Percival Willoughby was a son of Sir Percival Willoughby, of Wollaton, co Nottingham, and was educated at Oxford, where he took the degree of bachelor of arts. Settling at Derby, he soon obtained the respect and esteem of all classes, and on the 20th February, 1640-1, being then in full practice “in villâ et comitatu Derbiensi, et alibi, in medicinâ bene et multum exercitatus,” he was, after the usual examination, admitted an Extra-Licentiate of the College of Physicians.

Dying at Derby on the 2nd October, 1685, aged eighty-nine, he was buried in St Peter’s church in that town. On the south side, within the altar rails, is a marble stone with the following inscription:-
Hic jacet corpus
Percivalli Willoughby, MD
filii Percivalli Willoughby de Wollerton
in comitatu Nottingham: militis:
obiit 2 die Octob: anno salutis 1685, ætatis suæ 89.

And upon a gravestone near it -
Hic jacet Elizabetha, uxor Perciva: Willoughby, gen: filia Francisci Coke de Trusley milit: ipsa obiit 15 Feb 1666, ætatis suæ 67.

An exquisitely written MS entitled, The Country Midwife’s Opusculum or Vade Mecum, by our physician, is now in the possession of J H Aveling, MD.

William Munk