Thomas Percy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Percy_(Gunpowder_Plot)

Thomas Percy (c. 1560 – 8 November 1605) was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

A tall, physically impressive man, little is known of his early life beyond his matriculation in 1579 at the University of Cambridge, and his marriage in 1591 to Martha Wright. In 1596 a distant relation, Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, appointed him constable of Alnwick Castle and made him responsible for the Percy family's northern estates. He served the earl in the Low Countries in about 1600–1601, and in the years before 1603 was his intermediary in a series of confidential communications with King James VI of Scotland.

Following James's accession to the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with the new king, who he supposed had reneged on his promises of toleration for English Catholics. His meeting in June 1603 with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, led the following year to his joining Catesby's conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder. Percy helped fund the group and secured the leases to certain properties in London, one of which was the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords, in which the gunpowder was finally placed. The conspirators also planned to instigate an uprising in the Midlands and to simultaneously kidnap James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Percy was to remain in London and secure the capture of her brother, Prince Henry.

When the plot was exposed early on 5 November 1605, Percy immediately fled to the Midlands, catching up with some of the other conspirators en route to Dunchurch in Warwickshire. Their flight ended on the border of Staffordshire, at Holbeche House, where they were besieged early on 8 November by the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musketball as Catesby, and was buried nearby. His body was later exhumed, and his head exhibited outside Parliament.

In his youth Percy was reportedly "very wild more than ordinary, and much given to fighting", although his excesses were tempered somewhat by his conversion to Catholicism. He may have abandoned his first wife for another woman, and was for a time imprisoned for killing a man during a border skirmish. His membership of the plot proved extremely damaging to his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, who although uninvolved was imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1621.

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It is commonly accepted that Thomas Percy was the great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Northumberland; his father being Edward Percy of a lower branch of the Percys, and his mother being Elizabeth Waterton and making him the second cousin to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. However, there are some who speculate that he was the 9th Earl's illegitimate half-brother, or as put forward by Francis Edwards, that he came from the Percys of Scotton, Yorkshire. However, this seems to be based on little more than the fact that Guy Fawkes also had lived in Scotton, and therefore would make for a tidy explanation of their later acquaintance.

Whatever his origins, he was accepted by the Earl of Northumberland as a kinsman, although he was to later say that Percy was known to have 'pretended himself to be of the elder howse".

About his early life, not much is known. He entered Peterson College at Cambridge on July 4 1579 and matriculated the following year, and in 1589 it was perhaps he who sailed with George Clifford to the Azores. As is typical for young men of any age, in his youth he was described by Fr. Tesimond as having been 'rather wild and given to the gay life; a man who relied much upon his sword and personal courage". He continues to describe Percy as "tall and well built, of serious expression but with an attractive manner. His eyes were large and lively. He was a man of great physical courage, and pleasing in his ways."

Not everyone was quite so flattering. An informant had described him to Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London, in quite a different light:

• "Briefly, never was he quiet in mind, cheerful in countenance, or any way seeming to take delight.by the turmoiling of his body through seldom intermitted vexing, he became often so resolved into sweat that he promised much labour to his laundresses, who report that he changed his shirts twice every twenty-four hours."

Percy had a reputation as an enthusiastic, although somewhat reckless swordsman. He and John Wright would travel the country in order to fight other skilled swordsman. Although these fights were just to demonstrate and hone their skills, not fights to the death, as a matter of pride they were performed without any protective equipment whatsoever.

By 1595 he was given a position of considerable trust by his kinsman and patron, the Earl of Northumberland, as an agent of his estates in the North responsible for the collection of his rents. He obviously made a good impression as he was made Constable of Alnwick Castle, a Percy stronghold on the Scottish border the following year.

Thomas Percy was far from a scrupulous man, which may have been exactly what the Earl of Northumberland needed in extracting the rents from the often less than cooperative Northern tenants.

Although 34 charges of dishonesty were later proved against him by the tenants, including unlawful imprisonment, forgery and questionable evictions, these seem to only have improved his standing in the Earl's eyes. 1596 found Percy in prison apparently for killing a Scot in a border skirmish, and a short while afterwards was involved with the Earl of Essex in an attempt to capture the Scottish Warden of the Western Marsh, Sir Robert Ker. But not only did he continue in his offices, in 1600 he personally joined Northumberland, who held a command in the Low Countries, and was rewarded with the sum of 200 pounds. Despite his actions, Percy seemed to be firmly on the track to success under Northumberland's patronage, and Northumberland placed an increasing amount of trust in him.

Thomas Percy's personal life was just as questionable as his professional one. In 1591 he married Martha Wright, sister to two of the other conspirators, Kit and Jack Wright, of a staunchly recusant Yorkshire family. It was reported by Dr. Godfrey Goodman, 40 years after the event:

"It is certain that he was a very loose liver; that he had two wives, one in the south and another in the north. An honorable good lady said that she knew them both. His wife in the south was so.poor that she was fain to teach school, and bring up gentle-women. There are some living that were her scholars."

Although Goodman has somewhat of a reputation as an unreliable gossip, the story is held up by a letter from Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, to Salisbury in regards to 500 pounds held by Monteagle of Percy's wife. Waad had to enquire as to which of his wives. Father John Gerard, writing in 1897 reported that when Percy's name was published in connection with the Plot, the magistrates in London arrested one wife, while those in Warwickshire arrested the other.

However, Paul Durst makes a convincing argument against Percy having been a bigamist. He shows how the wife in London on the 5th November could easily have been the same woman who was apprehended again in Warwickshire on the 12th, and that the question by Waad points to nothing more than Percy having had a wife who died prior to his marriage to Martha Wright.

His most convincing argument is that if Percy were a bigamist he would have been quickly dealt with by Martha's brothers, as opposed to being the close co-conspirators that they were.

It appears that Percy's pious Catholic wife Martha had a profound effect on her unruly husband, as Tesimond reported that at some point he converted to Catholicism himself. "He then changed his ways in remarkable fashion, giving much satisfaction to Catholics and considerable cause for wonder for those who had known him previously."

Percy then became active in trying to improve the Catholic cause in England. His lord, Northumberland, despite his later protestations to the contrary, was a reputed Catholic sympathiser, described by a French Ambassador as 'Catholic in his soul'. His father, the 8th Earl, had been openly Catholic, and his uncle was beheaded for his part in the Northern Rising of 1572 on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Northumberland, although still an enormously wealthy and powerful magnate, desired to repair the damage to the wealth and reputation of his family during the Elizabethan period, and also to check the ever-increasing influence of Robert Cecil. So when in the last years of Elizabeth's reign Thomas Percy approached him with the idea of making overtures to James VI of Scotland, her likely successor, Northumberland applauded the idea. By promising James the support of the Catholics to ensure a smooth accession in exchange for promises of toleration, Northumberland hoped to improve his station by earning a debt of gratitude from James in the coming reign.

Northumberland sent Percy to James in Scotland at least three times by 1602 with secret written and verbal correspondence. He told James on behalf of the English Catholics how they would readily accept him as their king if he could accept them as his loyal subjects and release them from the years of persecution they had suffered in Elizabeth's reign. The Catholics had many expectations from James as they had upheld the cause of his mother, the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and there were many rumours that his own wife was in fact a Catholic.

According to Percy, they were not to be disappointed. After his return from Scotland, he spread the good news amongst the Catholic community that James had given his word as a prince not only to free them from their persecution, but to actively favour them and admit them to every honour and office on an equal par with Protestants.

