[2][3] This branch of the family traces its lineage to David Perceval, Lord of Tykenham, Rolleston, Sydenham, Moreland, Weley, and Wolmerton in Somerset, in the 16th century.

His grandson, Sir Richard Percivale (1550–1620), agent of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, deciphered coded letters that gave Queen Elizabeth I the first intelligence of the Spanish Armada of 1588.

On 9 September 1661 his eldest son, John Perceval, was created a Baronet, of Kanturk in the County of Cork, in the Baronetage of Ireland.

The baronetcy was created by patent with a clause specifying that the eldest son, or grandson, would become a baronet after the age of 21, and during the lifetime of the father or grandfather, as the case would be.

Perceval claimed descent from the Egmonts of Holland but the title of the earldom was taken from a place in County Cork[6] where the family owned an estate.

[citation needed] His son John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont (1711-1770), became a prominent politician and notably served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1763 to 1766.

In 1762 he was created Baron Lovel and Holland, of Enmore in the County of Somerset, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which gave him an automatic seat in the British House of Lords.

On the death in 1929 of his younger brother, the ninth Earl, this line of the family also failed and the titles became dormant.

[7] At his death in 2001, the eleventh Earl was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest and sole surviving son Thomas Frederick Gerald Perceval.