John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont PC, FRS (25 February 1711 – 4 December 1770) was a British politician, political pamphleteer, and genealogist who served as First Lord of the Admiralty.
John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont PC, FRS (25 February 1711 – 4 December 1770) was a British politician, political pamphleteer, and genealogist who served as First Lord of the Admiralty.
He was the son and heir of John Perceval, 1st Earl of Egmont by his wife Catherine Parker, daughter of Sir Philip Parker, 2nd Baronet of Arwarton. He was baptised at the Palace of Westminster, London. He succeeded his father in 1748 as 2nd Earl of Egmont in the Peerage of Ireland.
Perceval sat in the Irish House of Commons for Dingle between 1731 and 1749. In April 1748, he was created Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales. He was made a Privy Counsellor in January 1755.
He sat in the Parliament of Ireland for Dingle (1731–49) and in the House of Commons for Westminster (1741–47), Weobley (1747–54) and Bridgwater (1754–62). In 1762 he was created Baron Lovel and Holland, of Enmore in the County of Somerset, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which gave him an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
He was appointed joint Postmaster-General for 1762-3 alongside Robert Hampden, 4th Baron Trevor and served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1763 to 1766.
From 1751 to 1757, he designed and created Enmore Castle at Enmore in Somerset, which received 'the dismissive mockery of Horace Walpole'.[1]
Perceval married twice. His first marriage was on 15 February 1737 to Lady Catherine Cecil (died 16 August 1752, aged 33), who was the second daughter of James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury. By her he had five sons and two daughters:
His second marriage was to Catherine Compton (died 11 June 1784, aged 53), the third daughter of the Hon. Charles Compton, who following his death was created on 23 May 1770 Baroness Arden of Lohort Castle in the county of Cork in the peerage of Ireland, with remainder to her heirs male. She survived her husband and died at Langley, Buckinghamshire, on 11 June 1784, aged 53.[3]
By Catherine Compton he had three sons and six daughters as follows:
Lord Perceval died 4 December 1770 at Pall Mall, London, aged 59.
Mount Egmont in New Zealand was named after him by James Cook in recognition of his encouragement of Cook's first voyage. Since the 1980s, the mountain has two official names, either Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont, to give equal recognition to its Māori and English names.[4]
