Percival Levett (1560–1625) was an early merchant and innkeeper of York, England, sheriff of the city,History and description of the ancient city of York, William Hargrove, William Alexander, York, 1818. 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.Walks through the city of York, by R. Davies, ed. by his widow, Robert Davies, Chapman and Hall Limited, London, 1880 His daughter Ann married another York Sheriff, Christopher Topham (father of Member of Parliament Christopher Topham), and on his death married Joseph Micklethwaite.The Register of Burials in York Minster, Robert H. Skaife, The Mount, York, GENUKI.ORG A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, Sir Bernard Burke, Printed by Harrison, London, 1866
His ancestors came from Bolton Percy, Yorkshire, and they shared a coat-of-arms with the Levetts of Normanton,Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, Vol. I, Third Series, G. Milner-Gibson-Cullum, Mitchell and Hughes, London, 1896 High Melton and Hooton Levitt, Yorkshire, indicating that a cadet branch of the family probably relocated to Bolton Percy during medieval times.The arms of the Levetts of Bolton Percy (and subsequently of York) and those of the Levetts of Normanton and High Melton were: Sable, a fess embattled, between 3 lions' heads erased, argent.
Levett was a contributor from York to the Queen's Loan in 1590.Chapters in the History of Yorkshire, James Joel Cartwright, B.W. Allen, Wakefield, 1872 He was a member of the Eastland Company,The Acts and Ordinances of the Eastland Company, Maud Sellers, Offices of the Royal Historical Society, London, 1906 an English company established in the sixteenth century in an attempt to wrest Baltic trade from the Hanseatic League.
Levett was buried at St. Martin's Micklegate in York on 13 February 1625.The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, Vol. LXVII, Published by the Society, Boston, 1913 Levett had done well enough as a merchant to acquire the title of gentleman, a title he was born without,In deeds of covenant of about 1590, 'Percyvall Levitt' is referred to as 'yeoman.' By 20 May 1617, referring to Levett and his 'son and heir Christopher,' Percival Levett is referred to as 'Gentleman.' and sold his home in Coppergate, in central York, to Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York.Archaeologia Aeliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Vol. V, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, J.G. Forster, 1861 Levett had at least two sons,'Percivallus Levett, mercator, fil. Percivalli Levett, generosi,' Register of the Freemen of the City of York: Vol. 2: 1559-1759, Francis Collins, 1900, British History OnlineThe Publications of the Surtees Society, Wills & Administrations from the Knaresborough Court Rolls, Vol. II, Published for the Society by Andrews & Co., Durham, 1905 and his brother Richard Levett was a long-serving mayor of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
See also Christopher Levett
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