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Of all the names in the roll of the English peerage, there is none
perhaps that holds a prouder position than that of Percy. For eight
hundred years the race has been part of our English history; indeed, the
fame of the noble family of Percy belongs not only to the annals of
England, but also to the history of Europe. Descended from one of the
Norman chieftains who I 'came over' with William
the Conqueror in 1066, the Percies derived their name from their principal
place of residence in France. In Lower Normandy are three towns or
villages of the name of Percy, the chief of which is situated near
Villedieu; and it was from that little village that the founder of the
line. William 'with the whiskers,' sallied forth to fellow the banner of
Dupe William the Norman. Since that time there has scarcely ever been a
Percy absent from the chronicles or the battlefields of England. During
the first, six hundred years of their history, so long as the original
male branch flourished, they had a large share of all the dignities,
glories, hardships, and troubles of the kingdom-fighting and marrying
amongst the highest in the land, and winning great renown and much
property by many troubles ways.
An account of the principal chieftains who accompanied the Conqueror
is preserved in the Harlequin Collection. The list begins with the name of
‘Dominos Percye, Magnus Constabularies;' but whether he then enjoyed so
high a title or not, it is certain that he and his posterity were from
that time barons of this realm. When Algernon, tenth earl of
Northumberland, was in his father's lifetime called up by writ to the
house of Peers, in 1628, and was required to set forth his claim to
presidency, he produced decisive proof to show that he derived his barony
from the reign of William I. And when Charles II empowered Henry Earl of
Ogle (the son and heir of Henry Cavendish, second Duke of Newcastle) to
assume the name and arms of Percy on his marriage with Elizabeth Lady
Percy, only daughter and heiress of Joceline, eleventh Earl of
Northumberland, by his license, dated 6th of June, 1679, he acknowledges,
under the royal signet and manual, that most ancient and right noble
family of Percie, 'to have been I Barons of this realm for above six
hundred years last past.'
The first William, Lord de Percy, was distinguished among his
contemporaries by the addition of Als gernons-which in English signifies
'with the whiskers,' as above mentioned, whence
his posterity have constantly from generation to generation assumed the
name of Algernon.
It would be impossible, within the limits at any disposal, to
recapitulate all the noble deeds and valorous achievements performed by
the successive heads of the 'proud' house of
Percy, or even to set forth at length the gradual growth of the family
tree. From the first it vas a tree of vigorous habit, which drove is soot
very deep into English soil, and flourished exceedingly. It is enough to
state that Dugdale and the heralds generally delight to tell us that the
family shield includes nine hundred armorial bearings, among which are
several of the blood royal of England, besides the sovereign houses of
France, Castile, and Scotland. The aspiring blood of Lancaster' ran in
their veins, and Plantagenet and Valois swelled the stream.
The heirs male having failed after the third baron, a new stock seems
to have been imported by an alliance with Josceline of Brabant, in the
twelfth century. Henry de Percy, the third Lord Percy, of Alnwick, fought
at the famous battle of Cressy. The first. Earl of Northumberland by
actual creation was his son, who was advanced to that dignity by Richard
II at his coronation. This is the restless, ambitious nobleman so familiar
to the Shakesperian reader as the father of Harry Hotspur. 'turning
against King Richard, it was the Earl of Northumberland who helped
Bolingbroke to the throne, and afterwards rebelled against him, dying in
battle against the King at Bramham Moor. His more famous son, the hero of
Otterbourne and of Holmidon, by whose light fell
'Did all the chivalry of
England move
To do brave acts . . . . . . The glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves,’ |
at
Shrewsbury, as every reader of Shakespeare knows.
The original Percies were all men of mark, and produced au
extraordinary succession of hardy and robust characters, with a congenial
indisposition to peaceful living. Very few of them died in their beds.
They fought in the Crusades, in the French Wars, in the Wars of the Roses;
figuring on all occasions as valiant soldiers, if of somewhat doubtful
discretion. Several times they upset the Government, and bearded the
reigning king, as one may see from Shakespeare, in whose historical plays
Northumberland is a standing figure in the drama for the chief rebel of
the period. The founder of the house died himself in the Holy Land in
sight of Jerusalem, having adopted the cross in his old age. One of his
sons signed Magna Charts, and guarded the realm against King John. Down to
7670, when the direct male line of the Percies is considered to have
terminated, they boasted of no less than nine barons by feudal tenure,
four by royal summons, and eleven earls by creation in their genealogical
tree.
