Biography of John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont 1683-1748

Paternal Family Tree: Perceval

Maternal Family Tree: Mary Harvey Lady Dering 1629-1704

On 11 Sep 1680 [his uncle] Philip Perceval 2nd Baronet (age 24) died. His brother [his father] John Perceval 3rd Baronet (age 20) succeeded 3rd Baronet Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork.

Before 12 Jul 1683 [his father] John Perceval 3rd Baronet (age 23) and [his mother] Catherine Dering were married. A sibling marriage. John's sister [his aunt] Helena Perceval (age 28) was married to, or would marry, Catherine's brother [his uncle] Daniel Dering.

On 12 Jul 1683 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont was born to John Perceval 3rd Baronet (age 23) and Catherine Dering at Burton, County Cork.

On 29 Apr 1686 [his father] John Perceval 3rd Baronet (age 26) died. His son [his brother] Edward Perceval 4th Baronet (age 3) succeeded 4th Baronet Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork.

On 09 Nov 1691 [his brother] Edward Perceval 4th Baronet (age 9) died. His brother John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 8) succeeded 5th Baronet Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork.

In 1703 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 19) was elected MP County Cork which seat he held until 1715.

In 1710 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 26) and Catherine Parker Countess Egmont (age 20) were married.

On 25 Feb 1711 [his son] John Perceval 2nd Earl Egmont was born to John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 27) and [his wife] Catherine Parker Countess Egmont (age 21).

On 21 Apr 1715 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 31) was created 1st Baron Perceval of Burton in County Cork with a special remainder to his [his father] father's heirs male.

In 1722 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 38) was elected MP Harwich which seat he held until 1734.

On 25 Feb 1723 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 39) was created 1st Viscount Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork.

On 06 Nov 1733 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 50) was created 1st Earl Egmont. [his wife] Catherine Parker Countess Egmont (age 43) by marriage Countess Egmont.

On 15 Feb 1737 [his son] John Perceval 2nd Earl Egmont (age 25) and [his daughter-in-law] Catherine Cecil Countess Egmont (age 15) were married. She the daughter of James Cecil 5th Earl Salisbury and Anne Tufton Countess of Salisbury. He the son of John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 53) and [his wife] Catherine Parker Countess Egmont (age 47).

On 01 May 1748 John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont (age 64) died. His son [his son] John Perceval 2nd Earl Egmont (age 37) succeeded 2nd Earl Egmont, 2nd Viscount Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork, 2nd Baron Perceval of Burton in County Cork, 6th Baronet Perceval of Kanturk in County Cork. [his daughter-in-law] Catherine Cecil Countess Egmont (age 26) by marriage Countess Egmont.

In 1749 [his former wife] Catherine Parker Countess Egmont (age 59) died.

Letters of Horace Walpole. 04 Mar 1749. Strawberry Hill. To Horace Mann 1st Baronet (age 42).

I have been so shut up in the House of Commons for this last fortnight or three weeks, that I have not had time to write you a line: we have not had such a session since the famous beginning of last Parliament. I am come hither for a day or two of rest and air, and find the additional pleasure of great beauty in my improvements: I could talk to you through the whole sheet, and with much more satisfaction, upon this head; but I shall postpone my own amusement to yours, for I am sure you want much more to know what has been doing in Parliament than at Strawberry Hill. You will conclude that we have been fighting over the peace; but we have not. It is laid before Parliament, but will not be taken up; the Opposition foresee that a vote of approbation would pass, and therefore will not begin upon it, as they wish to reserve it for censure in the next reign-or perhaps the next reign does not care to censure now what he must hereafter maintain-and the ministry do not seem to think their treaty so perfect as not to be liable to blame, should it come to be canvassed. We have been then upon several other matters: but first I should tell you, that from the utmost tranquillity and impotence of a minority, there is at once started up so formidable an Opposition as to divide 137 against 203.(1) The minority is headed by the Prince, who has continued opposing, though very unsuccessfully, ever since the removal of Lord Granville (age 58), and the desertion of the patriots. He stayed till the Pelhams had brought off every man of parts in his train, and then began to form his party. Lord Granville has never come into it, for fear of breaking with the King; and seems now to be patching up again with his old enemies. If Lord Bath has dealt with the Prince, it has been underhand. His ministry has had at the head of it poor Lord Baltimore (age 49), a very good-natured, weak, honest man; and Dr. Lee, a civilian, who was of Lord Granville's admiralty, and is still much attached to him. He is a grave man, and a good speaker, but of no very bright parts, and, from his way of life and profession, much ignorant of, and unfit for, a ministry. You will wonder what new resources the Prince has discovered-why, he has found them all in [his son] Lord Egmont (age 38), whom you have heard of under the name of Lord Perceval; but his father, an Irish Earl, is lately dead. As he is likely to make a very considerable figure in our history, I shall give you a more particular account of him. He has always earnestly studied our history and constitution and antiquities, with very ambitious views; and practised speaking early in the Irish Parliament. Indeed, this turn is his whole fund, for though he is between thirty and forty, he knows nothing of the world, and is always unpleasantly dragging the conversation to political dissertations. When very young, as he has told me himself, he dabbled in writing Craftsmen and penny-papers; but the first event that made him known, was his carrying the Westminster election at the end of my father's ministry,-which he amply described in the history of his own family, a genealogical work called "The History of the House of Yvery,"(2) a work which cost him three thousand pounds, as the heralds informed Mr. Chute and me, when we went to their office on your business; and which was so ridiculous, that he has since tried to suppress all the copies. It concluded with the description of the Westminster election, in these or some such words, "And here let us leave this young nobleman struggling for the dying liberties of his country!" When the change in the ministry happened, and Lord Bath was so abused by the remnant of the patriots, Lord Egmont published his celebrated pamphlet, called "Faction Detected," a work which the Pitts and Lytteltons have never forgiven him; and which, though he continued voting and sometimes speaking with the Pelhams, made him quite unpopular during all the last Parliament. When the new elections approached, he stood on his own bottom at Weobly in Herefordshire; but his election being contested, be applied for Mr. Pelham's support, who carried it for him in the House of Commons. This will always be a material blot in his life; for he had no sooner secured his seat, than he openly attached himself to the Prince, and has since been made a lord of his bedchamber. At the opening of this session, he published an extreme good pamphlet, which has made infinite noise, called "An Examination of the Principles and Conduct of the two Brothers," (the Pelhams,) and as Dr. Lee has been laid up with the gout, Egmont has taken the lead in the Opposition, and has made as great a figure as perhaps was ever made in so short a time. He is very bold and resolved, master of vast knowledge, and speaks at once with fire and method. His words are not picked and chosen like Pitt's, but his language is useful, clear, and strong. He has already by his parts and resolution mastered his great unpopularity, so far as to be heard with the utmost attention, though I believe nobody had ever more various difficulties to combat. All the old corps hate him on my father and Mr. Pelham's (age 54) account; the new part of the ministry on their own. The Tories have not quite forgiven his having left them in the last Parliament: besides that, they are now governed by one Prowse, a cold, plausible fellow. and a great well-wisher to Mr. Pelham. Lord Strange (age 33),(3) a busy Lord of a party by himself, yet voting generally with the Tories, continually clashes with Lord Egmont; and besides all this, there is a faction in the Prince's family, headed by Nugent, who are for moderate measures.

