Spencer George Perceval (8 July 1838 – 7 March 1922) was an English amateur antiquary, geologist, and benefactor to Cambridge University. Spencer George Perceval was the second son of Ernest Augustus Perceval of

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

and his cousin Beatrice Trevelyan, fourth daughter of Sir John Trevelyan, 4th Baronet. Perceval's paternal grandfather was the prime minister Spencer Perceval. He was educated at Radley College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Perceval's antiquarian and geological interests drove him to extensive activity as a collector. Between 1852 and 1863 he made collections of Somerset minerals, which were deposited in the Museum of Somerset. He edited a travel journal of

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

relating a tour through Dorset and Somerset, and occasionally corresponded with periodicals on geological and antiquarian subjects. Perceval left his property to the Fitzwilliam Museum of the University of Cambridge. His bequest included a collection of around 300

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

s, and a collection of eighteenth-century memorial jewellery. Perceval directed that the annual income from his property should be spent on objects of art and artefacts associated with pre-nineteenth-century Cambridge alumni.Perceval Bequest
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Writings

*'Supplemenary Note on Minerals found in Somersetshire', ''Geological Magazine'', 10:106 (April 1873), p. 166 *'James Parkinson, the Author of "Organic Remains of a Former World"', '' Nature'' 51 (8 November 1984), pp. 31–2

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perceval, Spencer George 1838 births 1922 deaths English antiquarians English geologists English philanthropists People educated at Radley College