successor, King Louis IX of France, in 1258.[50] The de Livet family of Normandy bore as their coat of arms since medieval times three gold mullets on an azure field.[51][52]

The de Livet family was among the ancient noble families of France, or noblesse d'épée. (The French revolution stripped the hereditary French nobility of its feudal privileges.) Following the French revolution, several members of the de Livet family were made Knights (Chevaliers) of the Légion d'honneur.[53]

The English branch of the de Livet (Levett) family claims descent from Jean de Livet, seigneur of Livet (now Jonquerets-de-Livet) in 1040, before the Norman Conquest.[54]

People

Members of the Levett family include:

  1. William Howard Vincent 'Hopper' Levett, English cricketer, born Goudhurst, Kent, 25 January 1928
  2. Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, 1699–1700
  3. Louis-François de Livet, chevalier, Marquis de Barville during French Revolution, when nobility were stripped of their privileges.
  4. Dr. Robert Levett, Lichfield, Staffordshire. Collection of Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield
  5. Col. Theophilus John Levett, Member of Parliament, Lichfield, 1880–85
  6. Australian soldier J W Levett, Broadmeadows Army Camp, Melbourne, Australia, 29 March 1916
  7. Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Levett of Normanton, West Yorkshire. Collection of Hardwick House, Suffolk
  8. Theophilus Levett Hunting at Wychnor, Staffordshire, 1817, James Ward, R.A.. Yale Center for British Art
  9. Portrait de M. Levett, Négociant Anglais, en Costume Tartare. Francis Levett, English Turkey merchant, dressed in Turkish costume, circa 1740, drawing by Jean-Étienne Liotard. The Louvre Museum, Paris
  10. Staff of St Hilda's College, Oxford, including medievalist Elizabeth Levett, October 1919
  11. Herbert Cuthbert Levett, born Derbyshire, England. Emigrated to New Zealand 1891 to raise sheep near Beaconsfield
  12. The Levett Children. John, Theophilus and Frances Levett. Portrait by James Ward, R.A., Wychnor, Staffordshire, November 1811
  13. Portrait of the Rev Thomas Levett and Favourite Dogs Cock-Shooting, oil on canvas, James Ward, R.A., 1811. Yale Center for British Art

Places named after the family

Hops token, 30 bushels, Exden Hop Farm, Newenden, Kent, Charles Levett, 1865
Ruins of Levitstown Mill, County Kildare, Ireland

Places associated with the Levett family

These places are or were associated with the Levett family:

  1. Charterhouse Hospital, London, Dr. Henry Levett, chief physician
  2. The ruins of Sibton Abbey, 1827, only Cistercian Abbey in East Anglia. Owned by Levett-Scrivener family
  3. Roche Abbey, South Yorkshire, under patronage of Levetts of Yorkshire
  4. Kew Palace, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, home of Sir Richard Levett
  5. Croxall Hall, home of the Levett-Prinsep family
  6. All Saints Church, Normanton, West Yorkshire, medieval tomb chest of the Malet and Levett families
  7. Breamore House, Hampshire, repository for Levett heirlooms
  8. Packington Hall, Whittington, Staffordshire. Longtime home of one branch of Levett family of Staffordshire
  9. Bodiam Castle, Sussex, purchased by John Levett, 1588
  10. Tomb of Lt Richard Byrd Levett, King's Royal Rifle Corps, Church of St Thomas, Walton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire
  11. Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, burial place of Lord Mayor Gilbert de Lyvet
  12. Funerary monument to Capt. Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener, St Paul's Church, Sibton, Suffolk
  13. Colehayes Park, Bovey Tracey, Devon, country house, seat of Capt. Theophilus Levett of Wychnor Park

In media

Coat of arms of Lord Mayor of London Sir Richard Levett. Strype's Survey of London, 1720

"Howe'er it be, it seems to me
'Tis only noble to be good;
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."[114]

