Richard Percivale

Sir Richard Percivale (alias Perceval etc.) (1550 – 4 September 1620) of Sydenham, near Bridgwater, Somerset, was an English administrator and politician, also known as a Hispanist and lexicographer. He wrote a Spanish grammar for English readers, A Spanish Grammar, and a dictionary, both included in his Bibliotheca Hispanica (1591); this work was later enlarged by John Minsheu in A dictionarie in Spanish and English (London: E. Bollifant, 1599).

He was the eldest son and heir of George Perceval (c1532–1601) (alias Percival, etc.) of Sydenham, near Bridgwater, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth Bampfylde, a daughter of Sir Edward Bampfylde (d.1528) of Poltimore, Devon and Elizabeth Wadham. His family had inherited the manor of Sydenham by marriage to the heiress of the prominent Westcountry Sydenham family, which had originated there, junior branches of which were seated in Somerset at Combe Sydenham, Orchard Sydenham, Brympton D'Evercy (later Sydenham baronets) and elsewhere.

He was born at Nailsea Court.

He was educated at St Paul's School, London. As a law student at Lincoln's Inn, he alienated his father by extravagance, and by marrying Joan Young, seventh daughter of Henry Young of Buckhorn Weston in Dorset who brought him no fortune.

Perceval went into Spain, and lived there four years till his wife's death; he then returned to England, and vainly sought reconciliation with his father. Through his friend Roger Cave of Stamford, who had married Lord Burghley's sister Margaret, he was introduced to the lord treasurer. The queen rewarded him with a pension, and later with a place in the Duchy of Lancaster; and Burghley, when his son Robert Cecil became master of the court of wards, made him "secretary" of the court.

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