Levett

Levett is a surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from that of the French de Livet, which is held particularly by families and individuals resident in England and British Commonwealth territories.

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

Origins

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

This surname derives from the village of Livet-en-Ouche, now Jonquerets-de-Livet, in Eure, Normandy. Here the de Livets were undertenants of the de Ferrers family, among the most powerful of William the Conqueror's Norman lords.[1] The name Livet (first recorded as Lived in the 11th century), of Gaulish etymology, may mean a "place where yew-trees grow".[2][3]

The first de Livet in England, Roger, 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.[4] 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.[5] Some Levetts were early knights and Crusaders; many members of both English and French families were Knights Hospitallers,[6] and served as courtiers.[7]

English Levetts

A Levett family settled in Derbyshire was extinct by the early sixteenth century.[8] A family of the name resident in Sussex at Warbleton and Salehurst[9] also held the manor of Firle[10] until it passed from family control in 1440 due to the debts of Thomas Levett,[11] whose bankruptcy also necessitated the loss of Catsfield, East Sussex. Sussex deeds indicate instances of 'Levetts' attached to place names, indicating possession by individuals and families of that name.[12][13][14] In 1620, John Levett, of Sedlescombe, Sussex, was forced by financial hardship to sell his half-interest in Bodiam Castle, inherited family land and property across Sussex and Kent, including at Ewhurst, Salehurst, Battle, Sussex and Hawkhurst, Kent, to Sir Thomas Dyke, for £1000; this represented the end of these Levetts as prominent landowners.[15]

Families of the name Levett (also Levet, Lyvet, Levytt,[16] Livett, Delivett, Levete, Leavett, Leavitt,[17] Lovett and others) would subsequently settle in Gloucestershire, Yorkshire,[18] Worcestershire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Bedfordshire and Staffordshire.

By the mid twentieth century, only two prominent Levett families remained; that of Milford Hall, Staffordshire and that formerly of Wychnor Hall, Staffordshire (and Packington Hall).[19][20] Milford Hall passed in the female line to the Haszard family,[21] and Wychnor Park was sold by the Levetts to Lt-Col W. E. Harrison in 1913, this later becoming a country club.[22]

The Levett-Scrivener family (descending from a daughter of the Milford Hall family) retains the ruin of Sibton Abbey, which they have made available to historical societies and researchers;[23] the Levett-Prinseps (a branch of the Wychnor Park family) were unable to maintain Croxall Hall; it was sold in 1920 and the estate was broken up.[24]

By 1871, although family tradition of a common ancestor of the Milford Hall and Wychnor Park Levett families was mentioned in the latter pedigree, the earliest listed ancestors of each family were, respectively, William Levett of Savernake, Wiltshire, page to King Charles I at the time of his death in 1649, and Theophilus Levett, who died 1746.[25] Even the 1847 edition, produced at a time when Burke's publications were inclusive of vague, unproven 'family traditions' (a practice subsequently widely criticised),[26][27] makes no mention of any earlier ancestors or Norman origin in either family's pedigree.[28]

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

Individuals of the name of Levett (and its variants) appear in all social strata: John Levett, a guard on the London to Brighton coach, was convicted of petty theft and transported to Australia in the nineteenth century; English records reveal Levetts embroiled in bastardy cases or relegated to poorhouses.[29] A Francis Levett was a factor living in Livorno, Italy, travelling back and forth to Constantinople for the Levant Company. He subsequently failed at British East Florida as a planter; his son Francis Jr. returned to America, where he became the first to grow Sea Island cotton.[30]

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

A notable individual of the name was the 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.[31] 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.[32]

Levetts elsewhere

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

Today there are many Levetts (the spelling of the name varies) living outside England, including in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand,[33][34] Canada, and Ireland.

In a few cases Levetts were forced by religious belief to flee England for the colonies. Among these were tailor John Leavitt and farmer 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.

