To answer these questions we have to look at two families, the Percevals and the Baxters. The Percevals were part of the family that included the assassinated Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. The Baxters had moved to Acocks Green from Edgbaston by 1860.

Our interest starts with Spencer Perceval's son, Frederick James Perceval, who died on 22nd July 1861 at Solihull, according to Aris's Birmingham Gazette. He was born on 6th October 1797. He married a Mary Barker on 25th July 1827, and their son Spencer Frederick John, or Frederick Spencer John (both forms are found in records) was born on 24th November 1829 in Belgium. This man (S.F.J.) is known to have lived in Acocks Green, in one half of the Gothics, just to the right of Stone Hall. The ground rent for the Gothics dates from 1858, and the house was probably built around the same time as Stone Hall. Spencer Frederick died on 21st May 1887.

To return to Frederick James, he was living at Herne Bay on the north Kent coast with his family in 1851. Mary Barker had died in 1843, and he had married again, to an Emma Gilbert, on 6th April 1844. They had children, four of whom are referred to in Acocks Green and Yardley. George Drummond Ince was born on 7th March 1847, and died on 19th January 1920. Charles Augustus Trevelyan was born on 19th July 1848, and died on 5th January 1898. Montagu William Cairns was born on 25th January 1850, and died in 1923. James Wilde Godfrey was born on 20th March 1854, and died on 14th January 1905. In 1851, the Census shows Frederick James as M.P. for Middlesex and Westminster. By 1861, the family had moved to Warwick, and Frederick James was listed as an Esquire. Shortly afterwards, he died, as we have seen.

Spencer Frederick John is not listed in the Yardley directories we have seen until 1871. In the 1871 Census, he is at the Warwick Road with his wife Ellen, and Charles is boarding with them. However, his younger brother George is listed earlier, in 1868. Perhaps it was he who first lived in one half of the Gothics. George is listed at Henley-in-Arden at the date of his marriage to Marianne Baxter, and at is listed at Crocketts, Beaudesert with his family, in the 1871 Census, farming 205 acres. He is there in the 1872 directory, but in 1873 he is listed at Warwick Road, as is Spencer. It may be a reasonable assumption that they were both in the Gothics. In 1875 Montagu is listed at Warwick Road, and in 1876-77 he is listed there as a medical student, despite being described as a surgeon on his son Robert's baptism certificate in 1875, and he is still there in the 1878 directory. By 1881 Montagu was a G.P. in Greenwich. Meanwhile, George was farming at Waterloo Farm, just beyond Stockfield Road, but by 1878 he was listed at Park Farm, Barston in Warwickshire.

In 1881 James Perceval was visiting his brother Spencer in Eastbourne, where he now lived. James was described as an architect at that point. He married Jane Milne Louttit, a doctor's daughter from Blackheath on 2nd March 1882. In March 1883 the baptism certificate of his son James has him at Waterloo Farm, but described as a Gentleman. In 1884 James Percival (sic) is also listed at Waterloo Farm, Yardley, near Acocks Green. (There are no Percevals there in 1881). The 1891 Census has him at Albert House, Broad Road, Acocks Green. His six-year-old daughter Emma was born in Yardley, but his five-year-old daughter and one-year-old son were both born in Harborne, then in Staffordshire. This would indicate that he left Waterloo Farm after 1884. Perhaps he left the farm when George returned, to enable him to run it. His profession in 1891 is Cycle Fittings Manufacturer. From 1892 to 1896 he is listed in directories at Albert House, Broad Lane, Acocks Green. By 1901 he was no longer in Acocks Green, but in Hall Green,  at Hillcrest on the Stratford Road at the top of Greet Mill Hill between the later Brandon and Dunsmore Roads. He is listed from 1903 -5 a little further up the hill in a house called Penzmont, later number 979, near where Green Bank Avenue is now. He is described as a manager of a cycle company at this time: this was Copes Limited, cycle components and cycle spokes manufacturers, at the Accho Works, Park Lane, Aston. He died in 1905, as we have seen. From 1906 to 1909 Jane Milne Perceval is listed at 44 Park Road, Sparkhill, and from 1910 to 1913 at 87 Oakfield Road, Balsall Heath. After that she is providing apartments at 66 Belgrave Road, Balsall Heath until about 1926. After that she appears to have gone into rooms.

