Several Pearce lineage books say that Richard Percy changed his name to Richard Pearce and founded Pearce Hall in York, England around 1500. These books say that Richard Percy was in the Lord Northumberland/Percy lineage. “The Pearce Genealogy being the Record of the Posterity of Richard Pearce” by Col Frederick Pierce, published in 1888 is the oldest book with this name change that I am aware of. However, this book has a very bad reputation in the genealogy community. Lots of other books and articles include this but they do not indicate their source. I expect that they just copied the data from the 1888 book. Also, these books indicate that he is an ancestor of the Richard Pearce who was in R. I. In the early 1600s.

Brad Pierce (wbpierce@swbell.net) sent me a reference to “Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry” published in 1895 that references Piers Hall in York. The earliest lineage reference in this book is “William Piers, son of Richard Piers of Pers Hall, co. York was sent over to Ireland in 1566 by Queen Elizabeth ...”. It is possible that Col Pierce took this lineage, changed the spelling to Pearce, and added the lineage to the Percy family.

Does anyone have any data on Peris Hall or any things that have some of the Peirs people spelling their name Pearce, Pierce, or Percy?