the benefactors of Oxford, for having, at University college there, founded three fellowships for those born in the dioceses of Durham, Carlisle, or York. Of his younger children, Thomas Percy was created Lord Egremont―a title taken from a property in Cumberland possessed by the Earl, his father. He fell in 1460 in the defeat at Northampton, fighting for the house of Lancaster; and left a son, John, who seems probably to have been deterred by the poverty entailed on the partisans of the vanquished, from assuming his father's title.* Sir Ralph Percy was seneschal of his father's court at Alnwick : and Percy's cross, on the battle field of Hedgeley moor, still attests the gallantry and the death of him who would not seek his own safety by flight, at the expense of "the bird in his bosom," his loyalty to his king he acknowledged.* He transmitted a line of descendants,+ some of the earlier of whom appear to have been pensioned, and employed by their opulent cousins the Earls of Northumberland.‡ Sir Richard Percy fell at Towton field, fighting like his father and his brother on the side of Lancaster. William Percy, an ecclesiastic, was made Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Bishop of Carlisle. See Historical Div. vol. i. pp. 161-2. †The reader, weary of the gleam of this unbroken line of mailed barons, may long to find the family history diversified and adorned by the soft diffusive light of literature. If so, he will rejoice to see one, who has contributed so successfully to our ballad literature as the author of the "Hermit of Warkworth," and who has done so much to revive the taste for it as the editor of "The Reliques of Ancient Poetry," appended here, as a descendant, to a race which has produced so many ballad heroes. Dr. Thomas Percy, the distinguished bishop of Dromore, was born at Bridgnorth in Shropshire, in 1728, and died in 1811. He was descended from the Percies of Worcester, of which city his great great grandfather, Thomas Percy, was mayor in 1662. (See a printed pedigree inserted in the copy of Nash's Worcestershire in the King's library in the British Museum between pp. 94 and 95 of the second Volume; and also p. 318 of the same Volume). This Thomas Percy was the son of Richard Percy (Nash's Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 121), and Richard, through his father John and his grandfather Thomas Percy, was the great grandson of John Percy of Worcester, who had settled there about the year 1520. From the coincidence of name and date, and from the correspondence of the arms and tradition in the families in Northumberland and Worcester, it has been stated that this John Percy of Worcester, was identical with John Percy who had been seated just before at Newton on the Sea in Northumberland; and who, it has been alleged, had been obliged in the reign of Henry VIIIa period most disastrous to the house of Percy-to fly from that neighbourhood, in consequence of some deed of violence. (From him to the children of the bishop of Dromore, the pedigree and its proofs are given complete in some fly sheets inserted between pp. 318 and 319 in the second volume of Nash's Worcestershire in the King's library in the British Museum, and the library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham). John Percy of Newton on the Sea was, according to Brydges' Collins, the son of Sir Ralph Percy of the text. Before bidding adieu to the Bishop of Dromore, whose “attention to poetry has given grace and splendour to his studies of antiquity," it may be mentioned that Boswell has declared that he himself has examined the proofs of his descent from the Northumberland Percies, and that, "both as a lawyer accustomed to the consideration of evidence, and as a genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees, he is fully satisfied."Boswell's Life of Johnson. 66 To the cadets of their house the Earls of Northumberland appear to have exhibited great kindness; in so much so that in Brydges' Collins, vol. ii. p. 288. it is remarked of a member of this particular branch, that he is not found to have enjoyed any office or emolument of any kind under his kinsman the Earl of Northumberland; contrary to the usual practice of this great family, whose offices of dignity or profit appear to have been given, with a preference to the inferior members of their noble house."-The high blood of ancient chivalry could afford to acknowledge a poor relation! The eldest surviving son, Henry Percy, became third Earl at his father's death. He had previously married Eleanor Poynings the heiress to the baronies in fee of Poynings, Fitz-Payne, and Bryan, and had been summoned to the house of Lords in her right as Baron Poynings. This alliance is said to have been obtained for him by his great uncle, the wily Cardinal Beaufort.* Yet, in days when the beauty and heiress was the prize of the tournament, and when natural guardians willingly resigned the persons and the broad lands of their fair charges into the hands of those, who proved by their prowess they were best enabled to defend both, it would hardly require the diplomacy of churchmen to obtain for the Percy an advantageous alliance. He had during his father's life, been retained, at a fixed allowance, by Henry VI., to defend the town of Berwick and the East marches towards Scotland: and, on his father's death, he was permitted, in reward for his sevices there, to succeed at once to his inheritance, exempted from the feudal burden of reliefs. He is the Earl of Northumberland who forms one of the characters in the third part of Shakspere's King Henry VI. In the wars of the roses his fortunes fluctuated with those of the house of Lancaster. He was with the victors in the battle of Wakefield;† and fell in the defeat at Towton,‡ where, with the gallantry of his race, he in vain led on the van. Henry Percy, his only son and heir, was but a minor at the death and subsequent attainder of his father: yet the fears of Edward IV., confined him for eight long years in the Tower; during which, the Earldom of Northumberland, with its possessions, was enjoyed by one of the chiefs of the Yorkist party, John Nevill brother of Warwick the king-maker. The Percy was at length, however, • Brydges' Collins. It will be recollected that his mother was a daughter of the Earl of Westmoreland by his wife Joan de Beaufort, the sister of the powerful and ambitious Cardinal, the horrors of whose chamber still haunt us, where he died and made no sign." Henry VI. Part 2. Act 3, Scene 3. † 30 Dec. 1460. See Traditional Div. vol. ii. p. 63. 