© R McConville
The Percivals
Dunham Massey includes the villages of Sinderland Green, Dunham Woodhouses and Dunham Town as well as Dunham Massey Hall, now owned by the National Trust.
Meaning of the Name
Percival is derived from the personal name Perceval, first found as the name of the hero of an epic poem by the 12th-century French poet Crestien de Troyes, describing the quest for the holy grail. The origin of the name is uncertain; it may be associated with the Gaulish personal name Pritorix or it may be an alteration of the Celtic name Peredur.
The earliest records we have of our links to the Percival family go back to John Percival, a tailor, who was born in 1823 in Dunham Massey and christened on 4th May 1823 at St Mary’s church, Bowdon. His parents were Joseph and Mary Percivall but we have no more information about them.
On 20th January 1845 John married Mary McLanaghan, born in 1822 in Altrincham, but again we have no further information. We do know that they had eight children, all born in Altrincham
William born 1845
Robert born 1848
Fanny born 1852
Henry born 1855
Alice born 1858
John born 1860
Mary born 1863
Florence born 1857
Robert Percival, my Great Grandfather, married Annie Williams from Moelfre on the Island of Anglesey and they had seven children, all born in Altrincham.
Margaret born 1876
Gertrude born 1877
Mary born 1880
Robert born 1890
William born 1891
Joseph born 1893
Austin born 1897
Gertrude was my Grandmother and married Andrew McConville in 1896. Margaret, known in the family as Maggie, spent time as a child on Anglesey with her grandparents, Margaret and Owen Williams, and in 1898 she married Owen Jones. The 1901 census shows that they were living in Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf. By the time of the 1911 census they had moved to Hen Efail, Marianglas where they lived until Owen’s death in 1925. A year later, Maggie married Robert Parry, a plasterer, on the island, and in 1939 they are recorded living in Benllech, where Maggie ran Benllech Isaf as a guest house and I recall many happy memories of holidays spent there during and just after the war. Maggie died on 4th February 1961 and she is buried at St Eugrad’s church in the tiny hamlet of Parciau at Llaneugrad with her first husband Owen Jones and her youngest son Joseph (known as “Joe Boats”) who died in 1975.