INTRODUCTION. THE Appendix to Report VII. of the Historical Manuscripts Commission contains a short Report upon the Earl of Egmont's MSS., giving a list of the volumes and extracts from some few of the letters. A large number of the volumes thus catalogued prove, upon examination, to be merely collected materials for the history of the Perceval family (A Genealogical History of the House of Yvery) published in 1742; but the collection includes the original entry-book of the Court of Castle Chamber, 1573-1620 (see p. lxvi below); a very fine series of original letters and papers, filling some fifty folio volumes and ranging in date from the beginning of Charles I.'s reign to the closing decade of George II.'s; nine volumes of news-letters, 1720-1733; and twelve volumes of original diaries of the first Earl of Egmont. The present Report calendars all papers of any importance or general interest found in the nineteen folio volumes of original papers which carry the family correspondence down to the date. of the Restoration of Charles II. The first of these volumes is noted as containing "bundle 2," and "bundle 1" is wanting; but fortunately the first Earl had the greater part of the 17th century letters copied into entry-books, and from the earliest of these entry-books the missing letters of "bundle 1" have been calendared. The history of the Perceval family may be read in the History of the House of Yvery, but, as regards the early generations, the statements there made must be taken with considerable reservation. No diligence was lacking in the compilers, as is shown by the voluminous copies of records, rough pedigrees, notes, memoranda, letters and queries on the subject. Every known source was searched, church registers appealed to, ancient members of the family invited to certify facts within their knowledge. For the later generations of the family these methods succeeded admirably, but the deductions made from the mediæval records are often far from convincing and sometimes manifestly wrong. There can, however, be no doubt that the first Sir Philip Percivall's grandfather was George Percivall, Lord of Tykenham and Sydenham, in Somersetshire, the latter manor having been brought into the family by Alice Cave, heiress of her brother John, Lord of Sydenham, who married George Percivall's grandfather Thomas. George Percivall had a son Richard, and in the House of Yvery (and thence copied into Lodge's Peerage) will be found a long narrative of the early life of this Richard,-his wildness, his journeying into Spain, his introduction to the Cecils (at which point Lord Burghley and his son Robert are curiously mixed up together), his reconciliation with his father, and his appointment as Registrar of the Commission for the Wards in Ireland. This narrative is mostly taken from a certificate by Edmond Percivall of Ringwood, in Hampshire, made in 1648-9, and written entirely in his own hand (see p. 487 of this Report). He is absolutely emphatic on the main point, i.e. that Richard Percivall inherited Sydenham from his father George, sold it, went to Ireland, and was Sir Philip Percivall's father. And as Edmond Percivall had himself been his cousin Richard's clerk, and lived in the greatest intimacy with his relatives, his testimony on this point is conclusive, in spite of small inaccuracies in his story. The author of the House of Yvery says that Richard Percivall had already been in Ireland in Queen Elizabeth's time, as Commissary for Leinster, but the reference given (to the document on p. 168, below) does not verify this. A Percivall was made Commissary for Leinster in 1600, but his name was Christopher. Another old note amongst the Percivall papers says: "Richard Percivall of Sydenham, county Somerset, father of Sir Philip, was barrister of Lincoln's Inn. After his travels into Spain and making the Spanish dictionary, he was chosen by Lord Treasurer Burley (after Earl of Salisbury and Master of the Court of Wards) to be his secretary. He served in Parliament, temp. James, and in the 14th of that reign was by the King and Council sent over to settle the Court of Wards in Ireland, and made registrar of the same. He sold Sydenham at his departure, and died in Dublin about 1620.” Here again, it will be observed, Lord Burghley and his son are confused together. It is doubtful whether Richard Percivall was ever in Burghley's service. His name first appears in 1594, as a "servant" of Sir Robert Cecil, and from that time letters from him are to be found scattered amongst the Cecil Papers, *For the various spellings of the name, see p. lxvi below. |