Adaptations

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The Norman invaders of England were the first in Western Europe to use surnames. They usually styled themselves after the name of the village that was under family feudal control by use of the particule de indicating ownership.
  2. ↑ The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, David C. Douglas, Lewis C. Loyd, 1951. New edition, (1980). Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8063-0649-1
  3. ↑ The Levetts of Derbyshire were a gentry family whose last heiress married a Shakerley of Great Longstone. The family was extinct by the time of the first Visitation of the Heralds.
  4. ↑ County Genealogies: Pedigrees of the Families in the County of Sussex, William Berry, Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, London, 1830
  5. ↑ John Livet, lord of the manor of Firle, 1316, The Archaeological Journal, British Archaeological Association, 1851
  6. ↑ François de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de L'Eure, éditions Picard 1981. p. 136.
  7. ↑ Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France, Librairie Guénégaud 1979. p. 406.
  8. ↑ The village of Livet predated the family, who simply took its name from their holding.
  9. ↑ Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum: the Acta of William I, 1066–1087, David Bates (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1998
  10. ↑ Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. (1999). Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066-1166. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
  11. ↑ Foster, Joseph (1902). Some Feudal Coats of Arms from Heraldic Rolls. London: James Parker & Co. Retrieved 2011-05-04.
  12. ↑ Archive of the Gage Family of Firle, 1255–1849, East Sussex Record Office, The National Archives
  13. ↑ Ashburnham family archives: deeds, 1200–1836, East Sussex Record Office, The National Archives
  14. ↑ Miscellanea Genealogic et Heraldica, Joseph Jackson Howard (ed.), Vol. I, Third Series, Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1896
  15. ↑ Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to The History and Antiquities of the County, The Sussex Archaeological Society, Vol. XIV, George P. Bacon, Lewes, Sussex, 1862
  16. ↑ Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4, ancestry.com
  17. ↑ At least one branch of the Levett family bore as their coat of arms 'three wolves heads erased.' The armiger is attributed by Bernard Burke to a list of Knights in Normanton, Nottinghamshire. Curiously, the same coat of arms was also borne by several Lovett families. It is the only known branch of the Levett family which bore these arms.
  18. ↑ The Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland, John Bateman, Harrison and Sons, 1883
  19. ↑ Ancient and Modern Malta, as also, The History of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, Louis de Boisgelin, Vol. II, Printed for Richard Phillips, London, 1805
  20. ↑ There are also repeated references to Levett family involvement, particularly in Sussex and Ireland, with the Knights Templar.
  21. ↑ Levet, Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol. I, Third Series, Joseph Jackson Howard (ed.), Mitchell & Hughes, London, 1896
  22. ↑ Some critics of the family have queried whether the family's real aptitude lay in simply marrying well.
  23. ↑ A Narrative by John Ashburnham of his Attendance on King Charles I From Oxford to the Scottish Army, and from Hampton-Court to the Isle of Wight, Vol. I, Payne and Foss, London, 1830
  24. ↑ The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal, The Mortimer Percy Volume, The Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval & Staff, Heritage Books, Westminster, MD, 2001
  25. ↑ The Milford Hall family has descendants in America. Alfred Anson, whose family came from nearby Shugborough Hall and who was born at Windsor Castle, married Mary Anne Levett of Milford Hall and went to Virginia in the late nineteenth century as an Episcopal rector. He was the son of Hon Rev. Frederick Anson.
  26. ↑ The Levetts of Milford Hall received a letter in 1824 from York Herald Sir Charles George Young delineating the Levett coat of arms and genealogy, archives.staffordshire.gov.uk
  27. ↑ High Sheriffs.com
  28. ↑ Group Portrait of John, Theophilus and Frances Levett, James Ward, November 1811, Christie's, christies.com
  29. ↑ Tomb of Lt Richard Levett, Church of St Thomas, Walton on the Hill, Staffordshire, Flickr
  30. ↑ Lieut.-Col. Richard Walter Byrd Mirehouse, formerly Levett (1849-1914), an Old Etonian, moved to family properties at Angle by 1886. He served as High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1886, and bequeathed the family holdings to his descendants. His descendant Councillor John Allen-Mirehouse serves as Pembrokeshire County Council Deputy Leader.
