Percival Levett
Percival Levett (1560–1625) was a successful merchant and innkeeper in York, England. He served as Sheriff of York and was a member of the Eastland Company, which sought to win Baltic trade from the Hanseatic League. He is the father of the English explorer Captain Christopher Levett.
He was born in Harewood, Yorkshire, and moved to York as a young man. He became a freeman of York in 1581, later serving as chamberlain and then Sheriff in 1597.
His daughter Ann married another York Sheriff, Christopher Topham (the father of MP Christopher Topham). After Christopher Topham’s death, Ann married Dr. Joseph Micklethwaite.
The Levett ancestors came from Bolton Percy, Yorkshire. Their coat of arms matches the Levetts of Normanton, High Melton and Hooton Levitt, suggesting a cadet branch moved to Bolton Percy in medieval times.
Levett contributed to the Queen’s Loan in 1590. He belonged to the Eastland Company, founded to challenge the Hanseatic League for Baltic trade.
He was buried at St. Martin’s Micklegate in York on 13 February 1625. He had become wealthy enough to be called a gentleman, and he sold his Coppergate home in York to Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York.
His sons included Christopher, the explorer, and Percival, a merchant in Beverley and York. His brother Richard Levett was a long-serving mayor of Doncaster.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:20 (CET).