People surnamed Levett

Individuals bearing the surname of Levett include:

• Ada Elizabeth (A.E.) Levett, born Bodiam, East Sussex, renowned medieval historian, vice principal, St Hilda's College, Oxford, professor at Westfield College, University of London, d. 1932 [35]
• Capt. Berkeley John Talbot Levett, London, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Scots Guard, Gentleman Usher to the Royal Family, married brewery heiress Sibell Bass, witness in the infamous Royal Baccarat Scandal involving the Prince of Wales
• Capt. Christopher Levett, English explorer of New England, first owner of Portland, Maine, born at York, England, 1586
• Egerton Bagot Byrd Levett-Scrivener, Flag Lieutenant, Royal Navy, Bursar, Keble College, Oxford, son of Col. Richard Byrd Levett of Milford Hall, took additional name of Scrivener on inheritance, married daughter of British diplomat Sir Harry Smith Parkes, lived at Sibton Manor, Yoxford, Suffolk
• Francis Levett, English tobacco merchant who married the sister of Sir John Holt, the Lord Chief Justice of England, partner in Sir Richard Levett & Co. with his brother Richard; son Richard a barrister and Alderman of London; ancestor of British geologist and inventor Levett Landon Boscawen Ibbetson, a pioneer of photography
• Francis Levett, British planter in East Florida, built an early Florida plantation, which the family was forced to abandon; his son returned to Georgia to become the first to plant Sea Island cotton (Gossypium barbadense) in America
• Sir Gilbert de Lyvet, Knight, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland, 1233–34, 1235–37, witness to 1210 gift by Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, in honour of her father Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whose tomb is in the Cathedral [36][37]
• Gordon Levett (1921–2000), pilot, Royal Air Force, World War II, member of Squadron 101, First Fighter Squadron in the Israeli Air Force, only English Gentile pilot in Israeli Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel, Israeli Air Force, 1948
• Dr. Henry Levett, Old Carthusian, eminent physician at London Charterhouse who wrote a pioneering tract on smallpox, 1710
• John Leavitt, English Puritan, tailor, founding deacon, Old Ship Church, Hingham, Massachusetts, 1681 [38][39]
• John Levett, naturalist, author of The Ordering of Bees: Or, the True History of Managing Them, London, 1634
• John Levett, Tory Member of Parliament, Staffordshire, 1761–62, friend of Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton and others, sometime member of the Lunar Society [40]
• John Levett, athlete, born Battersea, twice champion runner of England, ran 10 miles (16 km) in 52:35, 1852
• Percival Levett, merchant, Chamberlain and Sheriff of the city of York, 1597
• Rev. Ralph Levett, Christ's College, Cambridge, domestic chaplain to Sir William Wray; rector, Grainsby, Lincolnshire, Puritan sympathizer, protégé of Rev. John Cotton, brother-in-law of Rev. John Wheelwright, b. 1600
• Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London (1699), owner of Kew Palace, adventurer member, London East India Company, Governor, Bank of England (1698), proprietor, Sir Richard Levett & Co., brother of Rev. Dr. William Levett, Dean of Bristol [41]
• Robert Levet, native of Hull, Yorkshire, impoverished apothecary who lived with Samuel Johnson, author of a famous poem eulogizing Levet
• Robin Levett (1925–2008), Australian author and horse breeder, "First Lady of Australian Racing", wife of businessman Geoffrey Levett [42]
• Sidney Kilner Levett-Yeats, born to once-important British colonial family, descendant of East Florida planter Francis Levett, low-level bureaucrat in the India Office civil service, friend to Rudyard Kipling, fellow member of Lahore's Punjab Club, became minor Victorian novelist, author of The Honour of Savelli [43]
• Theophilus Levett, Lichfield town clerk 1721–46, early friend and correspondent of Dr. Samuel Johnson
• Theophilus John Levett, Member of Parliament, Staffordshire 1880–85
• Thomas Levett, High Sheriff of Rutland 1639, Judge of the Admiralty for the Northern Counties, antiquarian, Tixover, Rutland
• Rev. Thomas Levett, rector of Whittington, Staffordshire for 40 years, owner of Packington Hall [44]
• Thomas Levett-Prinsep,[45] son of Theophilus Levett of Wychnor Hall, heir to his uncle Thomas Prinsep, Old Etonian, High Sheriff of Derbyshire, resided at Croxall Hall, Derbyshire, took name of Prinsep on inheritance of his uncle's property, Justice of the Peace and landowner [46]
• William Levett, lord of the manor, Hooton Levitt, South Yorkshire, inherited patronage of Roche Abbey on marriage (ca. 1220) to Constantia, granddaughter of Richard FitzTurgis, co-founder of Roche with Richard de Busli [47]
• Rev. William Levett, rector of Buxted, East Sussex, established the iron foundry industry in Sussex, d. 1554
• Rev. Dr. William Levett, principal, Magdalen College, Oxford, later Dean of Bristol, d. 1694
• William Levett, Esq., longtime courtier to King Charles I of England who accompanied the King to his execution and became embroiled in controversy over whether the King had penned the Eikon Basilike, father of Dr. Henry Levett [48]
• William Howard Vincent "Hopper" Levett, Goudhurst, Kent, Kent and England cricketer

