Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/430

Percy in the Northumberland vault in Westminster Abbey on 7 Dec. He was unmarried.

[Times, 5 Dec. 1877, p. 8; Annual Register, 1877, p. 164; O'Byrne's Victoria Cross, 1880, pp. 31, 79; Dodd's Peerage, 1877, p. 537.]  PERCY, HUGH, whose surname was originally, first of the third creation (1715–1786), born in 1715 at Newby Wiske, Yorkshire, was the only son of Langdale Smithson, esq., and Philadelphia, daughter of W. Reveley, esq., of Newby, Yorkshire. In 1729 he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Hugh Smithson, as fourth baronet of Stanwick, Yorkshire. Eleven years later he inherited property in Middlesex from another relative, Hugh Smithson, esq., of Tottenham. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 15 Oct. 1730. He became high sheriff of Yorkshire in 1738, and represented Middlesex in parliament from 15 May 1740 till his elevation to the peerage ten years later. In 1740 he proposed marriage to Elizabeth, only daughter of Algernon Seymour, who had been created Baron Percy in 1722. The lady's father was eldest son of Charles Seymour, sixth duke of Somerset [q. v.], by his first wife, Lady Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Josceline Percy, eleventh earl of Northumberland (d. 1670). The duchess died in 1722, and transmitted to her husband all the estates of the Percy family. The Duke of Somerset disliked the union of his granddaughter with Smithson, but the marriage took place on 10 July 1740. In 1744, on the death of her only brother, George Seymour, lord Beauchamp, Lady Smithson (or Lady Betty, as she was generally called) became eventual heiress of the Percy property. Somerset's endeavours to disinherit her failed because by the family settlements there was no power of alienating the property. On his death in 1748, Lady Betty's father was created Earl of Northumberland on 2 Oct. 1749, with succession to Smithson, and his heirs by Lady Betty. Smithson succeeded to the title in 1750, and on 12 April of the same year assumed, by act of parliament, the name and arms of Percy. For the next thirty years Northumberland and his wife figured prominently in social and political life. On 3 Jan. 1753 he was named a lord of the bedchamber (cf., Memoirs of Reign of George II). On 20 March 1753 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Northumberland, and on 18 Nov. 1756 received the Garter. He was renominated lord of the bedchamber (25 Nov. 1760), and in May 1762 became lord chamberlain to Queen Charlotte. On 22 Nov. he was sworn of the privy council.

In the early years of George III's reign he attached himself to Lord Bute, whose daughter married his son in 1764. Both Northumberland and Bute were members of the king's private junto, which met daily at the house of Andrew Stone [q. v.] in the Privy Gardens. On 29 Dec. 1762 Northumberland became lord lieutenant of Middlesex. On 17 March 1763 Henry Fox [q. v.] suggested to Bute to give him the privy seal (, Shelburne, i. 198). Next month Bute resigned office; and although Grenville, who succeeded to the post of prime minister, had no liking for Northumberland, the latter was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland. On 20 April 1763 Christopher Smart [q. v.] celebrated the appointment in an ode. In Ireland he seems to have been fairly popular, and to have displayed a more than viceregal magnificence, to which Horace Walpole makes many scornful allusions (cf. Grenville Papers, iii. 112). On a visit to London early in 1765, Northumberland was employed by the king in a political intrigue to overthrow the Grenville ministry, and did all he could to induce Pitt and Temple to join the leading whigs in an effort ‘to form a strong and lasting administration.’ The king ultimately suggested that a ministry should be formed with Northumberland as first lord of the treasury. But Temple, who still regarded him as Bute's lieutenant, refused to act under him. Pitt told the king that he thought ‘certainly Northumberland might be considered,’ but did not approve of his being given the treasury. Pitt seems to have received Northumberland's advances favourably, and made some promise that Northumberland should benefit if he himself returned to power. The negotiations for the time dropped, and Northumberland appeared to gain little by them (cf., Memoirs of George III, and his Letters). Grenville insisted with success on his dismissal from the viceroyalty in 1765. In July 1766, when Pitt formed a new government, under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Grafton, the king urged that Northumberland should become lord chamberlain. Francis Ingram Seymour, second marquis of Hertford [q. v.], was, however, appointed; and Northumberland, on making complaint to Pitt (just created Lord Chatham), was advised to ask the king for an advancement in the peerage. The king proposed a marquisate; Northumberland demanded a dukedom. Chatham supported his request, and the king somewhat reluctantly assented. On 4 Oct. 1766 the Duke of Grafton wrote to Chatham: ‘Lord