  31. ↑ Debts of Thomas Lyvet, West Firle, Chancery Records, The National Archives
  32. ↑ Descriptive Catalogue of the Original Charters, Royal Grants, and Donations, Monastic Chartulary, Constituting the Muniments of Battle Abbey, Thomas Thorpe, London, 1835
  33. ↑ John Levett of Lewes, Newspaper Accounts of Trials 1842 & 1845, Rootschat.com
  34. ↑ Julianton Plantation, English Plantations on the St Johns River, Florida History Online
  35. ↑ Rev. Evelyn Levett Sutton was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and the son of Roosilia Thoroton, great-granddaughter of Lord Mayor of London Sir Richard Levett, and Roosilia's husband, Admiral Evelyn Sutton, R.N., of Screveton, Nottinghamshire, who was her cousin. Both were descendants through illegitimacy of the Manners-Sutton family, Dukes of Rutland.
  36. ↑ "Sutton, Evelyn Levett (STN796EL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  37. ↑ A Genealogical Account of the Mayo and Elton Families of the Counties of Wilts and Hereford, Charles Herbert Mayo, Privately Printed by Charles Whittingham and Co., London, 1882
  38. ↑ Rebellion and Riot: Popular Disorder in England During the Reign of Edward VI, Barrett L. Beer, Kent State University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-87338-840-2, ISBN 978-0-87338-840-5
  39. ↑ The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., Vol. I, Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murray, London, 1810
  40. ↑ Letter from Samuel Johnson to John Levett, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, by James Boswell, London, 1799
  41. ↑ Both John and Thomas Leavitt initially landed at Boston, with Thomas moving on to New Hampshire and John ultimately to nearby Hingham, Massachusetts. The parentage and English origins of both men are uncertain, although some speculate that John was the son of Percival Levett the younger, a Yorkshire merchant and relation of explorer Capt. Christopher Levett. Thomas, some have speculated, might have come from Lincolnshire of a family long settled at High Melton, South Yorkshire. So far there is no definitive proof concerning either. Ongoing Y-DNA testing shows the men do not share the same male ancestor. Descendants of John Leavitt of Hingham belong to the somewhat rare Haplogroup R1a1, indicating possible Norse ancestry. Descendants of Thomas Leavitt belong to Haplogroup R1b1b2, a common Western European Y-DNA, and therefore inconclusive about his origins. The several different coats of arms registered to the Levett family may point to different origins for several branches.
  42. ↑ Recent DNA testing by descendants of these two men reveal there is no blood relationship between them
  43. ↑ The birthplace and parentage of both John and Thomas Leavitt are uncertain. As the two men appear unrelated, their different haplogroups could speak to different origins of the name, or several different founders of Norman origin, or an adoption or non-paternity event. Future Y-DNA testing in England is needed to resolve the matter.
  44. ↑ What's in a Name? Wychnor, A New Zealand Story, Stephanie Boot
  45. ↑ Herbert Cuthbert Levett, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington
  46. ↑ In all likelihood not all Levett families in today's England are related. Later in-migration by Normans following the Conquest means some Levett families may have divergent antecedents. Future DNA testing will likely delineate these vagaries. An effort has been made to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
  47. ↑ There are indications that at least one member of the de Livet family emigrated to London as part of the Huguenot flight of Protestant refugees from Catholic France.
  48. ↑ Jean de Livet, banneret to King Philip II of France, ca 1216, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, Francois Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois, 1775
  49. ↑ The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America, Henry S. King & Co., 1874
  50. ↑ Levett, Packington Hall, Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Alfred Williams, Walter Henry Mallett, 1899
  51. ↑ Nobiliaire universel de France, M. de Saint-Allais, Librairie Ancienne et Moderne, Paris, 1877
  52. ↑ Dictionnaire Historique de Toutes Les Communes du Département de l'Eure, Anatole Caresme, Charpillon, Paris, 1879
  53. ↑ Dictionnaire Historique de Toutes Les Communes du Département de l'Eure, Anatole Caresme, Chez Delcroix, Paris, 1868
  54. ↑ That the first name John became the most common Levett given name from earliest times is probably due to these Norman French Jean ancestors.
  55. ↑ Portrait of Ada Elizabeth Levett, Staff of St Hilda's College, Oxford, National Portrait Gallery, npg.org.uk