After James' unobstructed accession to the English throne, it became clear that whatever promises made were quickly forgotten, as far from alleviating the situation of Catholics, he not only increased the prosecution of the existing laws but added new, more stringent ones. This turn of events completely humiliated Thomas Percy. He experienced bitter disappointment and anger at being so deceived by James, as well as a loss of reputation amongst many of the Catholics who now believed that Percy was lying to them all along. He also felt responsible for having convinced his Catholics brothers to accept James as their king.

In hope of reminding James of all that had passed between them, he sent a supplication on behalf of the Catholics that was completely ignored. James went so far as to publicly deny that he had ever made any promises of tolerance to anyone and nor would he ever consider it.

Percy's seed of resentment was now deeply sewn. He told his tale of James' two-faced deception repeatedly to people he trusted in the Catholic community, and lost no opportunity to express his bitterness at having been so ill used.

In this manner, his feelings about King James were made crystal clear to Robert Catesby, who could see that Percy would be eager to take revenge. It was apparent that Percy would be willing to do anything to rescue his reputation from the taint of having been a mere puppet and dupe used to neutralize the Catholics arousing the open mockery and castigation of the community. During one conversation with Catesby, Percy burst out that he would kill the king, but the cooler Catesby told him "No, Tom, thou shalt not adventure to small purpose, but if thou wilt be a traitour, thou shalt be to some great advantage". (Hat MSS v18 p73)

In April 1604, a few weeks later, Thomas Percy met again with Catesby, who was joined by Thomas Wintour. During their conversation, Percy again could not contain his frustration and exclaimed "Shall we always, gentlemen, talk and never do anything?" Catesby now knew he had his man, and explained to Percy that indeed, they did have a plan to do something, but before he would reveal it, Percy would have to take an oath of complete secrecy.

On 13th May, in a house behind St. Clements Inn rented by the Jesuit priest, John Gerard, the original five conspirators met to take the oath: Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy. After the administration of the oath, they took the sacrament in an adjoining room to seal their compact. This being done, Catesby revealed to Percy his plan to blow up Parliament and Percy joined their number.

Percy definitely had many benefits to bring to the conspiracy. His zeal and dedication to the cause was unquestionable, and his connections with Northumberland gave the group considerable advantages.

This standing was further improved when he was conveniently made a Gentleman Pensioner only three weeks later, giving him free access to the court and members of the Royal family, and along with Catesby. Percy soon established himself as a leader of their group.

The first order of the day was to obtain a center of operations. Catesby had already identified a suitable house adjacent to the House of Lords and close by the Parliament Stairs, a landing on the Thames almost directly opposite Catesby's house in Lambeth. This house was owned by John Whinniard, the Keeper of the King's Wardrobe, and leased to the antiquarian Henry Ferrers.

It has been claimed by many writers that because of his position as Gentleman Pensioner it would not be suspicious for Percy to take a house close to Parliament, and that he used the assistance of other influential Pensioners to persuade Ferrers and Whinniard to lease the house to him. However, this ignores the fact that the house was leased by Percy on 24 May, but he was not made a Gentleman Pensioner until the following month.

It is more likely that a personal relationship clinched the deal. Henry Ferrers came from a Catholic family and had in fact rented his property at Baddesley Clinton several years before to relatives of both Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour, the sisters Anne Vaux and Eleanor Brooksby. It is unlikely that Ferrers was unaware that these sisters had promptly turned the property into a hive of Catholic activities, where the Superior of the Jesuits. Fr. Henry Garnet often lived. It doesn't seem that Ferrers made a habit of asking too many questions of his catholic associates.

Guy Fawkes assumed the name of John Johnson and established himself at the Whinniard house as Percy's servant. As parliament had been adjourned until February, and their plans further delayed by their house being taken over temporarily by a Scottish delegation, it was not until December 1604 that the conspirators, according to Guy Fawkes, started work on the mine which was to lead from the Whinniard house underneath the Parliament House.

In the meantime, the details of the plot were being worked out. It was decided that as Prince Henry was likely to be attending Parliament and would therefore perish with his father, that Percy would seize his 5 year old brother, Charles, Duke of York, with a view of placing him on the throne. The young Duke would be in residence at Richmond on the day of the opening of Parliament, with only a few household members present. It would be easy for Percy as a Gentleman Pensioner to whisk him away as soon as they heard the explosion, under the pretext of taking him to safety.

The work on the mine, if it ever existed, did not go well according to Fawkes. The walls were thicker than they anticipated and they were having a problem with water seepage. It was at the end of March, as they were working, that they heard a strange sound coming from almost above their heads. It turned out to be the sounds of coals being removed from a cellar that was situated on the ground floor of the House of Lords. A coal merchant named Bright held the lease also of Whinniard, but he was going out of business, therefore it was a simple matter for Percy to lease this cellar as well, claiming it would be a useful place for him to store fuel.

Now all the conspirators had to do was to move the gunpowder that they had collected from Lambeth into the cellar, disguise it with fuel that they purchased for that purpose, lock it up and await the coming of Parliament.

That being done, Percy continued in his normal duties for the Earl of Northumberland, spending the summer of 1605 in Alnwick in Northamptonshire collecting the rents. In August, at a meeting in Bath he gave permission to Catesby to bring in any other conspirators he saw fit.

On October 30th. Percy was in York with 4 men, arranging for the delivery of the rents that they had collected, however early the following morning he departed abruptly, taking two men with him, and telling the other men that he would be back the following day. As Guy Fawkes admitted that he had "gone northward" between the 31st and the 2nd of November, it is entirely likely that Fawkes was dispatched to warn Percy of the discovery of the Monteagle letter.

On November 2nd, Percy wrote three letters from Gainsboro, one to William Stockdall, the auditor for the Earl of Northumberland, claiming that he had to leave abruptly because the Archbishop was about to have him arrested as a chief pillar of papistry. He said that Stockdall should meet him with the rents the following Thursday at Doncaster. However, the dating of these letters must be incorrect, as Percy was seen riding post from Ware that same day, and had somehow managed to make it to London to have dinner at the Angel in St. Clements that same night, a 150-mile trip that defies plausibility.

The following day he met with Catesby and Wintour to discuss the ramifications of the Monteagle Letter. Although there was some discussion of flight, Percy was determined not to succumb to panic, and that he would "abide the uttermost trial". He decided to visit Syon House, which belonged to the Earl of Northumberland, to see if any rumours were circulating. He felt that if their secret was discovered, he would be arrested immediately on his appearance there, and was willing to sacrifice himself to give the others an opportunity to escape.

Percy found nothing untoward at Syon House when he went there on the 4th. He spoke for a while with his patron about an imaginary loan, and dined with him and a few other gentlemen without any hint of a discovery of a plot being mentioned. After leaving Syon House, it is possible that this was when he paid a visit to Richmond. As later testified to by a servant, Agnes Fortrun, Percy came to the Duke's lodging there and was asking many questions. She claimed that this took place around the 1st of November, however this would have been impossible.

He returned from Syon at 6pm and met with Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Robert Keyes, and relayed the good news. Everything was to go ahead as planned. After making arrangements for a watch to be sent to Fawkes, who was standing by at Westminster, so that he could know the time to set the gunpowder the following day, Percy went to Essex House, which also belonged to the Earl of Northumberland. He went under the pretext of seeing his cousin Jocelyn, but was probably trying to keep an ear out for any possible talk of discovery.

According to Tesimond, Percy wisely decided to sleep in a different place that night, but sometime before 5am his sleep was disturbed by Christopher Wright, who had heard that the gunpowder had been discovered, and everyone was now searching for Percy as the tenant of the cellar. As Percy and Wright prepared to flee London, Percy was heard to say by his servant, William Talbois, "I am undone"!