The house of
Percy, however, experienced a great reverse of fortune is the person of
Henry, the ninth Earl of Northumberland. As readers of English history
know, he was one of the lords assembled in council, who signed, at the
palace of Whitehall, in March, 1603, the letter
to Lord Eure and other commissioners for the treaty of Bream,, signifying
to thorn 'That the queen' [Elizabeth] 'departed this life on the 24th, and
that King James of Scotland was become King of England, and received with
universal acclamations, and consent of all persons, of whatsoever degree
and quality.' On the arrival of King James at Broxbourne, in
Hertfordshire, the Earl of Northumberland was one of the great officers of
state who met His Majesty, and he was present in council at the house of
Sir Henry Gook when the king delivered the. Great Seal to Sir Thomas Egerton. His lordship attended on the king from thence to the Tower of
London.
Shortly afterwards the earl was named in a commission, with others of the
council, to ' put the laws in execution against all Jesuits, seminary
priests, or other priests, made or ordained according to the order or rite
of the Romish Church since the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth'
; and in the same year (1604) he was one of the
witnesses to the creation of the title of Duke of York in favor of the
king's second son, Charles, Duke of Albany. About the same time he was
made captain of the band of Gentlemen Pensioners. In May, 1605, the earl
was present at the christening of the Princess Mary at the Court in
Greenwich, his lordship bearing the basin in which the royal infant was
christened, while the Lady Arabella Percy and the Countess of
Northumberland were godmothers.
'In the midst of these
honors and distinctions which were shown to the Earl of Northumberland
and his family,' writes Collins in his 'Peerage of England,' 'when he
seemed to be in a state of prosperity beyond what any of his progenitors
had experienced for many generations, he suddenly experienced a fatal
reverse, and was plunged in difficulties and troubles, which clouded the
remaining part of his life. This was by the discovery of the Gunpowder
Plot on the very evening before the 5th of November, 1605, when it was to
have taken place. As one of the principal conspirators was Thomas Percy, a
relation of the earl, arid one of his principal officers, the earl became
obnoxious to the Government, and suffered extremely, both in his person
and fortune.' In the end the earl was apprehended, and, having been
brought before the Star Chamber, was committed to the Tower during the
king's pleasure, and very heavily fined.
Wilson in his '
Life of James L,' says that 'the Lady Lucy Percy, the earl's youngest
daughter, of incomparable beauty (solemnised in the poems of the most
exquisite wits of her time), married the Lord Haye (after Earl of
Carlisle) against her father's will (who aimed at a higher extraction)
during his imprisonment, which the old earl's stubborn spirit not
brooking, would never give her anything; and Haye,
whose affection was above money (setting only a valuation upon his
much-admired bride), strove to make himself meritorious, and prevailed so
with the king for his father-in-law that he got his release. But the old
earl would hardly be drawn to take a release from his hand; so that when
he had liberty he restrained himself, and with importunity was wrought
upon, by (such as knew the distemper of his body might best qualify those
of his mind) persuading him, for some indisposition, to make a journey to
Bath, which was one special motive to accept of his son-in-law's respects.
The stout old earl, when he was got loose, hearing that the great
favorite Buckingham was drawn about with a coach and six horses (wondered
at then as a novelty, and imputed to him as a mastering pride), thought if
Buckingham had six, he might very well have eight in his coach, with which
he rode through the City of London to Bath, to the vulgar talk and
admiration; and, recovering his health there, lie lived long after at
Petworth
On his return from Bath, the stout old earl retired to his seat in
Sussex, where he seems to have spent the remainder of his days, being
visited by most of the families of distinction, and rarely coming to town.
Having reached the age of three-score years and ten, ‘he was gathered to
his fathers, to the grief of all good men,' and his remains were interred
in the family vault at Petworth.