James's son Spencer Ralph was born on 7th September 1889. He married Mabel Newbold on 23rd March 1918, and they lived with her parents at 59 Ivor Road, Sparkhill. They all left there in the mid-1930s for a new house at 31 Primrose Croft, Hall Green. Spencer Ralph and his wife sent a wreath to the 10th Earl's funeral. He was described as a commercial traveller at the time of his mother's death at a nursing home in Moseley on 20th March 1940. He was still living at Primrose Croft when he died on 26th April 1968, and that is the latest association of Percevals with the south Birmingham area that we are aware of. His daughters had pre-deceased him. So we can safely say that Percevals were associated with south Birmingham for one hundred years.

No Percevals are at The Gothics in 1891.

Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval, the Earl of Egmont who was buried at St. Mary's in 1932 was born in Acocks Green on 27th April 1873, as was his brother George Ernest Spencer, on 18th July 1874. They were not baptised at St. Mary's, however. His father was George Drummond Ince Perceval, and his mother was Marianne Baxter. His own family and three uncles lived in Acocks Green at one time or another, so that there was a strong Perceval family connection with Acocks Green and Yardley. All these brothers were grandsons of a Prime Minister.

Before looking in more detail at the life of the Earl of Egmont, we need to look at the Baxter family. Edward Baxter was a woollen merchant, listed in 1851 with his family at George Street, Edgbaston. His company was Worsey and Baxter, later Worsey and Sons, of Union Street, Birmingham. By 1860 he was listed at Westbourne House, Sherbourne Road, and the 1861 census shows the whole family there, including a daughter Marianne, who married George Perceval on 4th October 1870. By 1871, Edward Baxter had died, and his widow Maryanne/Marianne lived at Westbourne House until her death. In 1881 she was there with her sons Sidney and Ernest. Ernest is still there in 1891: at that point there are a general servant and a groom/gardener living in, replacing the cook and housemaid of 1881. Maryanne was born on 22nd January 1828, and died on 8th January 1909. Probate was granted to Edward Baxter, manufacturer's agent, Ernest Harry Baxter, organist, and Anne Eliza French, widow. Effects were £4,719 13s 6d. Her grave is at St. Mary's, section D, row 5, number 15. Both Edward and Maryanne originally came from Staffordshire. Edward's will, dated 18th March 1869, shows that he died on 3rd December 1868, and left Effects of under £8,000. James Tolefree of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, draper, and William Baxter, brother, also a draper from Birmingham, were Executors. Perhaps Edward is also buried at St. Mary's: we do not yet know whether that is the case. Interestingly, the 1871 census shows an Eward/Edward Baxter with the Percevals at Beaudesert. He is described as a merchant. Perhaps the wool trade brought the families together: in any event George and Marianne lived only five minutes away from each other in 1868.

George and Marianne Perceval, c. 1900

The younger Marianne Baxter was born in October 1850. After spending ten years of married life in Acocks Green, Yardley and Warwickshire, the family went to the United States, to Iowa.  The 1885 State Census shows they were in Jackson township, Taylor County. It appears that things were not going very well, as the family then came back to Acocks Green, ostensibly to finish the children's education.

The log book for St. Mary's school has the following entry on 1st March 1886:

Admitted two boys, George and Frederick Perceval aged 11 and 12 years respectively. They have recently come from Iowa, United States, where they attended a Science School. Their education has been sadly neglected, they not being able to do the most elementary work. I have however placed them in the Second Standard on account of their size.

And an entry for 18th May 1887 states that:

Mr Percival (sic) sent word to say that his son Fred. was suffering from brain fever.

Around 1889 they returned to the United States, to St. Joseph's, Missouri, according to George Ernest's obituary, although they were once again listed in Jackson in the 1895 census. After that they moved to Canada, to Shepard, Alberta, and then to Priddis, Alberta in 1900, near Calgary. On 30th November 1900 they sold their farm in Jackson County (thanks to Neil Hall, Bedford, Iowa, and Lakefield Heritage Research for this information). George Drummond Perceval was nursed in his last years by Cecilia Moore, who married Frederick Joseph, and by Margaret Eadington from Liverpool, who married George Ernest. When Cecilia died in 1916, Frederick George Moore was looked after by his grandmother Marianne until her death in 1922. After he returned to Canada following his father's death in 1932, the 11th Earl married Geraldine Moodie. The House of Lords formally recognised his claim to the title in 1939: his father had been 10th Earl de jure. They left Priddis in 1948 for another farm, and sold this in 1959 for over one million dollars. They then moved forty miles south of the encroaching city of Calgary to the Two Dot Ranch, Nanton. Geraldine died on 2nd July 1995, and the 11th Earl died on 8th December 2001, at the age of 87. Their son Thomas Frederick Gerald was born on 17th August 1934, and is the 12th Earl. He has no children. George Ernest died on 10th December 1965, at the age of 91. He had given up his farm in the Priddis area when his wife died in 1946. (Acknowledgments to Gord Young of Lakefield Heritage Research for this information, and to the digitised history of that area near Calgary. This is such a detailed history of people's lives in that area: would that we had that sort of thing over here).