During their flight, they were overtaken by another of the conspirators, Ambrose Rookwood at Little Brickhill in Buckinghamshire. Percy is reported to have been astonished to discover that Rookwood was a co-conspirator, and that "I thought no man had been acquainted with it but such as I had known."

Although it is possible that the other conspirators had overlooked mentioning it to him, this seems unlikely. And there can be no doubt that the other conspirators were aware. Rookwood had been lodging in London with Robert Keyes, and he and Christopher Wright had both had their sword hilts engraved with the Passion of Christ shortly before.

The conspirators rendezvoused at Dunchurch, where additional men had been gathered together by Sir Everard Digby. The purpose of the gathering was under the guise of a hunt, however the true purpose was to kidnap the Princess Elizabeth from her home at nearby Coombe Abbey after the explosion in London. However, just hours before the anticipated event. Digby was told news of the failure of the plot and that they all had to flee for their lives.

Back in London, the first of several proclamations had been sent out for the immediate apprehension of Percy, and almost amusingly, Percy had been claimed to be spotted leaving London in almost every conceivable direction. If not for the conspirators almost suicidal action of breaking into some stables at Warwick Castle in order to obtain fresh mounts, thereby alerting the local authorities, Percy and his friends might have gained a considerable lead over his pursuers, and been able to make their way into Wales, where it is believed they were heading. As it was, the plotters were soon hotly pursued and quickly brought to ground by Sir Richard Walsh, High Sheriff of Worcestershire for their final stand at Holbeache House.

On the morning of November 8th, Walsh and his men stormed the house, smoking the conspirators from their hides. As they took up their defensive position in the courtyard, Catesby and Percy were felled by a single shot from the musket of John Streete of Worcester, who later claimed compensation from the government for his marksmanship. Percy was killed instantly, Catesby managing to crawl back inside the house before expiring.