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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 Levett families and individuals

Hops token, 30 bushels, Exden Hop Farm, Newenden, Kent, Charles Levett, 1865

Ruins of Levitstown Mill, County Kildare, Ireland

• Hooton Levitt, South Yorkshire
• Catsfield Levett, East Sussex, now simply Catsfield
• Levitt Hagg, South Yorkshire
• Fort Levett, Casco Bay, Maine
• Levette Lake, British Columbia, Canada
• Levitstown (initially Lyvetiston), County Kildare, Ireland [49][50][51][52]
• Leavitt, California
• Leavittsburg, Ohio
• Leavitt Island, Alaska North Slope [53]
• Leavittstown, now Effingham, New Hampshire
• Leavitt's Hill, now Deerfield, New Hampshire
• Leavitt Peak, California
• Leavitt, Alberta, Canada
• Levetts Fields, Lichfield, Staffordshire
• Levetts Square, Lichfield, Staffordshire
• Leavitt (crater), Moon
• 5383 Leavitt, asteroid, Solar System

Places associated with Levett families or individuals

These places are or were associated with Levett families or individuals:

• Bodiam Castle, Bodiam, East Sussex
• Firle, East Sussex
• Wychnor Park, Staffordshire
• Milford Hall, Staffordshire
• Croxall Hall, Staffordshire
• Kew Palace, Richmond upon Thames [54]
• Walton Hall, Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire
• Packington Hall, Whittington, Staffordshire
• Hardwick House, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
• Breamore House, Hampshire
• Roche Abbey, South Yorkshire [55]
• Sibton Abbey, Yoxford, Suffolk
• Normanton, West Yorkshire
• All Saints Church, Normanton, West Yorkshire
• St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex
• Buxted, East Sussex
• Angle, Pembrokeshire, Wales
• Hollington, East Sussex
• Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
• Hillesley and Tresham, Gloucestershire
• Doncaster, South Yorkshire
• Wakefield, West Yorkshire
• Hopwas, Staffordshire
• Pontefract, West Yorkshire
• St James' Church, High Melton, South Yorkshire
• Flintham, Nottinghamshire
• St. Pierre, Monmouthshire, Wales
• Dagenham, East London
• Kew, Surrey
• Salehurst, East Sussex
• Great Longstone, Derbyshire
• Wickersley, South Yorkshire
• Westbourne, West Sussex
• Beckley, Oxfordshire
• Botolphs, West Sussex
• Warbleton, East Sussex
• Little Horsted, East Sussex
• Savernake Forest, Wiltshire
• Swindon, Wiltshire
• Lichfield, Staffordshire
• Hornchurch, London Borough of Havering, East London
• Rochester Cathedral, Rochester, Kent
• Whittington, Staffordshire
• Polegate, East Sussex
• Seaford, East Sussex
• Nova Scotia
• British East Florida
• Portland, Maine
• Cushing Island, Maine
• York County, Maine