He was succeeded in the Earldom of Northumberland by his elder
surviving son, Algernon ; his younger son, Henry Percy, being subsequently
created Lord Percy of Alnwick. Algernon Percy, the tenth Earl of
Northumberland, played an important part in the affairs of state during
the troubled times of Charles I and the Commonwealth. His lordship was
twice married; firstly, to Lady Anne Cecil, second daughter of William,
second Earl of Salisbury, and, secondly, to the Lady Elizabeth Howard,
second daughter of Theophilus, second Earl of Suffolk. It was in
consequence of this second marriage that Earl Algernon become possessed of
Northumberland House in the Strand. The house had originally been built by
Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, and called by him Northampton House;
but, having no issue, he gave it to his nephew, Thomas, Earl of ;Suffolk,
grandfather of Lady Elizabeth Howard, who conveyed it in marriage to the
Earl of Northumberland, as above stated. The old mansion, after having
stood for nearly three hundred years, was leveled with the ground in the
autumn of 1874, in order to form a new thoroughfare from Charing Cross to
the Thames Embankment, and the lion which crowned its central gateway was
removed to Sion House, at Isleworth, the duke's other seat.
It was to this Earl Algernon that the safe keeping of the royal
children was entrusted by the Parliament during the Civil War. In the
spring of 1660, after General Monk had taken up his quarters at Whitehall,
he was invited to Northumberland House, 'with the Earl of Manchester and
other lords, and likewise with Holles, Sir William Waller, Lewis, and
other eminent persons, who had trust and
confidence in each other, and who were looked upon as the heads and
governors of the moderate Presbyterian party.' And here (says Clarendon),
'in secret conference with them, some of those measures were concerted
which led to the speedy restoration of the monarchy.' The Earl of
Northumberland continued to be regarded with a very high respect by the
whole English nation.
The 'Household Book' of the noble family of
the Percies contains some curious entries relating to the
menu at
Northumberland House about the middle of the seventeenth century. Here is
one entry recording the fare served up at ' my Lord and Ladie's table': 'ij
pecys of salt fische, vj pccys of salt fische, vj becormed herryng, iiij
white herryng, or a dish of sproots (sprats):
Earl
Algernon died in 1668, and his son and successor, Josceline, was the last
of the old male line. This Josceline, while he was Lord Percy, had been
designed by his father to marry the Lady Audrey, eldest daughter and
co-heiress of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, as appears by a
letter from the Earl of Northumberland, his father, to the Earl of
Leicester, dated April 13, 1660. However, in the following November, the
earl again writes: 'The death of my Lady Audrey did as nearly touch me as
most accidents that could have happened; not for the conveniency of her
fortune, nor the hopes of her bringing an heir to my family soon as it had
been fit for my son and her to have come together; but because I judged
her to be of a nature, temper, and humor likely to have made an excellent
wife, which would have brought me much comfort in the latter part of my
life ; but since our uncertain condition exposes us daily to these
troubles, I shall endeavor with all patience to submit to them.' The
death of the Lady Audrey, however, did not have the effect of putting a
stop to the union of the two great houses of Northumberland and
Southampton, for about two years afterwards Lord Percy married the Lady
Elizabeth, sister of Lady Audrey.
Soon after his father's death, Earl Josceline
and his young wife started on a tour on the Continent for the benefit of
their health. The countess remained in Paris in charge of her physician,
and the earl proceeded on to Italy. Having arrived at Turin, his lordship
was seized with a fever, which ended fatally on the 21st of May, 1670, 'in
the midst of the brightest hopes, which this promising young nobleman bad
excited in the breasts of all good men, that he would prove a shining
ornament of his noble house, and an honor and 'support to his
country.'