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 44
• Percy, Thomas (1560-1605) by Sidney Lee
• PERCY, THOMAS (1560–1605), an organiser of the ‘Gunpowder Plot,’ was younger son of Edward Percy of Beverley, by his wife Elizabeth Waterton. His grandfather, Josceline Percy, was fourth son of Henry Percy, fourth earl of Northumberland [q. v.] (De Fonblanque, Annals, ii. 586). Although brought up as a protestant, Percy became in early life an ardent catholic, and, despite an unamiable temper, he attracted the notice of Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], his second cousin once removed. The latter appointed him, in October 1594, constable of Alnwick Castle, and he seems to have acted as agent for the earl's northern property, and to have incurred much unpopularity by a tyrannical exercise of his authority. The Earl of Essex, brother-in-law of the Earl of Northumberland, also befriended him. In February 1596 Essex wrote to Francis Beaumont [q. v.], the judge, asking him ‘to favour Thomas Percy, a near kinsman to my brother of Northumberland, who is in trouble for some offence imputed to him. He is a gentleman well descended, and of good parts, and very able to do his country good service.’ Two years later he was detained as a recusant in Wood Street compter, London. In 1602 charges of embezzling his master's money were brought against him, on the information of some discontented tenants, but the investigation which followed left the Earl of Northumberland's confidence in him unshaken.
• In the same year Percy undertook, at the bidding of Northumberland, a political mission to Scotland. He carried a letter from the earl to James VI, requesting a promise of toleration for the English catholics in the event of James's accession to the English throne. James's reply was interpreted favourably. In 1604 the earl secured for Percy a place at court in London as a gentleman pensioner. Percy shared the discontent of his co-religionists at James's reluctance to repeal the penal legislation against the catholics. His wife was a sister of John Wright, a staunch catholic, and an intimate friend of Robert Catesby [q. v.] Percy is said to have accidentally heard, in 1604, Wright, Catesby, and a third associate, Thomas Winter, discuss the obligation which lay on English catholics of striking a blow for their faith. Percy suggested the murder of the king as the best means of removing catholic disabilities. Catesby thereupon confided to him the general features of a plan, upon which he, Wright, and Winter, had already resolved, of blowing up the houses of parliament. Thenceforth Percy was one of the most active organisers of ‘the gunpowder plot.’ He hired, in his own name, a house at Westminster adjoining the parliament house (24 May 1604), and installed in it Guy Fawkes [q. v.], whom he represented to be a servant of his, by name John Johnson. Percy added to his property a neighbouring cellar in the following March, and superintended the storage there of gunpowder, with a view to destroying the parliament house as soon as the next session opened. The execution of the desperate design was finally appointed for 5 Nov.
• Some weeks before, Catesby met Percy and others of the conspirators at Bath, and they resolved to enlist the services of catholic countrymen in various counties, so as to insure a general rising as soon as the explosion had taken place in London. Percy undertook to supply to a party of rebels, apparently at Doncaster, ‘ten galloping horses’ from the Earl of Northumberland's stables, and to hand over the Michaelmas rents, to the amount of 4,000l., which he was about to collect for his master. To carry out these objects he arrived at Alnwick in October. Meanwhile, William Parker, fourth baron Monteagle [q. v.], was warned of the conspiracy on 26 Oct., and the information he gave to the authorities led them to arrest Guy Fawkes in the cellar on 4 Nov. Fawkes described himself as Percy's servant. By that date Percy had just arrived in London from the north, and on the 4th he dined with the Earl of Northumberland at Syon House; but a message from Fawkes acquainted him with the turn of events, and he left London with Christopher Wright the next morning. A royal proclamation at once offered 1,000l. reward for his capture. He was described as tall, with a broad beard turning grey, stooping shoulders, red-coloured face, long feet, and short legs. Percy and Wright found Catesby at Ashby St. Leger, whence they made their way to Holbeach, on the borders of Staffordshire, on the 7th. On the 8th the government troops attacked the house in which the conspirators had taken refuge. Catesby and Percy fought desperately, back to back. The former was killed outright; Percy was desperately wounded, and died two days later.
• Percy figures in Crispin Pass's engraving ad vivum of Guy Fawkes and his seven chief confederates.
• Percy's wife is said to have removed from Alnwick during Percy's lifetime and to have settled at the upper end of Holborn, London, where she gained a livelihood by teaching. A son Robert married at Wiveliscombe, Somerset, on 22 Oct. 1615, Emma Mead, and left issue. Of Percy's two daughters, one married Catesby's son Robert.
• [Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 173–5, x. 142–3; De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy, ii. 586–600; Jardine's Gunpowder Plot, 1857; see arts. Catesby, Robert, and Fawkes, Guy.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Percy,_Thomas_(1560-1605)_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/436/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/437/mode... _______________________
• Thomas Percy1
• M, #663410, b. 1560, d. 10 November 1605
• Last Edited=2 Jun 2015
• Thomas Percy was born in 1560.1 He was the son of Edward Percy and Elizabeth Waterton.1 He married unknown daughter Wright, daughter of unknown Wright.1 He died on 10 November 1605 at Holbeach, Lincolnshire, England, from wounds received when captured by government troops.1
• He was agent for his cousin Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland.1 He held the office of Constable of Alnwick Castle in 1594.1 In 1598 he was in trouble as a recusant.1 In 1602 he was acused of fraud against his employer, the 3rd Earl, but was acquitted.1 He was a Gunpowder Plot consiprator - the first to suggest assassinating King James I, and he hired the house next door to Parliament (foolishly in his own name) in 1604.1 He was Gentleman Pensioner in 1604.1
• Children of Thomas Percy and unknown daughter Wright
  • unknown daughter Percy1
  • unknown daughter Percy1
  • Robert Percy+1
• Citations
• [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 2941. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p66341.htm#i663410 _________________________
• Thomas PERCY
• Born: 1560, Beverley, Yorkshire, England
• Died: 9 Nov 1605, Holbeach House, Staffordshire, England
• Notes: See his Biography. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasPercy.htm
• Father: Edward PERCY of Beverley
• Mother: Elizabeth WATERTON
• Married: Martha WRIGHT ABT 1594
• Children:
  • 1. Robert PERCY
• 2. Dau. PERCY
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/PERCY.htm#Thomas PERCY1 _______________________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 44
• Percy, Henry (1446-1489) by James Tait
• PERCY, HENRY, fourth Earl of Northumberland (1446–1489), was the only son of Henry Percy, third earl [see under Percy, Henry, second Earl]. On his father's attainder, Edward IV committed him to safe keeping, and three years later conferred the forfeited earldom of Northumberland on John Neville, lord Montagu [q. v.] Percy's imprisonment cannot have been very strict, for in 1465 he was confined in the Fleet, where he made the acquaintance of John Paston (1421–1466) [q. v.], a fellow-prisoner (Paston Letters, ii. 237, 243). His subsequent transference to the Tower may be attributed to the Nevilles when they held the king in durance after the battle of Edgecott in 1469. One of Edward's first steps on shaking off this constraint was to release Percy (27 Oct.), merely exacting an oath of fealty (Fœdera, xi. 648). When the final breach with the Nevilles came in the following spring, and the king drove the Earl of Warwick out of the realm, he took the earldom of Northumberland from Lord Montagu, and restored it (25 March at York) to Percy, who had accompanied him throughout the campaign (Paston Letters, ii. 396). The new earl also superseded his disgraced rival in the wardenship of the east march towards Scotland, which had usually been held by the head of his house. This he lost again in the autumn, when the Nevilles restored Henry VI, and though Northumberland made no open resistance to the change of government, and could not very well be deprived of his newly recovered title, the Lancastrian traditions of his family did not blind him to the fact that for him it was a change for the worse.
• On landing in Yorkshire in the following spring, Edward is said to have exhibited letters, under Northumberland's seal, inviting him to return; and though he ‘sat still’ and did not join Edward, his neutrality was afterwards excused, as due to the difficulty of getting his Lancastrian followers to fight for York, and was held to have rendered ‘notable good service’ to the cause by preventing Montagu from rousing Yorkshire against the small Yorkist force (Warkworth, p. 14; Arrival of Edward IV, p. 6). Twelve days after the battle of Barnet, Northumberland was created chief justice of the royal forests north of Trent by the triumphant Edward, and, after Tewkesbury, he was made constable of Bamborough Castle (5 June) and warden of the east and middle marches (24 June). In the parliament of August 1472, the first held by Edward since his restoration of the earldom to Percy, the attainder of 1461 was formally abrogated. Shortly after the opening of the session Northumberland was appointed chief commissioner to treat with the Scots. Two years later he entered the order of the Garter, and was made sheriff of Northumberland for life (Doyle). In 1475 he was given a colleague in his wardenship, in order that he might accompany the king in his expedition to France, and his presence is noted by Commines (i. 374) at the interview between Louis XI and Edward at Pecquigny. He led the van in the Duke of Gloucester's invasion of Scotland in June 1482, and Berwick, then recovered, was entrusted to his keeping.
• Richard of Gloucester, when he assumed the protectorship, was careful to conciliate Northumberland by renewing his command as warden of the marches and captain of Berwick. A few weeks later the earl had no scruples in recognising Richard as king, and bore the pointless sword, curtana, the emblem of royal mercy, before him in the coronation procession (Excerpta Historica, p. 380; Taylor, Glory of Regality, pp. 71, 149). The office of great chamberlain of England, which the Duke of Buckingham forfeited by rebellion in October, was bestowed upon Northumberland (30 Nov.), together with the lordship of Holderness, which had long belonged to the Staffords, and formed a desirable addition to the Percy possessions in Yorkshire. Richard gave him many offices of profit, and lands valued at nearly a thousand a year. Parliament restored to him all the lands forfeited by the Percy rebellions under Henry IV and not yet recovered. Next to the Duke of Norfolk's, Richard bid highest for Northumberland's loyalty (Rot. Parl. vi. 252; Ramsay, ii. 534). But he was not more ready to sink or swim with Richard than he had been with Edward. Some months before he landed in England, Henry of Richmond had entertained a suggestion that he should marry a sister-in-law of Northumberland (Polydore Vergil, p. 215). When the crisis arrived the earl obeyed Richard's summons, and was at Bosworth, apparently in command of the right wing, but his troops never came into action; and, if Polydore (p. 225) may be believed, he would have gone over early in the battle had Richard not placed a close watch upon him (cf. Hutton, Bosworth Field, p. 130).
• Northumberland was taken prisoner by the victor, but at once received into favour and soon restored to all his offices in the north, and employed in negotiations with Scotland. In the spring of 1489 he was called upon to deal with the resistance of the Yorkshiremen to the tenth of incomes demanded for the Breton war (Gent. Mag. 1851, pt. i. p. 459; Busch, i. 329). On 10 April he was appointed commissioner, with the archbishop of York and others, to investigate and punish the disturbances in York at the election of mayor in the previous February (Campbell, ii. 443). Towards the end of the month he was alarmed by the attitude of the people in the vicinity of his manor of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, and on Saturday, 24 April, wrote to Sir Robert Plumpton from Seamer, close to Scarborough, ordering him to secretly bring as many armed men as he could to Thirsk by the following Monday (Plumpton Correspondence, p. 61). On Wednesday, 28 April, having gathered a force estimated at eight hundred men, he came into conflict with the commons, whose ringleader was one John a Chamber, near Thirsk, at a place variously called Cockledge or Blackmoor Edge, and was slain at the first onset (Leland, Collectanea, iv. 246; Dugdale, Baronage, i. 282; Brown, Venetian Calendar, i. 533). It was at first reported that he had gone out unarmed to appease the rebels (Paston Letters, iii. 359). Some affirmed that over and above the immediate cause of collision the commons had not forgiven him for his conduct to Richard, who had been very popular in Yorkshire (Hall, p. 443). Bernard Andreas [q. v.] wrote a Latin ode of twelve stanzas on his death (Vita, p. 48; cf. Percy, Reliques, i. 98, ed. 1767), and Skelton wrote an elegy in English. He was buried in the Percy chantry, on the north side of the lady-chapel of Beverley Minster, where his tomb, from which the effigy has disappeared, may still be seen. His will, dated 17 July 1485, is given in the ‘Testamenta Eboracensia’ (Surtees Soc.), vol. iii.
• By his wife, Maud Herbert, daughter of William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke [q. v.] of the second creation, whom he married about 1476, he left four sons—Henry Algernon (1478–1527) [q. v.], his successor in the earldom; Sir William Percy; Alan [q. v.]; and Josceline, grandfather of Thomas Percy (1560–1605) [q. v.] —and three daughters: Eleanor, wife of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham (beheaded in 1521); Anne, married (1511) to William Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (1483–1544); and Elizabeth, who died young.
• [Rotuli Parliamentorum; Rymer's Fœdera, original ed.; Historiæ Croylandensis Continuatio, ed. Fulman, 1684; Warkworth's Chronicle, the Arrival of Edward IV, Polydore Vergil (publ. by the Camden Society); Fabyan's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, 1811; Hall's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, 1809; Bernard André in Gairdner's Memorials of Henry VII, Campbell's Materials for the Reign of Henry VII (in Rolls Ser.); Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, 1892; Gairdner's Richard III; Wilhelm Busch's Hist. of England under the Tudors, Engl. transl.; Hutton's Battle of Bosworth Field, 1813; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, 1812; De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy, 1887.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Percy,_Henry_(1446-1489)_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/408/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/409/mode... ___________________________

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Percy_(Gunpowder_Plot)

Thomas Percy (c. 1560 – 8 November 1605) was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

A tall, physically impressive man, little is known of his early life beyond his matriculation in 1579 at the University of Cambridge, and his marriage in 1591 to Martha Wright. In 1596 a distant relation, Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland, appointed him constable of Alnwick Castle and made him responsible for the Percy family's northern estates. He served the earl in the Low Countries in about 1600–1601, and in the years before 1603 was his intermediary in a series of confidential communications with King James VI of Scotland.

