Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp3.djvu/79

 weighed and considered the whole of the evidence, pronounced:–

The court did, therefore, honorably acquit Captain Percy, his officers, and ship’s company, of all blame on that occasion.

On the 9th March following. Captain Percy arrived at the Admiralty, with despatches from Sir Alexander Cochrane, reporting the defeat of the British army before New Orleans. At the general election in 1818, he was chosen M.P. for Stamford, co. Lincoln; which borough he continued to represent until 1826. His brother, the Hon. Josceline Percy, obtained post rank in 1806, and now commands the yacht in attendance upon their noble relative, the Duke of Northumberland, K.G. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.



 officer is a son of the late Mr. Thomas Harvey, a respectable farmer of Wordwell, Suffolk, by Miss Pawsey, of Hawstead, in the same county. He was born at Wordwell, May 4, 1764; and entered the navy, under the auspices of his father’s landlord, Vice-Admiral the Earl of Bristol, as a midshipman on board the Arethusa frigate, commanded by Captain Digby Dent, with whom he sailed for St. Helena, in 1775. We subsequently find him joining the Montreal 32, Captain Stair Douglas, which frigate, after visiting Quebec, was captured by two French line-of-battle ships, on the Mediterranean station, in 1779.

After the demise of the Earl of Bristol, Mr. Harvey was