In the person of this earl, as above stated, the principal
male line of Percy became extinct. There were, however, living at the time
persons who believed themselves to be of the blood, and possibly some of
them were so; but only one of them, .James Percy, a trunk-maker in Dublin,
whose descent was very dubious, prosecuted any claim to the honors of the
family, and his claim was disallowed. This 'claimant' first of all
asserted that he was descended from Sir Richard Percy, brother of the
ninth Earl of Northumberland; but when it was proved that be (Percy) died
a bachelor, then he fixed upon Sir Ingrain Percy, brother of the sixth
earl, for his ancestor; but it appeared from Sir Ingram's will that he had
left only an illegitimate daughter. Notwithstanding that the trunk-maker's
petition was dismissed by the House of Lords, be still persevered in his
pretensions for, nearly twenty years, till at
length the Lords sentenced him to wear a paper in Westminster Hall
declaring him 'a false and impudent pretender to
the earldom of Northumberland.' Josceline,
the eleventh and last Earl of Northumberland of that line, left an only
surviving daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Percy, who succeeded to the
baronial honors of her ancestors, and was in her own right Baroness
Percy, Lucy, Poynings, Fitz-Payne, Bryan, and
Latimer. Being so great an heiress, it is not surprising that she should
soon have fallen into the meshes of matrimony. It is recorded of her that
she was thrice married and twice a widow before she arrived at the age of
sixteen! Her first husband, to whom she was married when only fourteen
years of age, was Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle (son and heir of Henry,
Duke of Newcastle), who assumed the name of Percy. She was secondly
married to Thomas Thynue, Esq., of Longleat, Wiltshire, who was
assassinated in Pall Mall in February, 1681-2.
According to Sir Bernard Burke, this marriage
appears to have been only 'contracted,' and
never completed. However, in May, 1652, the proud heiress again entered
into the holy bonds of matrimony with Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset,
who undertook to relinquish his hereditary name, and to call himself and
his posterity by the name of Percy. Such was the determination to keep up
the 'proud' and honored name of Percy. Some time after, however, the duke
was released from his obligation, and retained his name of Seymour. The
Duke of Somerset had a son and heir, Algernon, who in 1749 was created
Earl of Northumberland,* with remainder to his son-in-law, Sir Hugh
Smithson, who had married his only daughter and heiress, Lady Elizabeth
Seymour.
Sir Hugh Smithson became Earl of Northumberland on the death of his
father-in-law, when he took the name of Percy. In 1766 lie was created
Duke of Northumberland. From him descends the present representative of
the family of Percy. His grace early distinguished himself by his love for
the fine arts, and gave constant encouragement and employment to artists
with his noble fortune in general; for besides the vast improvements which
he made in his paternal seat at Stanwick in Yorkshire, he restored the
three palaces which had been long associated with the name of
Percy-namely, Sion House, Alnwick Castle, and Northumberland House.
'The noble family of
Northumberland,' observes a writer in the Builder, 'have always
been famed for their hospitality and humanity. The name of Smithson has
obtained fame and an adjectival form in the United States, where the
munificence of an Englishman (who was an illegitimate son of one of the
Dukes of Northumberland) has given that country the opportunity of raising
a noble institution for the advancement and popularisation of science:
Many amusing anecdotes
and stories respecting the first Duke and Duchess of Northumberland of the
present creation are to be met with in the gossiping pages of Horace
Walpole, who, by the way, thought of kissing the duke's hand when he came
to see him at Strawberry Hill. In the Wilkes riots of 1678, the mob forced
the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland to illuminate, to appear at the
windows at Charing Cross, and to give them beer. The duchess was a great
politician, and, according to Horace Walpole, ‘sat on the hustings' at
Westminster election; and in 1771 she espoused one side in the rival opera
strife. A curious story is told with respect to her grace by Horace
Walpole. In one of his amusing letters to Sir Horace Mann, dated May 7,
1775, he writes: ' One of our number is dying, the Duchess of
Northumberland. Her turtle will not be very impatient to get a new mate,
as his patent does not enable him to beget Percies-a Master or Miss
Smithson would sound like natural children.' He adds in a foot-note that
it had been arranged that George Brudenell, Earl of Cardigan, the husband
of Lady Mary Montagu, one of the two co-heiresses of John Duke of Montagu,
and Sir Hugh Smithson, Earl of Northumberland, husband of Lady Elizabeth
Seymour, sole heiress of Algernon seventh Duke of Somerset, should be
created dukes at the same time; but, as it was on account of the
pretensions of their respective spouses, the king (George III.) would not
entail the intended dukedoms on their children by other possible future
wives. The Earl of Cardigan would not accept the ducal coronet on any such
condition; the Earl of Northumberland did so, and was made a duke
accordingly. Soon afterwards Lord Cardigan got a dukedom-that of Montagu-without
the limitation.
* It was at Northumberland House, about this time,
that Oliver Goldsmith, when waiting upon Lord Northumberland, mistook the
earl's servant for the earl, and only discovered the error after the
delivery of a neatly-ordered address, after which the poor author
precipitately fled.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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