Following James's accession to the English throne in 1603, Percy became disenchanted with the new king, who he supposed had reneged on his promises of toleration for English Catholics. His meeting in June 1603 with Robert Catesby, a religious zealot similarly unimpressed with the new royal dynasty, led the following year to his joining Catesby's conspiracy to kill the king and his ministers by blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder. Percy helped fund the group and secured the leases to certain properties in London, one of which was the undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords, in which the gunpowder was finally placed. The conspirators also planned to instigate an uprising in the Midlands and to simultaneously kidnap James's daughter, Princess Elizabeth. Percy was to remain in London and secure the capture of her brother, Prince Henry.

When the plot was exposed early on 5 November 1605, Percy immediately fled to the Midlands, catching up with some of the other conspirators en route to Dunchurch in Warwickshire. Their flight ended on the border of Staffordshire, at Holbeche House, where they were besieged early on 8 November by the pursuing Sheriff of Worcester and his men. Percy was reportedly killed by the same musketball as Catesby, and was buried nearby. His body was later exhumed, and his head exhibited outside Parliament.

In his youth Percy was reportedly "very wild more than ordinary, and much given to fighting", although his excesses were tempered somewhat by his conversion to Catholicism. He may have abandoned his first wife for another woman, and was for a time imprisoned for killing a man during a border skirmish. His membership of the plot proved extremely damaging to his patron, the Earl of Northumberland, who although uninvolved was imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1621.

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It is commonly accepted that Thomas Percy was the great-grandson of the 4th Earl of Northumberland; his father being Edward Percy of a lower branch of the Percys, and his mother being Elizabeth Waterton and making him the second cousin to Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. However, there are some who speculate that he was the 9th Earl's illegitimate half-brother, or as put forward by Francis Edwards, that he came from the Percys of Scotton, Yorkshire. However, this seems to be based on little more than the fact that Guy Fawkes also had lived in Scotton, and therefore would make for a tidy explanation of their later acquaintance.

Whatever his origins, he was accepted by the Earl of Northumberland as a kinsman, although he was to later say that Percy was known to have 'pretended himself to be of the elder howse".

About his early life, not much is known. He entered Peterson College at Cambridge on July 4 1579 and matriculated the following year, and in 1589 it was perhaps he who sailed with George Clifford to the Azores. As is typical for young men of any age, in his youth he was described by Fr. Tesimond as having been 'rather wild and given to the gay life; a man who relied much upon his sword and personal courage". He continues to describe Percy as "tall and well built, of serious expression but with an attractive manner. His eyes were large and lively. He was a man of great physical courage, and pleasing in his ways."

Not everyone was quite so flattering. An informant had described him to Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London, in quite a different light:

"Briefly, never was he quiet in mind, cheerful in countenance, or any way seeming to take delight.by the turmoiling of his body through seldom intermitted vexing, he became often so resolved into sweat that he promised much labour to his laundresses, who report that he changed his shirts twice every twenty-four hours." Percy had a reputation as an enthusiastic, although somewhat reckless swordsman. He and John Wright would travel the country in order to fight other skilled swordsman. Although these fights were just to demonstrate and hone their skills, not fights to the death, as a matter of pride they were performed without any protective equipment whatsoever.

By 1595 he was given a position of considerable trust by his kinsman and patron, the Earl of Northumberland, as an agent of his estates in the North responsible for the collection of his rents. He obviously made a good impression as he was made Constable of Alnwick Castle, a Percy stronghold on the Scottish border the following year.

Thomas Percy was far from a scrupulous man, which may have been exactly what the Earl of Northumberland needed in extracting the rents from the often less than cooperative Northern tenants.

Although 34 charges of dishonesty were later proved against him by the tenants, including unlawful imprisonment, forgery and questionable evictions, these seem to only have improved his standing in the Earl's eyes. 1596 found Percy in prison apparently for killing a Scot in a border skirmish, and a short while afterwards was involved with the Earl of Essex in an attempt to capture the Scottish Warden of the Western Marsh, Sir Robert Ker. But not only did he continue in his offices, in 1600 he personally joined Northumberland, who held a command in the Low Countries, and was rewarded with the sum of 200 pounds. Despite his actions, Percy seemed to be firmly on the track to success under Northumberland's patronage, and Northumberland placed an increasing amount of trust in him.

Thomas Percy's personal life was just as questionable as his professional one. In 1591 he married Martha Wright, sister to two of the other conspirators, Kit and Jack Wright, of a staunchly recusant Yorkshire family. It was reported by Dr. Godfrey Goodman, 40 years after the event:

"It is certain that he was a very loose liver; that he had two wives, one in the south and another in the north. An honorable good lady said that she knew them both. His wife in the south was so.poor that she was fain to teach school, and bring up gentle-women. There are some living that were her scholars."

Although Goodman has somewhat of a reputation as an unreliable gossip, the story is held up by a letter from Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, to Salisbury in regards to 500 pounds held by Monteagle of Percy's wife. Waad had to enquire as to which of his wives. Father John Gerard, writing in 1897 reported that when Percy's name was published in connection with the Plot, the magistrates in London arrested one wife, while those in Warwickshire arrested the other.

However, Paul Durst makes a convincing argument against Percy having been a bigamist. He shows how the wife in London on the 5th November could easily have been the same woman who was apprehended again in Warwickshire on the 12th, and that the question by Waad points to nothing more than Percy having had a wife who died prior to his marriage to Martha Wright.

His most convincing argument is that if Percy were a bigamist he would have been quickly dealt with by Martha's brothers, as opposed to being the close co-conspirators that they were.

It appears that Percy's pious Catholic wife Martha had a profound effect on her unruly husband, as Tesimond reported that at some point he converted to Catholicism himself. "He then changed his ways in remarkable fashion, giving much satisfaction to Catholics and considerable cause for wonder for those who had known him previously."

Percy then became active in trying to improve the Catholic cause in England. His lord, Northumberland, despite his later protestations to the contrary, was a reputed Catholic sympathiser, described by a French Ambassador as 'Catholic in his soul'. His father, the 8th Earl, had been openly Catholic, and his uncle was beheaded for his part in the Northern Rising of 1572 on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Northumberland, although still an enormously wealthy and powerful magnate, desired to repair the damage to the wealth and reputation of his family during the Elizabethan period, and also to check the ever-increasing influence of Robert Cecil. So when in the last years of Elizabeth's reign Thomas Percy approached him with the idea of making overtures to James VI of Scotland, her likely successor, Northumberland applauded the idea. By promising James the support of the Catholics to ensure a smooth accession in exchange for promises of toleration, Northumberland hoped to improve his station by earning a debt of gratitude from James in the coming reign.

Northumberland sent Percy to James in Scotland at least three times by 1602 with secret written and verbal correspondence. He told James on behalf of the English Catholics how they would readily accept him as their king if he could accept them as his loyal subjects and release them from the years of persecution they had suffered in Elizabeth's reign. The Catholics had many expectations from James as they had upheld the cause of his mother, the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, and there were many rumours that his own wife was in fact a Catholic.

