Irish politician
Born 1683 Died 1748
John Perceval, partner with J. E. Oglethorpe in founding the American colony of Georgia, was created earl in 1733. He claimed descent from the Egmonts of Flanders, but his title was taken from the place in County Cork where the family residence stood. Its name of Burton House, and that of Burton manor which formed part of the family estates, were a reminiscence of Burton in Somerset, where was the earlier English family property of his great-great-grandfather Richard Perceval (1550-1620), Burghley's secret agent, and author of a Spanish dictionary published in 1591, whose son Sir Philip Perceval (1605-1647) acquired the Irish estates by judicious use of his opportunities as commissioner for land titles and of his interest at court. Sir Philip's son John, grandfather of the 1st earl, was made a baronet in 1661. The first Earl of Egmont (who had been made Baron Perceval in 1715, and Viscount Perceval in 1723) is chiefly important for his connexion with the colonization of Georgia, and for his voluminous letters and writings on biography and genealogy.
Extracted from the entry for EGMONT, EARLS OF in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.