  56. ↑ The Maryland Calendar of Wills: Wills from 1685 to 1702, Vol. II, Jane Baldwin Cotton, Roberta Bolling Henry, Kohn & Pollock, Baltimore, Md., 1906
  57. ↑ In his will of 1700 in Talbot County, Maryland, Arthur Levett named his uncle Benjamin Shove of London an executor. The same Benjamin Shove served as churchwarden of Twickenham Church in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames from 1719–21. Some twenty years earlier, Shove was named in a petition of the House of Lords. The witness to the will was Col. Nicholas Lowe, a member of the Maryland House of Burgesses, who was granted large tracts by Lord Baltimore, who also appointed him Clerk of Talbot County. Arthur Levett who died in Maryland was from the branch of Levetts settled at Fittleworth, West Sussex and later at Petworth. His ancestor Arthur appears in the Visitation of the County of Sussex. The Levetts of Petworth were related to the Southwell family of Woodrising, Norfolk. They were also related to the Spencer family, of whom there was a representative, Robert Spencer, living in Talbot County, Maryland.
  58. ↑ Major Levett, 10th Royal Hussars, married as his second wife Susan Alice Arkwright, great-granddaughter of Sir Richard Arkwright, industrialist and one of the founders of the industrial revolution.
  59. ↑ Elton Levett was named for his ancestor Ambrose Elton, Esq., of The Hazle, Ledbury, Herefordshire, an Oxford graduate, JP and High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1618.
  60. ↑ Byron, Lord Byron, Barons, English Peerage 1790, GENUKI
  61. ↑ "Levett, Ernest Laurence (LVT866EL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  62. ↑ The Annual Register, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1916
  63. ↑ The Law List: Comprising the Judges and Officers of the Courts of Justice, H. F. Bartlett, Stevens and Sons Ltd., London, 1906
  64. ↑ Cheltenham College Register, 1841–1889, Cheltenham College, Andrew Alexander Hunter (ed.), George Bell & Sons, London, 1889
  65. ↑ The Theaetetus of Plato, Myles Burnyeat, M.J. Levett, Hackett Publishing Co., 1990
  66. ↑ The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: 1600–1700, John Camden Hotten, Great Britain Public Record Office, John Camden Hotten, London, 1874
  67. ↑ Who's Who 1936, p. 1991. London: A. & C. Black Limited.
  68. ↑ Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Royal Irish Academy, Hodges, Figgis & Co., Dublin, 1908
  69. ↑ The 'Johanna, Countess of Pembroke,' named in this muniment is Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke, as the identification of her husband William Marshall makes clear.
  70. ↑ The Architectural History of High Halden Church, Kent, Archaeologica Cantiana, Rev. G.M. Livett, FSA, The Kent Archaeological Society, Mitchell, Hughes & Clarke, London, 1904
  71. ↑ John Leavitt's Family Gathers in Hingham for his 400th Birthday, The Patriot Ledger, June 30, 2008
  72. ↑ John Levett, Oath of Freeman, Boston, March 3, 1635-6, Records Relating to the Early History of Boston, Boston Registry Dept., Municipal Printing Office, Boston, 1900
  73. ↑ The History and Antiquities of the Town and Port of Hastings, William George Moss, Published by W.G. Moss, London, 1824
  74. ↑ Descriptive Catalogue of the Original Charters, Royal Grants, and Donations, Monastic Chartulary, Muniments of Battle Abbey, Thomas Thorpe, London, 1835
  75. ↑ Second Charter of Virginia, May 23, 1609, The Avalon Project, Yale Law Library, avalon.law.yale.edu
  76. ↑ Photo of Letter from Erasmus Darwin to Matthew Boulton, 1766, concerning Boulton's plans to dine with John Levett, revolutionaryplayers.org
  77. ↑ Considerations on India Affairs, William Bolts, East India Company, London, 1772
  78. ↑ Obituary, Stamp Magazine, May 2008, p. 10.
  79. ↑ A Shrunken Head, poem by John Levett, The Poetry Society
  80. ↑ John Levett-Yeats Esq., Tunbridge Wells, Kent, The Gentleman's Magazine, July 1858, John Henry and James Parker, London, 1858
  81. ↑ A History of the Castles, Mansions and Manors of Western Sussex, Dudley George Cary Elwes, Charles John Robinson, Longmans & Co., London, 1876
  82. ↑ "Blackborne, Levett (BLKN728L)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  83. ↑ "Blackburne, Abraham (BLKN733A)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  84. ↑ East window given in memory of William Swynnerton Byrd Levett by Maud Levett, Church of St Thomas, Walton on the Hill, Staffordshire, Flickr
  85. ↑ "Levett, Rawdon (LVT861R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  86. ↑ Calendar of Patent Rolls, August 1282, sdrc.lib.uiow.edu/patentrolls
  87. ↑ Sussex Archaeological Collections, Vol. XXXIX, Sussex Archaeological Society, Farncombe & Co., Lewes, 1894
  88. ↑ Lord Mayor Richard Levett was elected a member of the New England Company in 1698.