According to Percy, they were not to be disappointed. After his return from Scotland, he spread the good news amongst the Catholic community that James had given his word as a prince not only to free them from their persecution, but to actively favour them and admit them to every honour and office on an equal par with Protestants.

After James' unobstructed accession to the English throne, it became clear that whatever promises made were quickly forgotten, as far from alleviating the situation of Catholics, he not only increased the prosecution of the existing laws but added new, more stringent ones. This turn of events completely humiliated Thomas Percy. He experienced bitter disappointment and anger at being so deceived by James, as well as a loss of reputation amongst many of the Catholics who now believed that Percy was lying to them all along. He also felt responsible for having convinced his Catholics brothers to accept James as their king.

In hope of reminding James of all that had passed between them, he sent a supplication on behalf of the Catholics that was completely ignored. James went so far as to publicly deny that he had ever made any promises of tolerance to anyone and nor would he ever consider it.

Percy's seed of resentment was now deeply sewn. He told his tale of James' two-faced deception repeatedly to people he trusted in the Catholic community, and lost no opportunity to express his bitterness at having been so ill used.

In this manner, his feelings about King James were made crystal clear to Robert Catesby, who could see that Percy would be eager to take revenge. It was apparent that Percy would be willing to do anything to rescue his reputation from the taint of having been a mere puppet and dupe used to neutralize the Catholics arousing the open mockery and castigation of the community. During one conversation with Catesby, Percy burst out that he would kill the king, but the cooler Catesby told him "No, Tom, thou shalt not adventure to small purpose, but if thou wilt be a traitour, thou shalt be to some great advantage". (Hat MSS v18 p73)

In April 1604, a few weeks later, Thomas Percy met again with Catesby, who was joined by Thomas Wintour. During their conversation, Percy again could not contain his frustration and exclaimed "Shall we always, gentlemen, talk and never do anything?" Catesby now knew he had his man, and explained to Percy that indeed, they did have a plan to do something, but before he would reveal it, Percy would have to take an oath of complete secrecy.

On 13th May, in a house behind St. Clements Inn rented by the Jesuit priest, John Gerard, the original five conspirators met to take the oath: Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Guy Fawkes and Thomas Percy. After the administration of the oath, they took the sacrament in an adjoining room to seal their compact. This being done, Catesby revealed to Percy his plan to blow up Parliament and Percy joined their number.

Percy definitely had many benefits to bring to the conspiracy. His zeal and dedication to the cause was unquestionable, and his connections with Northumberland gave the group considerable advantages.

This standing was further improved when he was conveniently made a Gentleman Pensioner only three weeks later, giving him free access to the court and members of the Royal family, and along with Catesby. Percy soon established himself as a leader of their group.

The first order of the day was to obtain a center of operations. Catesby had already identified a suitable house adjacent to the House of Lords and close by the Parliament Stairs, a landing on the Thames almost directly opposite Catesby's house in Lambeth. This house was owned by John Whinniard, the Keeper of the King's Wardrobe, and leased to the antiquarian Henry Ferrers.

It has been claimed by many writers that because of his position as Gentleman Pensioner it would not be suspicious for Percy to take a house close to Parliament, and that he used the assistance of other influential Pensioners to persuade Ferrers and Whinniard to lease the house to him. However, this ignores the fact that the house was leased by Percy on 24 May, but he was not made a Gentleman Pensioner until the following month.

It is more likely that a personal relationship clinched the deal. Henry Ferrers came from a Catholic family and had in fact rented his property at Baddesley Clinton several years before to relatives of both Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour, the sisters Anne Vaux and Eleanor Brooksby. It is unlikely that Ferrers was unaware that these sisters had promptly turned the property into a hive of Catholic activities, where the Superior of the Jesuits. Fr. Henry Garnet often lived. It doesn't seem that Ferrers made a habit of asking too many questions of his catholic associates.

Guy Fawkes assumed the name of John Johnson and established himself at the Whinniard house as Percy's servant. As parliament had been adjourned until February, and their plans further delayed by their house being taken over temporarily by a Scottish delegation, it was not until December 1604 that the conspirators, according to Guy Fawkes, started work on the mine which was to lead from the Whinniard house underneath the Parliament House.

In the meantime, the details of the plot were being worked out. It was decided that as Prince Henry was likely to be attending Parliament and would therefore perish with his father, that Percy would seize his 5 year old brother, Charles, Duke of York, with a view of placing him on the throne. The young Duke would be in residence at Richmond on the day of the opening of Parliament, with only a few household members present. It would be easy for Percy as a Gentleman Pensioner to whisk him away as soon as they heard the explosion, under the pretext of taking him to safety.

The work on the mine, if it ever existed, did not go well according to Fawkes. The walls were thicker than they anticipated and they were having a problem with water seepage. It was at the end of March, as they were working, that they heard a strange sound coming from almost above their heads. It turned out to be the sounds of coals being removed from a cellar that was situated on the ground floor of the House of Lords. A coal merchant named Bright held the lease also of Whinniard, but he was going out of business, therefore it was a simple matter for Percy to lease this cellar as well, claiming it would be a useful place for him to store fuel.

Now all the conspirators had to do was to move the gunpowder that they had collected from Lambeth into the cellar, disguise it with fuel that they purchased for that purpose, lock it up and await the coming of Parliament.

That being done, Percy continued in his normal duties for the Earl of Northumberland, spending the summer of 1605 in Alnwick in Northamptonshire collecting the rents. In August, at a meeting in Bath he gave permission to Catesby to bring in any other conspirators he saw fit.

On October 30th. Percy was in York with 4 men, arranging for the delivery of the rents that they had collected, however early the following morning he departed abruptly, taking two men with him, and telling the other men that he would be back the following day. As Guy Fawkes admitted that he had "gone northward" between the 31st and the 2nd of November, it is entirely likely that Fawkes was dispatched to warn Percy of the discovery of the Monteagle letter.

On November 2nd, Percy wrote three letters from Gainsboro, one to William Stockdall, the auditor for the Earl of Northumberland, claiming that he had to leave abruptly because the Archbishop was about to have him arrested as a chief pillar of papistry. He said that Stockdall should meet him with the rents the following Thursday at Doncaster. However, the dating of these letters must be incorrect, as Percy was seen riding post from Ware that same day, and had somehow managed to make it to London to have dinner at the Angel in St. Clements that same night, a 150-mile trip that defies plausibility.

The following day he met with Catesby and Wintour to discuss the ramifications of the Monteagle Letter. Although there was some discussion of flight, Percy was determined not to succumb to panic, and that he would "abide the uttermost trial". He decided to visit Syon House, which belonged to the Earl of Northumberland, to see if any rumours were circulating. He felt that if their secret was discovered, he would be arrested immediately on his appearance there, and was willing to sacrifice himself to give the others an opportunity to escape.

Percy found nothing untoward at Syon House when he went there on the 4th. He spoke for a while with his patron about an imaginary loan, and dined with him and a few other gentlemen without any hint of a discovery of a plot being mentioned. After leaving Syon House, it is possible that this was when he paid a visit to Richmond. As later testified to by a servant, Agnes Fortrun, Percy came to the Duke's lodging there and was asking many questions. She claimed that this took place around the 1st of November, however this would have been impossible.

He returned from Syon at 6pm and met with Thomas Wintour, Jack Wright and Robert Keyes, and relayed the good news. Everything was to go ahead as planned. After making arrangements for a watch to be sent to Fawkes, who was standing by at Westminster, so that he could know the time to set the gunpowder the following day, Percy went to Essex House, which also belonged to the Earl of Northumberland. He went under the pretext of seeing his cousin Jocelyn, but was probably trying to keep an ear out for any possible talk of discovery.

