John Lovelace, 3rd Baron Lovelace

[4] J.P. Kenyon remarks that a more sensible ruler than James II would have let the matter drop, as a rather tasteless joke with no political overtones.

[5] Following the discovery of the Rye House Plot, Lovelace was questioned as to his involvement, but nothing could be proved against him, despite his close political links to some of the alleged plotters.

He was admitted into the confidence of those organising the Glorious Revolution to replace the Catholic James II with the Protestant William of Orange.

In March 1688, he was summoned before the Privy Council and questioned about his dealings with William, but was released on account of insufficient evidence.

[2] However his conduct hardly fitted him for any public office: he was nearly always drunk, and by 1691 was reported to be wandering the streets of London assaulting strangers.

In 1692, suffering from the ill effects of a lifetime of alcoholic excess, Lovelace fell down a flight of stairs and received injuries from which he never recovered.

[3] Lovelace's daughter Martha married Henry Johnson, said to be 'the greatest shipbuilder and shipowner of his day'; and succeeded her grandmother as the 8th Baroness Wentworth.