In marrying the eldest daughter of Sir Francis Willoughby, Percival Willoughby joined together the two main Willoughby families. The Willoughbys of Eresby, the senior family, had produced not only the Eresby line, but also branches that included the Willoughbys of Parham, the Willoughbys of Bore Place and linked by marriage to Willoughby de Broke. Sir Francis was the last in direct male-line of descent from Ralph Bugge, who founded the Willoughby of Wollaton line; he had only daughters. Francis' aunt, Dorothy Willoughby, was Percival's grandmother, so the lines were joined twice in three generations.
Percival's father-in-law stuggled throughout his life to find the money for his over-ambitious reconstruction of Wollaton Hall. In so doing he left a debt of £35,000 to Percival, who struggled throughout his life to cope with this burden. It forced him to lease most of his businesses, including coal extraction and ironmaking, probably to his creditors and his life seems to have been consumed by borrowing and repaying to keep the wolf from the door. He spent time in Fleet - the debtors prison and had to contend with his wife's unwillingness to sell the estate that was hers for her lifetime, including Wollaton and Middleton. Nevertheless Percival managed to have his sons well educated and he invested in Newfoundland and Virginia.
James I
In her history of the Willoughby family, Cassandra, Percival's great grand-daughter, states '..there is an account (in
papers then held in the library at Wollaton) of the visit of James Ist to Middleton in 1603.' Other chroniclers
state that Percival was knighted at Worksop in 1603 on James' progression to take up the throne. Percival subsequently
provided hospitality to Queen Anne at Wollaton Hall when she followed James to London.
Percival was elected a member of the parliament of 1604 (the Gunpower Plot Year). He was elected for both Tamworth and
Nottingham, but sat for the latter. He was again elected, for Tamworth, in 1614.
Percival continued the iron-making business of his father-in-law as evidenced by his leasing of a mine in Wednesbury in
1595. He subsequently leased his industrial activities to other operators and it was through the leasing of his Wollaton
coal mines to Huntington Beaumont that his name was associated with what is claimed to be the first railway line in the
world.
There were six sons and four daughters from the marriage of Percival and Bridget. The demands of dowries and profligate
sons did not help Percival to restore solvency to the family. He was succeeded by Francis, his oldest son. The fifth son,
another Percival became a noted physician and surgeon.