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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

• Levett was the name given by Alfred Hitchcock to the villain in his first film, The Pleasure Garden, a 1925 silent movie
• Geoffrey Levett is the male lead character in Margery Allingham's novel, The Tiger in the Smoke (made into a 1956 British film of the same name)

See also

• Leavitt (surname)

References

Notes

1. 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
2. François de Beaurepaire, Les noms des communes et anciennes paroisses de L'Eure, éditions Picard 1981. p. 136.
3. Albert Dauzat and Charles Rostaing, Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France, Librairie Guénégaud 1979. p. 406.
4. Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. (1999). Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066-1166. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. ISBN 9780851157221. Retrieved 2011-04-11.
5. Foster, Joseph (1902). Some Feudal Coats of Arms from Heraldic Rolls. London: James Parker & Co. p. 155. Retrieved 2011-05-04. robert livett feudal coats of arms.
6. Kerdu, Pierre Marie Louis de Boisgelin de (1805). Ancient and modern Malta, as also, the history of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. 2. London. p. 310.
7. Ashburnham, J.; Ashburnham, G.A. (1830). A Narrative by John Ashburnham of His Attendance on King Charles the First from Oxford to the Scotch Army, and from Hampton-Court to the Isle of Wight ...: To which is Prefixed a Vindication of His Character ... and Conduct, from the Misrepresentations of Lord Clarendon. 1. Payne and Foss. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
8. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50707
9. "Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County". 1894.
10. British Archaeological Association; British Archaeological Association. Central Committee; Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Central Committee; Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Council (1851). The Archaeological Journal. 8. Royal Archaeological Institute. p. 78. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
11. "Debts of Thomas Lyvet, West Firle, Chancery Records, The National Archives". nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
12. "Archive of the Gage Family of Firle, 1255–1849, East Sussex Record Office, The National Archives". nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
13. "Ashburnham family archives: deeds, 1200–1836, East Sussex Record Office, The National Archives". nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
14. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=179-ash4501&cid=-1&Gsm=2008-06-18
15. Battle Abbey; Phillipps, T.; Webster, G.V.; Thorpe, Thomas, firm, booksellers, London (1835). Descriptive Catalogue of the Original Charters, Royal Grants, and Donations ... Monastic Chartulary, Official, Manorial, Court Baron, Court Leet, and Rent Rolls, Registers, and Other Documents: Constituting the Muniments of Battle Abbey ... Comprising, Also, a Great Mass of Papers Relating to the Family of Browne, Ennobled as the Lords Viscount Montague ... with Various Others Relating to the Sidneys, Earls of Leicester, and the Whole of the Webster Family Evidences, Embodying Many Highly Interesting and Valuable Records of Manor Lands in Sussex, Kent, and Essex ... The Whole Bound in Ninety-seven Volumes, Folio ... Price Twelve Hundred Pounds. Thomas Thorpe. p. 150. Retrieved 2017-01-07.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
16. Sussex Archaeological Society (1862). "Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County". Sussex Archaeological Collections : Illustrating History and Antiquities of the County. Sussex Archaeological Society.: 96. ISSN 0143-8204. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
17. Dictionary of American Family Names. ancestry.com. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508137-4. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
18. Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica. Hamilton, Adams, and Company. 1896. p. 82. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
19. Burke's Landed Gentry, 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1952, pp. 1184, 1517
20. Burke's Family Index, ed. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1976, pp. 104, 125
21. Burke's Landed Gentry, 17th edition, ed. L. G. Pine, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1952, p. 1184
22. http://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/h019.htm