Record of the marriage of George and Marianne, 4th October 1870, St Mary's, Acocks Green (Birmingham Libraries)

Extract from a sale catalogue of Waterloo Farm, 1907 (Birmingham Libraries)

The Gothics, Warwick Road, where the Percevals lived from the 1860s until the 1880s. This photo was taken by Revd Richard Postill on the day the houses were demolished, on 12th April 1989

Westbourne House, Sherbourne Road, home of the Baxters

Albert House, Broad Lane, home of James Perceval

Hillcrest, Stratford Road, Hall Green, home of James Perceval

Extract from the O.S. map of Acocks Green, 1905. The yellow dot shows Albert House, the green dot the Gothics, the blue dot Westbourne House, and the red dot Waterloo Farm.

The best source of information about Frederick Joseph Trevelyan is actually an obituary of his son Frederick George Moore Perceval, which appeared in the Telegraph on 3rd January 2002. Frederick George was born on 14th April 1914, and died on 10th December 2001 at the age of 87. He lost his mother as an infant. Frederick had married Cecilia Moore on 13th June 1911, but she died on 12th December 1916. The bereaved father and son were very close thereafter. This link should bring up the article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1380184/The-Earl-of-Egmont.html

There are one or two minor errors in this piece, but it certainly shows why there was such interest in the Earl of Egmont. Lord Beaverbrook had instructed a Daily Express reporter to tell Frederick Perceval of his changed circumstances. When he was brought to a telephone station, he said: "this is the first I have heard of it. I have been out with a bunch of cattle for the last few days, and have just got in". After only three years at Avon Castle, the 10th Earl was returning from an evening at the theatre in Southampton on 11th May 1932. He was a passenger in a car that was involved in a collision at a crossroads. He suffered head and internal injuries, and died five days later from his injuries. Local newspaper articles reveal that the family tried to avoid public interest in the 10th Earl's funeral in 1932. The Birmingham Post wrote on 21st May 1932:

The arrangements for the funeral were kept as secret as possible, in order that curious sightseers might be kept away, and all that the vicar (the Rev. P.J. Kelly) knew was that he had to perform the last rites about half-past two. A new grave had been dug from the concrete base which at one time was intended for the foundations of the church tower on the west end of the church, which faces the Warwick Road, and almost adjacent to a house where one of the late Earl's uncles used to reside. Prior to the arrival of the motor hearse from Southampton, the new Earl, a pathetic and lonely mourner, had come by train from his home in the company of Mr. W.B. Wasbrough, the family solicitor, and Mr. Vyvian Hicks, the estate agent. At the church, which they quickly entered to avoid a large crowd which had gathered in the vicinity, they were joined by Mr. Ernest H. Baxter, the only living uncle of the late Earl, who had previously arrived from Worthing, where he now lives in retirement. A moment later the hearse arrived with the oak coffin, inscribed, "Frederick Joseph Trevelyan, Earl of Egmont, died May 16, 1932". The vicar conducted the service. Others who joined the mourners were Mr. Dudley Perceval and Mr. Lloyd Herbert, a friend of the family.

At the graveside the new Earl, who looks older than his eighteen years, broke down, and at the end of the service was taken by the vicar to the vicarage by a private path, and remained there with his grand-uncle to await the dispersal of the crowd.

The funeral at St. Mary's (Birmingham libraries newscuttings collection)

Dudley Perceval, one of the mourners, lived at Wallingford in Berkshire. His grandfather Dudley Montagu was a son of the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, and a brother of Frederick James. One of the wreaths at the funeral was from Mr and Mrs Spencer Perceval.

There are some Canadian websites which have photographs of the Percevals. The Glenbow Museum has some very nice pictures of all three generations: enter Egmont in the search box on this page. Two of the pictures from the Glenbow collection are to be found at http://collections.ic.gc.ca/wjoliver/photobank/16-286.htm and http://collections.ic.gc.ca/wjoliver/photobank/16-281.htm

The title itself (source: Wikipedia)

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