Sir Philip Perceval

Perceval, Sir Philip, was born in 1605. His father, the friend and favourite of Lord Burleigh, had been granted large estates in Munster. Philip held situations of trust and emolument before he was twenty, and received additional land grants in Cork, Tipperary, and Wexford — so that ultimately he became owner of some 100,000 acres of the finest land in the country. Foreseeing the outbreak of 1641, he placed his castles in a good state of defence. Liscarroll sustained a siege of eleven days, against 7,000 foot, 500 horse, and artillery, and Annagh withstood Lord Muskerry with an army of 5,000. Both castles, however, were lost by treachery.

Altogether, by his devotion to the English side, he lost in the struggle a landed estate of £2,000 a year, offices worth £2,000 more, and upwards of £20,000 spent in carrying on the war and relieving sufferers therefrom. In 1644 he acted as one of Charles I.'s Commissioners to treat with the Irish Confederates. At the conclusion of the ensuing futile negotiations he joined the English Parliamentary party, and was returned for the borough of Newport, in Cornwall, through the influence of his friend Pym. At the termination of the truce in 1647, the army of Munster, under the command of Lord Inchiquin, committed to Sir Philip the direction and management of their interests. The anxieties of office eventually undermined his constitution. He died 10th November 1647, aged 42, and was buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. Primate Ussher preached his funeral sermon, while Parliament paid the expenses of his interment. At one period the Marquis of Ormond was his earnest friend and warm admirer.

Sources

196. Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840-'7.