Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Lovett, Richard
LOVETT, RICHARD (1851–1904), author, son of Richard Deacon Lovett and Annie Godart his wife, was born at Croydon on 5 Jan. 1851. Nine years of boyhood (1858-67) were spent with his parents at Brooklyn in the United States. Leaving school there at an early age, he was employed by a New York publisher. In 1867 he returned to England, and in 1869 entered Cheshunt College, the president of which, Dr. Henry Robert Reynolds [q. v. Suppl. I], powerfully influenced him. He graduated B.A. with honours in philosophy at London University in 1873, and proceeded M.A. in 1874, when he left Cheshunt and was ordained to the ministry of the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion. He began ministerial work at Bishop's Stortford, also acting as assistant master at the school there.
In 1876 he accepted an independent charge as minister of the Countess of Huntingdon church at Rochdale. Lovett was a thoughtful, able preacher, and he made many friends in Lancashire. But his leaning was towards authorship rather than pastoral work, and in 1882 he was appointed book editor of the Religious Tract Society in London. In his new office Lovett's interest in foreign missions grew. He became a director of the London Missionary Society and wrote the society's history for its centenary, a task which he completed in 1899 after three years of strenuous labour. Interest in missionary work brought him into close touch with James Chalmers of New Guinea [q. v. Suppl. II] and James Gilmour of Mongolia, both of whose lives he wrote. He revisited the United States as a delegate to the œcumenical missionary conference of 1900.
A close student of all that concerned the English printed Bible, and more particularly the works of William Tindale, Lovett, on the foundation of the Rylands library at Manchester, gave advice in regard to the biblical section, and compiled its bibliographical catalogue of Bibles. He formed for himself a good collection of early English Bibles and kindred works, which was dispersed after his death. In 1899, on the retirement of Samuel Gosnell Green [q. v. Suppl. II], Lovett became one of the secretaries of the Religious Tract Society, being specially charged with the Society's continental interests, while retaining much of his former work as book editor. Towards the end of his life the affairs of Cheshunt College, of which he acted as honorary secretary, occasioned him anxiety, and he was among the early workers for the reconstitution of the Congregational Union. Incessant labour impaired his health, and he died suddenly of heart failure at Clapham, London, on 29 Dec. 1904.
He married on 29 April 1879 Annie Hancock, daughter of William Reynolds of Torquay, who, with one son and two daughters, survived him.
Lovett, although warmly attached to his own communion, was far from sectarian in sympathies and outlook. He was a prolific author, contributing freely to periodical literature. His chief books were: 'Norwegian Pictures' (1885); 'Pictures from Holland' (1887); 'Irish Pictures' (1888); 'London Pictures' (1890); 'United States Pictures' (1891); 'James Gilmour of Mongolia' (1892); 'The Printed English Bible' (1895); 'The History of the London Missionary Society' (1899); 'The English Bible in the John Rylands Library' (1899); 'James Chalmers' (1902); and 'Tamate: the Life of James Chalmers for Boys' (1903).
[Christian World, 5 Jan. 1905; private information and personal knowledge.]