29 March, 1461. Here too on the same side fell his kinsman, Sir John Nevill. See Traditional Div. vol. ii. p. 61, and also Historical Div. vol. i. p. 160. The loss here, on the part of the vanquished, of their leaders is thus summed up (with the mistake of introducing the Earl of Westmoreland instead of his brother Sir John Nevill) in Drayton's poem of "the Miseries of Queen Margaret." "Courageous Clifford first here fell to ground, Into the throat with a blunt arrow struck : Trowlup and Horne, two brave commanders, dead; restored by this King to his freedom,* his honours, and his possessions, in order thus to diminish the power of his predecessor, whose fidelity was no longer trusted:† and Nevill received in compensation the empty title of Marquis of Montague, with still more empty promises. Shortly after this, the anticipated revolt of Warwick and Montague placed the sixth Henry again on the throne. But, in the March of 1471, Edward returned from the brief exile into which he had been driven, and disembarked at Ravenspur, on the Yorkshire side of the Humber, where-an auspicious omen-Henry IV. had formerly landed. In Yorkshire the possessions and influence of the Percy were in those days overwhelming. The young Earl, however, did not oppose the march of Edward and his little army through that county and thus, by his example discouraging the opposition of others, rendered, at a most critical period, a most important service to the house of York. He, nevertheless, did not venture to lead his friends and retainers actually to join that standard, in fighting against which his own father and their kindred had fallen only ten years before. He was afterwards appointed by Edward to be warden of the east and middle marches towards Scotland and, in the 22nd year of his reign, he was one of the chiefs in that army which, under the command of Richard Duke of Gloucester, advanced into Scotland, and took the city of Edinburgh. : On the accession of Richard to the throne, this Earl was constituted lord high chamberlain of England. At the battle of Bosworth§ field he was present but remained inactive; whether wavering between his recent obligations to the house of York, represented, in the male line, by the King, and his ancient family alliance with the line of Lancaster, represented, through the Beauforts, by Henry of Richmond; or influenced by prudence, or lethargy of character-pro He was released from the Tower 27 October, 1469. (9 Edw: 4). Rymer's Fadera, xi. 649. + Warkworth's Chronicles of the first 13 years of Edward 4. (printed for the Camden Society) p. 4. "Grete partye of the noble men and commons in thos parties were twords th' Erle of Northumberland, and would not stire with any lorde or noble man other than the sayde Erle or his commandment: and for soo muche as he sat still, in such wise yf the Marques" [of Montague, who, according to Lingard, was lying at Pontefract with an army sufficiently numerous to have overwhelmed the invaders] "wolde have done his besines to have assembled them in any manier of qwarell, neithar for his love, whiche they bare hym non, ne for any commandment of higher authoritie, they ne wolde, in no cawse, ne qwarell, have assisted hym." Historie of the arrivall of K. Edward IV. (printed for the Camden Society) pp. 6. 7. § 24 August, 1485. His mother Margaret, the wife of Edmond Tudor Earl of Richmond, was daughter bable results of his early confinement. Be this as it may, his conduct on this occasion satisfied the victor, and he was received into favour by the new dynasty of Tudor-a favour which, in four years, proved fatal to him; since he was employed by the King in enforcing the collection of an unpopular tax; and, was slain* near Thirske in Yorkshire, by a mob who erroneously supposed him to be the adviser of it. His countess, Maud, the daughter of William Herbert first Earl of Pembroke, had borne him four sons and three daughters. Of his younger sons, Sir William Percy was one of the commanders at Flodden-field, and is alleged † to have afterwards participated in the insurrection called the Pilgrimage of Grace. Alan Percy was a priest. Josceline Percy, who was employed in the management of the family estates, married Margaret Frost of Beverley, a Yorkshire heiress, and transmitted a line, the elder branch of which con and heiress of John Beaufort Duke of Somerset, and great grandaughter of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster. 28 April 1489. On this tragic event Skelton has composed a poem called “An Elegy on Henry fourth Earl of Northumberland;" which is printed in Percy's Reliques. + Brydges' Collins. Thomas Percy, a younger brother of it, was, according to a system of consideration pursued by this great family towards their own cadets, appointed auditor and constable of Alnwick to the ninth Earl of Northumberland, who stood to him in the relation of second cousin once removed: and, through him, at the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Earl had carried on some secret negotiations with James of Scotland, in order to secure the succession of that monarch. Thomas Percy was a convert to the church of Rome, though his kinsman, the Earl, was a protestant: and it has been alleged that James, with a view of rendering the Roman Catholic body propitious to his accession, made to Percy, on these occasions, flattering promises of indulgence to their faith; which, when securely seated on the throne, he disregarded. Percy, deceived himself, had been the means of deceiving others; who now looked upon him as a traitor to their cause. He appears to have been a man of turbulent character, for he had been previously connected with an insurrection; namely, that of the Earl of Essex in the time of Queen Elizabeth. He was an enthusaist in religion; and in all probability personally an injured man. Hence he was easily led to concert, together with a few desperate persons, that gunpowder-treason plot; in the midst of the horrors resulting from which he expected to avenge his private wrongs and to re-establish his religion. On its discovery, he fled to Holbeach-house in Worcestershire; in the court-yard of which, while defending himself, he was shot, 8 November 1605. Nash's Worcestershire, Vol. I. page 587. Brydges' Collins, pp. 303. and 332. Lingard's History of England, Vol. IX. pp. 35. 57. 12mo. Ed. The conspirator was ancestor of descendants (now in the male line extinct or lost) who for a considerable period resided in Cambridge, and on whom the male representation of the family, in England at any rate, appears eventually to have devolved. A pedigree of the Percies of Beverley and of Cambridge is given in Collectaneu Topographica et Genealogica, Vol. II., pp 60-3. It is there remarked that an interesting feature in this pedigree is that it contains the names of several persons |