(1) Upon the last clause of the Mutiny-bill, an amendment to render half pay officers subject to the act, only in case of actual war, insurrection, rebellion, or invasion, was rejected by 203 to 137.-E.

(2) Compiled principally for Lord Egmont by Anderson, the genealogist. It was printed, but not published, in 1742. "Some," says Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, "have affected to laugh at the History of the House of Very: it would be well if many others would transmit their pedigrees to posterity, with the same accuracy and generous zeal with which the noble Lord who compiled that work has honoured and perpetuated his ancestry. Family histories, like, the imagines majorum of the ancients, excite to virtue." Vol. viii. p. 188.-E.

(3) James, Lord Strange, eldest son of Edward Stanley, eleventh Earl of Derby (age 59). In 1762 he was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and died during his father's life-time, in 1771. He always called himself Lord Strange; though the title, which was a barony in fee, had in fact descended to the Duke of Atholl, as heir general of James, seventh Earl of Derby. D.

Royal Ancestors of John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont 1683-1748

Kings Wessex: Great x 22 Grand Son of King Edmund "Ironside" I of England

Kings Gwynedd: Great x 19 Grand Son of Owain "Great" King Gwynedd

Kings Seisyllwg: Great x 25 Grand Son of Hywel "Dda aka Good" King Seisyllwg King Deheubarth

Kings Powys: Great x 20 Grand Son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn King Powys

Kings England: Great x 13 Grand Son of King Edward III of England

Kings Scotland: Great x 21 Grand Son of King Duncan I of Scotland

Kings Franks: Great x 18 Grand Son of Louis VII King Franks

Kings France: Great x 15 Grand Son of Philip IV King France

Ancestors of John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont 1683-1748

Father: John Perceval 3rd Baronet

Great x 1 Grandfather: Robert Southwell

GrandMother: Catherine Southwell

Great x 1 Grandmother: Helena Gore

John Perceval 1st Earl Egmont 13 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England

Great x 1 Grandfather: Edward Dering 1st Baronet

Great x 3 Grandfather: Robert Bell

Great x 2 Grandmother: Frances Bell

Great x 4 Grandfather: Edmonde Beaupré of Beaupré Hall Norfolk

Great x 3 Grandmother: Dorothie Beaupré

GrandFather: Edward Dering 2nd Baronet 11 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England

Great x 3 Grandfather: John Ashburnham

Great x 2 Grandfather: John Ashburnham

Great x 1 Grandmother: Anne Ashburnham Lady Dering 10 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England

Great x 4 Grandfather: Nicholas Beaumont of Coleorton in Leicestershire 7 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England

Great x 3 Grandfather: Thomas Beaumont 8 x Great Grand Son of King Edward III of England

Great x 4 Grandmother: Anne Saunders

Great x 2 Grandmother: Elizabeth Beaumont 9 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England

Great x 4 Grandfather: Thomas Farnham

Great x 3 Grandmother: Katherine Farnham

Mother: Catherine Dering 12 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward III of England

Great x 1 Grandfather: Daniel Harvey

GrandMother: Mary Harvey Lady Dering