Sir Richard Percivale (alias Perceval etc.) (1550 – 4 September 1620) of Sydenham, near Bridgwater, Somerset, was an English administrator and politician, also known as a Hispanist and lexicographer. He wrote a Spanish grammar for English readers, A Spanish Grammar, and a dictionary, both included in his Bibliotheca Hispanica (1591); this work was later enlarged by John Minsheu in A dictionarie in Spanish and English (London: Edmund Bollifant, 1599; London: printed by John Haviland for various booksellers, including William Aspley, Matthew Lownes, and George Latham, 1623).
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Origins
He was the eldest son and heir of George Perceval (c1532–1601) (alias Percival, etc.) of Sydenham, near Bridgwater, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth Bampfylde, a daughter of Sir Edward Bampfylde (d.1528) of Poltimore, Devon and Elizabeth Wadham. His family had inherited the manor of Sydenham by marriage to the heiress of the prominent Westcountry Sydenham family, which had originated there, junior branches of which were seated in Somerset at Combe Sydenham, Orchard Sydenham, Brympton D'Evercy (later Sydenham baronets) and elsewhere.
He was born at Nailsea Court.