  89. ↑ Lt. Col. R. W. B. Mirehouse was the son of Richard Byrd Levett, Esq., of Milford Hall, Staffordshire, who married in August, 1848, Elizabeth Mirehouse, eldest daughter of John Mirehouse, Common Serjeant of London.
  90. ↑ Alabaster monument to Lt. Richard Byrd Levett, Church of St Thomas, Walton on the Hill, Staffordshire, Flickr
  91. ↑ Sir Robert de Livet (or Lyvet) held land in East Sussex, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire, including the manor of Hillesley. His daughter Joan married Sir William Whittington of Pauntley, Gloucestershire in the Forest of Dean as his second wife. They were the grandparents of Richard Whittington.
  92. ↑ First Lady of Racing Also a Gifted Author, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 2008
  93. ↑ Stories by S. Levett Yeats, The New York Times, April 15, 1899
  94. ↑ The Eton Register, Eton College, Old Etonian Association, Spottiswoode & Co., Eton, 1907
  95. ↑ Lady Margaret Emily Levett, wife of Theophilus Basil Percy Levett, National Portrait Gallery
  96. ↑ Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, Presented to Both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, April 20, 1891, Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Dublin, 1891
  97. ↑ History of Clonmel, William P. Burke, N. Harvey & Co., Waterford, 1907
  98. ↑ The monks of Battle Abbey often took the names of prominent figures associated with the Abbey. In some documents, monk Thomas Levett is referred to as 'otherwise Cranebroke,' which may indicate that the man's surname was instead Cranebroke, and he had taken the name of the Levett family, or vice versa. Because Sir Thomas Cranebroke had been the Abbey's almoner in 1520–22, it is likely the monk's surname was Levett and he took the name of the well-known 'Cranebroke' as his own.
  99. ↑ Packington Hall, home of Rev. Thomas Levett, Whittington, Staffordshire, ca 1900
  100. ↑ The Royal Families of England, Scotland and Wales, with Their Descendants, Vol. II, John Burke, John Bernard Burke, E. Churton, London, 1851
  101. ↑ Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire, Alfred Williams, Walter Henry Mallett, F. Brown, 1899
  102. ↑ St Mary's Church, Speldhurst, Kent, speldhurst.org
  103. ↑ Richard FitzTurgis Charter for Roche Abbey, 30 July 1147, The Foundation Charters of Roche, cistercians.shef.ac.uk
  104. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Published by the Society, Boston, 1913
  105. ↑ The Parliamentary Papers reported a certificate of Archbishop Juxon that "the bearer William Levett was one of the five persons whom his late Majesty (Charles I) the day before his death did, in consideration of his loyalty and faithful service, recommend to the care and provision of his present Majesty."
  106. ↑ Manuscript payment signed by Drapers Company wardens Grinling Gibbons, William Levett, 16 April 1705, London, Historical Autographs
  107. ↑ Beer and Biscuits, cottagepublications.com
  108. ↑ View of Levitstown from the River Barrow, kildare.ae./imagebank/levitstown
  109. ↑ "Barrow boys", The Guardian, London, 21 August 2003
  110. ↑ The Earls of Kildare and Their Ancestors, from 1057 to 1773, Charles William Fitz-Gerald, Marquis of Kildare, Hodges, Smith & Co., Dublin, 1858
  111. ↑ The Canning River Region, Northern Alaska, Ernest de K. Leffingwell, Professional Paper - United States Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1919
  112. ↑ Levett Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard, sold the Levett properties at Kew to the Royal family. Blackborne was a prominent Lincoln's Inn barrister in London, Steward of the Palace of Westminster, and of the Board of Green Cloth. Blackborne was also longtime adviser to the Manners family, Dukes of Rutland, to whom he was related, likely through an illegitimate child of the Duke, as well as an early investor in British colonies in East Florida and Nova Scotia.
  113. ↑ Roche Abbey
  114. ↑ The Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Macmillan and Company, New York, London, 1894
  115. ↑ Canon Grevile Marais Livett, Rochester Cathedral and founding member of Kent Archaeological Society, Kentarchaeology.org.uk
  116. ↑ Homes of Family Names in Great Britain, Henry Brougham Guppy, Harrison and Sons, London, 1890
  117. ↑ Manor of Sibton, Levett-Scrivener, The Manors of Suffolk, wikispaces.com
  118. ↑ Levett-Prinsep, Croxall Hall, Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Alfred Williams, F. Brown, Lichfield, 1899
  119. ↑ Rudyard Kipling on his friendship with Sidney Kilner Levett-Yeats at the Punjab Club, Lahore, India, Writings on Writing, Rudyard Kipling, Cambridge University Press, 1996
  120. ↑ Descendants of the three families are today listed on Facebook.

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