Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/404

Percy Percy left Virginia for England on 22 April 1612. Dudley Carleton, in a letter on the exploration of the James River, credits Percy with having named the main settlement James Fort. On 15 May 1620 he transferred to Christopher Martin four of his shares in the Virginia Company, and, after the war broke out again in the Low Countries, returned for a time, probably in 1625, to his old occupation of volunteering against Spain in the service of the United Netherlands. Here, we are told, he distinguished himself, had one of his fingers shot off, and was active in commanding a company, in 1627. He died unmarried in 1632.

Percy played a leading part in the controversy between Captain John Smith and the other original settlers in Virginia. After the appearance of Smith's ‘General History,’ with its account of affairs during the time of Percy's government, Percy wrote, in answer, about 1625, ‘A True Relation of the Proceedings and Occurrents of moment which have happened in Virginia from the time Sir Thomas Gates was shipwrecked upon the Bermudas, 1609, until my departure out of the country, 1612.’ This he sent to his brother, the Earl of Northumberland, who fully accepted his statements, and treated him through life with the utmost kindness and confidence. Percy was also the writer of a ‘Discourse [or Observations] of the Plantation of the Southern Colony in Virginia,’ one of the manuscripts printed by Hakluyt. This manuscript came to Purchas, who printed in his collection illustrative extracts. It is chiefly devoted to accounts of native customs, and describes the famine and diseases from which the colonists suffered.

If the ‘True Relation’ is to be believed, Smith, who was once known as the ‘Saviour of Virginia,’ must be treated as a braggart and a slanderer. But Percy, who appears from his letters to have been a needy, extravagant dependent of his brother, wrote this full thirteen years after the events it records; and his evidence hardly carries sufficient weight to warrant the full adoption of his statements. His ‘Discourse’ (in Purchas) does not contain a word of censure on Smith.

[Percy's Discourse and True Relation; Gardiner's Hist. of England, ii. 61, &c.; Cal. of State Papers, Col. 1574–1660, pp. 8, 67 (4 Oct. 1609, and July 1624); Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv. 1685–1690; Wingfield's Discourse; Allibone's Dictionary of British and American Authors; Brown's Genesis of U.S.A. passim, and esp. pp. 964–5; Harris's Voyages, i. 818–37.] 

PERCY, HENRY, first (1272?–1315), was third son of Henry Percy, seventh baron by tenure. Henry Percy (1228?–1272) was eldest son of William Percy, sixth baron [q. v.], by Elena, daughter of Ingelram de Baliol, and had livery of his lands in 1249. He was summoned for service in Wales in 1257, and in Scotland in 1258. During the barons' war he at first sided with the barons, but afterwards joined the king. He fought for Henry at Northampton on 6 April 1264, and at Lewes on 14 May, where he was taken prisoner (, Chron. pp. 21, 28). He died in 1272, having married, in September 1268, Eleanor, elder daughter of John, earl of Warrenne (Cont. ap. Chron. Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ii. 554, Rolls Ser.), by whom he had three sons, of whom the two elder died soon after their father.

Henry, the third son, and tenth baron by tenure, must have been an infant at his father's death. He was returned in 1287 as a minor, but seven years later, being of full age, was summoned for the war in Gascony, and in 1299, being then over twenty-six years of age, was returned as heir of Ingelram de Baliol (, Calendarium Genealogicum, ii. 567). Percy's first active employment was in March 1296, when he accompanied Edward into Scotland, was knighted by the king before Berwick, and was present at the battle of Dunbar. On 8 Sept. in the same year he was appointed warden of Galloway and of the castles of Ayr, Wigton, Crugleton, and Botel (, ii. 100, 110). In 1297 Percy was employed in the marches, having his headquarters at Carlisle (ib. ii. 170–3, 186, &c.). In June he and Robert de Clifford (1273–1314) [q. v.] collected their forces in Cumberland and invaded Annandale. They advanced first to Ayr and afterwards to Irvine, where they received the submission early in July of the bishop of Glasgow, Robert de Bruce, earl of Carrick, and James the Steward (ib. ii. 192–4;, ii. 132–3). In September Percy brought up a large force to reinforce Hugh Cressingham [q. v.] at Stirling, but by Cressingham's orders withdrew, and so was not present at the battle (ib. ii. 137). He was present at the parliament held at York in January 1298 (ib. ii. 156), and in this and the following year served in Scotland. In December 1298 he received 769l. 3s. 4d. as pay for three months' service with fifty barbed horse (Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, ii. 1044). In July 1300 he was present with his grandfather at the siege of Carlaverock Castle (, Siege of Car-