Percival Willoughby
English politician
Sir Percival Willoughby (died 23 August 1643) of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire was a prominent land owner, businessman, and entrepreneur involved during his lifetime variously in mining, iron smelting, and glass making enterprises in Nottinghamshire. He was also an important investor in the Newfoundland Company.
He was the eldest son of Thomas Willoughby of Bore Place, Chiddingstone, Kent and educated at Furnival's Inn and Lincoln's Inn (1579). He married Bridget Willoughby, his second cousin, the daughter of Sir Francis Willoughby, builder of Wollaton Hall. She, as co-heiress of her father, inherited Wollaton Hall. Sir Percival sold all the lands he had inherited from his father in Kent to pay off some of the enormous debts the construction of the Hall had entailed. Sir Percival and his wife Lady Bridget eventually occupied the new building but in later generations it was never the principal home of the Willoughby family. Middleton Hall in Warwickshire was the family's usual residence.
Willoughby was knighted by King James I on 20 April 1603 at Worksop. On 21 June he hosted Anne of Denmark and her children Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth at Wollaton Hall.
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This entry incorporates text from “Percival Willoughby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.