Percival Levett

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York, England
York, England

Percival Levett (1560 - 1625) was an early merchant and innkeeper of York, England, Sheriff of the city,[1] member of the Eastland Company and father of English explorer Capt. Christopher Levett.

Levett was born in Harewood, Yorkshire, and removed early to the city of York, where he was listed as a freeman in 1581, and where he served the city as chamberlain and subsequently Sheriff in 1597.[2] His daughter Ann married another York Sheriff, Christopher Topham (father of Member of Parliament Christopher Topham), and on his death married Dr. Joseph Micklethwaite.[3]

The ancestors of Percival Levett came from Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, and they shared the same coat-of-arms with the Levetts of Normanton and High Melton, Yorkshire, indicating that a branch of the family likely relocated to Bolton Percy during the medieval period.

Levett was a contributor from York to the Queen's Loan in 1590.[4] He was a member of the Eastland Company,[5] an English company established in the sixteenth century in an attempt to wrest some Baltic trade from the Hanseatic League.

Percival Levett was buried at St. Martin's Micklegate in York on February 13, 1625.[6] Levett had done well enough as a merchant to acquire the title of gentleman, a title he assuredly was born without, and sold his home in Coppergate, in central York, to Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York.[7] Levett's sons, aside from Capt. Christopher the explorer, also became merchants.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ History and description of the ancient city of York, William Hargrove, William Alexander, York, 1818
  2. ^ Walks through the city of York, by R. Davies, ed. by his widow, Robert Davies, Chapman and Hall Limited, London, 1880
  3. ^ The Register of Burials in York Minster, Robert H. Skaife, The Mount, York, GENUKI.ORG
  4. ^ Chapters in the History of Yorkshire, James Joel Cartwright, B.W. Allen, Wakefield, 1872
  5. ^ The Acts and Ordinances of the Eastland Company, Maud Sellers, Offices of the Royal Historical Society, London, 1906
  6. ^ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Vol. LXVII, Published by the Society, Boston, 1913
  7. ^ Archaeologia Aeliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Vol. V, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, J.G. Forster, 1861
  8. ^ Admissions to the Freedom of York, Register of the Freemen of the City of York, Vol. 2, Francis Collins, 1900, British History Online
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