23. Proceedings, Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, Vol. VIII, 1894 - https://books.google.com/books?id=k0YJAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA54&lpg=RA1-PA54&dq=%22sibton+abbey%22+levett&source=web&ots=c3EnVyP4TP&sig=jzCaLeny5ay4BNoO4Hhf2ReC0sQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result
24. http://www.edingalevillage.co.uk/history/chapter3.pdf
25. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Sir Bernard Burke, 1871, vol. II, pp. 785-786
26. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Colonial Gentry, Sir Bernard Burke, ed. Ashworth P. Burke, Harrison & Sons, London, 1895, p. 878 (end matter p. 2)
27. Time magazine, 'Twentieth Century Squires', 10 Dec 1951
28. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, 1st edition, vol. I- A to L, John Burke and John Bernard Burke, 1847, pp. 724-725
29. "John Levett of Lewes, Newspaper Accounts of Trials 1842 & 1845, Rootschat.com". rootschat.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
30. "Julianton Plantation, English Plantations on the St Johns River, Florida History Online". unf.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
31. Johnson, S.; Murphy, A.; Chalmers, A. (1810). Essay on the life ... Poems. Luke Hansard & Sons. p. 342. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
32. Boswell, J. (1799). The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies and Numerous Works, ... By James Boswell, Esq. H. Baldwin and Son. p. 134. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
33. "What's in a Name? Wychnor, A New Zealand Story, Stephanie Boot". hips-roots.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
34. "Herbert Cuthbert Levett, The Cyclopedia of New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington". nzetc.org. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
35. "Portrait of Ada Elizabeth Levett, Staff of St Hilda's College, Oxford, National Portrait Gallery, npg.org.uk". npg.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
36. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Royal Irish Academy, Hodges, Figgis & Co., Dublin, 1908
37. 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.
38. John Leavitt's Family Gathers in Hingham for his 400th Birthday, The Patriot Ledger, June 30, 2008 Archived October 15, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
39. Boston (Mass.). Registry Dept; Whitmore, W.H.; Appleton, W.S.; McGlenen, E.W.; Watkins, W.K. (1900). Records Relating to the Early History of Boston ... Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers. p. 139. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
40. "Photo of Letter from Erasmus Darwin to Matthew Boulton, 1766, concerning Boulton's plans to dine with John Levett, revolutionaryplayers.org". Archived from the original on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
41. Lord Mayor Richard Levett was elected a member of the New England Company in 1698.
42. "First Lady of Racing Also a Gifted Author, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 August 2008". smh.com.au. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
43. "Stories by S. Levett Yeats, The New York Times, April 15, 1899" (PDF). query.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
44. Packington Hall, home of Rev. Thomas Levett, Whittington, Staffordshire, ca 1900 Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
45. Burke, J. (1851). The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with Their Descendants, Sovereigns and Subjects: By John Burke & John Bernard Burke. In Two Volumes. Churton. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
46. Williams, A.; Mallett, W.H. (1899). Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire: A Series of Descriptive Articles. F. Brown. pp. 1–64. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
47. Richard FitzTurgis Charter for Roche Abbey, 30 July 1147, The Foundation Charters of Roche, cistercians.shef.ac.uk
48. 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."
49. Beer and Biscuits, cottagepublications.com Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine
50. "View of Levitstown from the River Barrow". kildare.ie. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
51. ""Barrow boys", The Guardian, London, 21 August 2003". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
52. Fitz-Gerald, C.W.; Kildare (earls of) (1858). The earls of Kildare and their ancestors, from 1057 to 1773. [With] Addenda. p. 101. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
53. Geological Survey (U.S.) (1919). Professional Paper - United States Geological Survey. The Survey. p. 14. Retrieved 2017-01-07.
54. 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.
55. Roche Abbey