According to Tesimond, Percy wisely decided to sleep in a different place that night, but sometime before 5am his sleep was disturbed by Christopher Wright, who had heard that the gunpowder had been discovered, and everyone was now searching for Percy as the tenant of the cellar. As Percy and Wright prepared to flee London, Percy was heard to say by his servant, William Talbois, "I am undone"!

During their flight, they were overtaken by another of the conspirators, Ambrose Rookwood at Little Brickhill in Buckinghamshire. Percy is reported to have been astonished to discover that Rookwood was a co-conspirator, and that "I thought no man had been acquainted with it but such as I had known."

Although it is possible that the other conspirators had overlooked mentioning it to him, this seems unlikely. And there can be no doubt that the other conspirators were aware. Rookwood had been lodging in London with Robert Keyes, and he and Christopher Wright had both had their sword hilts engraved with the Passion of Christ shortly before.

The conspirators rendezvoused at Dunchurch, where additional men had been gathered together by Sir Everard Digby. The purpose of the gathering was under the guise of a hunt, however the true purpose was to kidnap the Princess Elizabeth from her home at nearby Coombe Abbey after the explosion in London. However, just hours before the anticipated event. Digby was told news of the failure of the plot and that they all had to flee for their lives.

Back in London, the first of several proclamations had been sent out for the immediate apprehension of Percy, and almost amusingly, Percy had been claimed to be spotted leaving London in almost every conceivable direction. If not for the conspirators almost suicidal action of breaking into some stables at Warwick Castle in order to obtain fresh mounts, thereby alerting the local authorities, Percy and his friends might have gained a considerable lead over his pursuers, and been able to make their way into Wales, where it is believed they were heading. As it was, the plotters were soon hotly pursued and quickly brought to ground by Sir Richard Walsh, High Sheriff of Worcestershire for their final stand at Holbeache House.

On the morning of November 8th, Walsh and his men stormed the house, smoking the conspirators from their hides. As they took up their defensive position in the courtyard, Catesby and Percy were felled by a single shot from the musket of John Streete of Worcester, who later claimed compensation from the government for his marksmanship. Percy was killed instantly, Catesby managing to crawl back inside the house before expiring.

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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 44 Percy, Thomas (1560-1605) by Sidney Lee PERCY, THOMAS (1560–1605), an organiser of the ‘Gunpowder Plot,’ was younger son of Edward Percy of Beverley, by his wife Elizabeth Waterton. His grandfather, Josceline Percy, was fourth son of Henry Percy, fourth earl of Northumberland [q. v.] (De Fonblanque, Annals, ii. 586). Although brought up as a protestant, Percy became in early life an ardent catholic, and, despite an unamiable temper, he attracted the notice of Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], his second cousin once removed. The latter appointed him, in October 1594, constable of Alnwick Castle, and he seems to have acted as agent for the earl's northern property, and to have incurred much unpopularity by a tyrannical exercise of his authority. The Earl of Essex, brother-in-law of the Earl of Northumberland, also befriended him. In February 1596 Essex wrote to Francis Beaumont [q. v.], the judge, asking him ‘to favour Thomas Percy, a near kinsman to my brother of Northumberland, who is in trouble for some offence imputed to him. He is a gentleman well descended, and of good parts, and very able to do his country good service.’ Two years later he was detained as a recusant in Wood Street compter, London. In 1602 charges of embezzling his master's money were brought against him, on the information of some discontented tenants, but the investigation which followed left the Earl of Northumberland's confidence in him unshaken. In the same year Percy undertook, at the bidding of Northumberland, a political mission to Scotland. He carried a letter from the earl to James VI, requesting a promise of toleration for the English catholics in the event of James's accession to the English throne. James's reply was interpreted favourably. In 1604 the earl secured for Percy a place at court in London as a gentleman pensioner. Percy shared the discontent of his co-religionists at James's reluctance to repeal the penal legislation against the catholics. His wife was a sister of John Wright, a staunch catholic, and an intimate friend of Robert Catesby [q. v.] Percy is said to have accidentally heard, in 1604, Wright, Catesby, and a third associate, Thomas Winter, discuss the obligation which lay on English catholics of striking a blow for their faith. Percy suggested the murder of the king as the best means of removing catholic disabilities. Catesby thereupon confided to him the general features of a plan, upon which he, Wright, and Winter, had already resolved, of blowing up the houses of parliament. Thenceforth Percy was one of the most active organisers of ‘the gunpowder plot.’ He hired, in his own name, a house at Westminster adjoining the parliament house (24 May 1604), and installed in it Guy Fawkes [q. v.], whom he represented to be a servant of his, by name John Johnson. Percy added to his property a neighbouring cellar in the following March, and superintended the storage there of gunpowder, with a view to destroying the parliament house as soon as the next session opened. The execution of the desperate design was finally appointed for 5 Nov. Some weeks before, Catesby met Percy and others of the conspirators at Bath, and they resolved to enlist the services of catholic countrymen in various counties, so as to insure a general rising as soon as the explosion had taken place in London. Percy undertook to supply to a party of rebels, apparently at Doncaster, ‘ten galloping horses’ from the Earl of Northumberland's stables, and to hand over the Michaelmas rents, to the amount of 4,000l., which he was about to collect for his master. To carry out these objects he arrived at Alnwick in October. Meanwhile, William Parker, fourth baron Monteagle [q. v.], was warned of the conspiracy on 26 Oct., and the information he gave to the authorities led them to arrest Guy Fawkes in the cellar on 4 Nov. Fawkes described himself as Percy's servant. By that date Percy had just arrived in London from the north, and on the 4th he dined with the Earl of Northumberland at Syon House; but a message from Fawkes acquainted him with the turn of events, and he left London with Christopher Wright the next morning. A royal proclamation at once offered 1,000l. reward for his capture. He was described as tall, with a broad beard turning grey, stooping shoulders, red-coloured face, long feet, and short legs. Percy and Wright found Catesby at Ashby St. Leger, whence they made their way to Holbeach, on the borders of Staffordshire, on the 7th. On the 8th the government troops attacked the house in which the conspirators had taken refuge. Catesby and Percy fought desperately, back to back. The former was killed outright; Percy was desperately wounded, and died two days later. Percy figures in Crispin Pass's engraving ad vivum of Guy Fawkes and his seven chief confederates. Percy's wife is said to have removed from Alnwick during Percy's lifetime and to have settled at the upper end of Holborn, London, where she gained a livelihood by teaching. A son Robert married at Wiveliscombe, Somerset, on 22 Oct. 1615, Emma Mead, and left issue. Of Percy's two daughters, one married Catesby's son Robert. [Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 173–5, x. 142–3; De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy, ii. 586–600; Jardine's Gunpowder Plot, 1857; see arts. Catesby, Robert, and Fawkes, Guy.] From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Percy,_Thomas_(1560-1605)_(DNB00) https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/436/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/437/mode... _______________________

Thomas Percy1 M, #663410, b. 1560, d. 10 November 1605 Last Edited=2 Jun 2015 Thomas Percy was born in 1560.1 He was the son of Edward Percy and Elizabeth Waterton.1 He married unknown daughter Wright, daughter of unknown Wright.1 He died on 10 November 1605 at Holbeach, Lincolnshire, England, from wounds received when captured by government troops.1 He was agent for his cousin Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland.1 He held the office of Constable of Alnwick Castle in 1594.1 In 1598 he was in trouble as a recusant.1 In 1602 he was acused of fraud against his employer, the 3rd Earl, but was acquitted.1 He was a Gunpowder Plot consiprator - the first to suggest assassinating King James I, and he hired the house next door to Parliament (foolishly in his own name) in 1604.1 He was Gentleman Pensioner in 1604.1 Children of Thomas Percy and unknown daughter Wright unknown daughter Percy1 unknown daughter Percy1 Robert Percy+1 Citations [S37] BP2003 volume 2, page 2941. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37] From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p66341.htm#i663410 _________________________

