Sir Percival Willoughby (died 23 August 1643) of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire was a prominent land owner, businessman, and entrepreneur involved during his lifetime variously in mining, iron smelting, and glass making enterprises in Nottinghamshire. He was also an important investor in the Newfoundland Company.
He was the eldest son of Thomas Willoughby of Bore Place, Chiddingstone, Kent and educated at Furnival's Inn and Lincoln's Inn (1579). He married Bridget Willoughby, his second cousin, the daughter of Sir Francis Willoughby, builder of Wollaton Hall. She, as co-heiress of her father, inherited Wollaton Hall. Sir Percival sold all the lands he had inherited from his father in Kent to pay off some of the enormous debts the construction of the Hall had entailed. Sir Percival and his wife Lady Bridget eventually occupied the new building but in later generations it was never the principal home of the Willoughby family. Middleton Hall in Warwickshire was the family's usual residence.
Willoughby was knighted by King James I on 20 April 1603 at Worksop. On 21 June he hosted Anne of Denmark and her children Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth at Wollaton Hall.[1] Shortly afterwards was returned as member of Parliament for Nottinghamshire and Tamworth in King James' first parliament, choosing to sit for Nottinghamshire. He was returned again and sat for Tamworth in 1614.
Percival Willoughby's business partner, Huntingdon Beaumont, was responsible for constructing the Wollaton Wagonway.
- ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1828), p. 170.