Alexander Perceval (merchant)

Alexander Perceval, (1821 – 8 May 1866)， sometimes spelt "Percival", was the third son of the late Colonel Alexander Perceval, Member of Parliament for County Sligo, and subsequently serjeant-at-arms to the House of Lords. His mother was Jane Anne, daughter of Colonel L'Estrange, of Moystown, Moystown, Cloghan, King's County, Ireland.

Biography

Born in 1821, Perceval was a relative of Mary Jane Perceval, the wife of James Matheson, one of the founders of Hong Kong trading house Jardine, Matheson & Co. As a result, in 1850 he became a clerk in the firm and became a partner in 1853.^[1] By 1862 he had become Taipan of Jardine's and an unofficial member of the Legislative Council of the colony of Hong Kong from 1860 to 1864. He was also the first chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.^[2] Having amassed a large fortune in the Far East, Perceval returned to Ireland in 1860, and purchased the paternal estate of Temple House from R. H. Hall-Dare, esq., of Newtonbarry, County Wexford, to whom it had been sold by Philip Perceval, esq., in 1857. He died at Temple House, County Sligo, aged 44.^[3][4]

Offspring

Perceval's nineteen-month-old son Robert Jardine Percival died in May 1852 and is buried in a large chest tomb in the Hong Kong Cemetery.^[1]

Legacy

Percival Street (sic) on Hong Kong Island is named after him.^[5]

References

1. Patricia Lim (1 February 2011). Forgotten Souls: A Social History of the Hong Kong Cemetery. Hong Kong University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-962-209-990-6.
2. Tak-Wing Ngo (11 September 2002). Hong Kong's History: State and Society Under Colonial Rule. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-134-63095-0.
3. The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 220
4. A little History Temple House
5. Andrew Yanne, Gillis Heller (2009). Signs of a Colonial Era. Hong Kong University Press. p. 97. ISBN 9622099440.