Further reading

Printed sources

• Sons of the Conqueror: Descendants of Norman Ancestry, Leslie Pine, London, 1973
• The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, Lewis C. Loyd, David C. Douglas, John Whitehead & Son Ltd., London, 1951
• The Normans, David C. Douglas, The Folio Society, London, 2002
• Regesta Regum Anglo Normannorum, 1066–1154, Henry William Davis, Robert J. Shotwell (eds.), 4 volumes, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913
• The Levetts of Staffordshire, Dyonese Levett Haszard, privately printed
• "The Fortunes of Some Gentry Families of Elizabethan Sussex," J. E. Mousley, The Economic History Review, April 1959, Vol. 11, pp. 467–482
• Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066–1166, Volume 1, Katharine Keats-Rohan, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Boydell Press, 1999

Google Books

• Seal of John Livet, Lord of Firle, Sussex, Lewes Castle Museum, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 1866
• Purchase of Bodiam Castle by John Levett, Descriptive Catalogue of the Original Charters, Royal Grants, and Donations, Monastic Chartulary Constituting the Muniments of Battle Abbey, Founded by William the Conqueror, Thomas Thorpe, London, 1835
• Roger de Livet, ca. June/July 1171, Court, Household, and Itinerary of King Henry II, Robert William Eyton, Great Britain, 1878
• Origins of the Levett name from Lewis Loyd, The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families
• A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, Bernard Burke, 1863
• Levett, Packington Hall, Mansions and Country Seats of Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Alfred Williams, Walter Henry Mallett, 1899
• The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America, Henry S. King & Co., 1874
• Levet of Sussex, Le Neve's Pedigrees of the Knights Made by King Charles II, etc., Peter Le Neve, 1873
• Johannes Lyvet, Hastings, Sussex, Summoned to meet at Westminster, 1417, King Henry V, Sussex Archaeological Collections, Sussex Archaeological Society, 1881
• Coat of Arms, Levett of High Melton and Normanton, Yorkshire, impaling Barnby, St James' Church, High Melton
• Levett of High Melton and Normanton, Yorkshire, New England Historic and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, 1913
• Thomas Levett-Prinsep, Derbyshire
• Tomb Chests of Levetts, All Saints Church, Normanton, The Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 1879
• Levett of Normanton, Yorkshire, Walks in Yorkshire; Wakefield and its Neighbourhood, William Stott Banks, 1871
• Levett, The Genealogist's Guide, George William Marshall, 1893
• Alumni Oxoniensis: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500–1714
• The Visitations of Sussex Made and Taken in the Years 1530, College of Arms, 1905
• John Levet (eventually Leavitt), Hingham, MA, 1661 deed from Native Americans, Suffolk Deeds, Suffolk County, Mass., 1894
• Moses Levet (eventually Leavitt), Exeter, NH, Minutes of Council and Assembly of New Hampshire, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, Great Britain Public Record Office, 1621–1698, London
• Richard Levette, Burgess of Calais, A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Record Office, Great Britain Public Record Office, 1902
• Robert Lyvet, Knight, Sussex, 1286, Calendar of Charters and Documents Relating to the Abbey of Robertsbridge, Baron Philip Sidney De L'Isle, 1873
• Sir John Levett, chaplain to Ryther, The Will of Thomas Ryther of Ryther, Yorkshire, Esq., July 1, 1527, Testamenta Eboracensia, John Will Clay, 1884
• Order of King Edward I to his Irish Magnates, John de Lyvet, 1302, A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, Sir Bernard Burke, 1866
• Levet of Sussex, A Compendious History of Sussex, Mark Antony Lower, Lewes, Sussex, 1870
• Dictionnaire des fiefs, seigneuries, chatellenies, etc. de l'ancienne France, Paris, 1862 (in French)
• History of de Livet family, Normandy, Dictionnaire de la noblesse contenant les généalogies, l'histoire & la chronologie des familles nobles de France, Francois Alexandre Aubert de La Chesnaye-Desbois, 1775 (in French)

External links

• Some variations of the name Levett
• Portrait of Dr. Robert Levett of Lichfield, Staffordshire, d. 1782, Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield District Council, Flickr.com
• Levett of Sussex Coat of Arms, YeOldeSussexPages
• Levett of High Melton and Normanton, Thurcroft web