Thomas PERCY Born: 1560, Beverley, Yorkshire, England Died: 9 Nov 1605, Holbeach House, Staffordshire, England Notes: See his Biography. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasPercy.htm Father: Edward PERCY of Beverley Mother: Elizabeth WATERTON Married: Martha WRIGHT ABT 1594 Children: 1. Robert PERCY 2. Dau. PERCY From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/PERCY.htm#Thomas PERCY1 _______________________

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 44 Percy, Henry (1446-1489) by James Tait PERCY, HENRY, fourth Earl of Northumberland (1446–1489), was the only son of Henry Percy, third earl [see under Percy, Henry, second Earl]. On his father's attainder, Edward IV committed him to safe keeping, and three years later conferred the forfeited earldom of Northumberland on John Neville, lord Montagu [q. v.] Percy's imprisonment cannot have been very strict, for in 1465 he was confined in the Fleet, where he made the acquaintance of John Paston (1421–1466) [q. v.], a fellow-prisoner (Paston Letters, ii. 237, 243). His subsequent transference to the Tower may be attributed to the Nevilles when they held the king in durance after the battle of Edgecott in 1469. One of Edward's first steps on shaking off this constraint was to release Percy (27 Oct.), merely exacting an oath of fealty (Fœdera, xi. 648). When the final breach with the Nevilles came in the following spring, and the king drove the Earl of Warwick out of the realm, he took the earldom of Northumberland from Lord Montagu, and restored it (25 March at York) to Percy, who had accompanied him throughout the campaign (Paston Letters, ii. 396). The new earl also superseded his disgraced rival in the wardenship of the east march towards Scotland, which had usually been held by the head of his house. This he lost again in the autumn, when the Nevilles restored Henry VI, and though Northumberland made no open resistance to the change of government, and could not very well be deprived of his newly recovered title, the Lancastrian traditions of his family did not blind him to the fact that for him it was a change for the worse. On landing in Yorkshire in the following spring, Edward is said to have exhibited letters, under Northumberland's seal, inviting him to return; and though he ‘sat still’ and did not join Edward, his neutrality was afterwards excused, as due to the difficulty of getting his Lancastrian followers to fight for York, and was held to have rendered ‘notable good service’ to the cause by preventing Montagu from rousing Yorkshire against the small Yorkist force (Warkworth, p. 14; Arrival of Edward IV, p. 6). Twelve days after the battle of Barnet, Northumberland was created chief justice of the royal forests north of Trent by the triumphant Edward, and, after Tewkesbury, he was made constable of Bamborough Castle (5 June) and warden of the east and middle marches (24 June). In the parliament of August 1472, the first held by Edward since his restoration of the earldom to Percy, the attainder of 1461 was formally abrogated. Shortly after the opening of the session Northumberland was appointed chief commissioner to treat with the Scots. Two years later he entered the order of the Garter, and was made sheriff of Northumberland for life (Doyle). In 1475 he was given a colleague in his wardenship, in order that he might accompany the king in his expedition to France, and his presence is noted by Commines (i. 374) at the interview between Louis XI and Edward at Pecquigny. He led the van in the Duke of Gloucester's invasion of Scotland in June 1482, and Berwick, then recovered, was entrusted to his keeping. Richard of Gloucester, when he assumed the protectorship, was careful to conciliate Northumberland by renewing his command as warden of the marches and captain of Berwick. A few weeks later the earl had no scruples in recognising Richard as king, and bore the pointless sword, curtana, the emblem of royal mercy, before him in the coronation procession (Excerpta Historica, p. 380; Taylor, Glory of Regality, pp. 71, 149). The office of great chamberlain of England, which the Duke of Buckingham forfeited by rebellion in October, was bestowed upon Northumberland (30 Nov.), together with the lordship of Holderness, which had long belonged to the Staffords, and formed a desirable addition to the Percy possessions in Yorkshire. Richard gave him many offices of profit, and lands valued at nearly a thousand a year. Parliament restored to him all the lands forfeited by the Percy rebellions under Henry IV and not yet recovered. Next to the Duke of Norfolk's, Richard bid highest for Northumberland's loyalty (Rot. Parl. vi. 252; Ramsay, ii. 534). But he was not more ready to sink or swim with Richard than he had been with Edward. Some months before he landed in England, Henry of Richmond had entertained a suggestion that he should marry a sister-in-law of Northumberland (Polydore Vergil, p. 215). When the crisis arrived the earl obeyed Richard's summons, and was at Bosworth, apparently in command of the right wing, but his troops never came into action; and, if Polydore (p. 225) may be believed, he would have gone over early in the battle had Richard not placed a close watch upon him (cf. Hutton, Bosworth Field, p. 130). Northumberland was taken prisoner by the victor, but at once received into favour and soon restored to all his offices in the north, and employed in negotiations with Scotland. In the spring of 1489 he was called upon to deal with the resistance of the Yorkshiremen to the tenth of incomes demanded for the Breton war (Gent. Mag. 1851, pt. i. p. 459; Busch, i. 329). On 10 April he was appointed commissioner, with the archbishop of York and others, to investigate and punish the disturbances in York at the election of mayor in the previous February (Campbell, ii. 443). Towards the end of the month he was alarmed by the attitude of the people in the vicinity of his manor of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, and on Saturday, 24 April, wrote to Sir Robert Plumpton from Seamer, close to Scarborough, ordering him to secretly bring as many armed men as he could to Thirsk by the following Monday (Plumpton Correspondence, p. 61). On Wednesday, 28 April, having gathered a force estimated at eight hundred men, he came into conflict with the commons, whose ringleader was one John a Chamber, near Thirsk, at a place variously called Cockledge or Blackmoor Edge, and was slain at the first onset (Leland, Collectanea, iv. 246; Dugdale, Baronage, i. 282; Brown, Venetian Calendar, i. 533). It was at first reported that he had gone out unarmed to appease the rebels (Paston Letters, iii. 359). Some affirmed that over and above the immediate cause of collision the commons had not forgiven him for his conduct to Richard, who had been very popular in Yorkshire (Hall, p. 443). Bernard Andreas [q. v.] wrote a Latin ode of twelve stanzas on his death (Vita, p. 48; cf. Percy, Reliques, i. 98, ed. 1767), and Skelton wrote an elegy in English. He was buried in the Percy chantry, on the north side of the lady-chapel of Beverley Minster, where his tomb, from which the effigy has disappeared, may still be seen. His will, dated 17 July 1485, is given in the ‘Testamenta Eboracensia’ (Surtees Soc.), vol. iii. By his wife, Maud Herbert, daughter of William Herbert, first earl of Pembroke [q. v.] of the second creation, whom he married about 1476, he left four sons—Henry Algernon (1478–1527) [q. v.], his successor in the earldom; Sir William Percy; Alan [q. v.]; and Josceline, grandfather of Thomas Percy (1560–1605) [q. v.] —and three daughters: Eleanor, wife of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham (beheaded in 1521); Anne, married (1511) to William Fitzalan, earl of Arundel (1483–1544); and Elizabeth, who died young. [Rotuli Parliamentorum; Rymer's Fœdera, original ed.; Historiæ Croylandensis Continuatio, ed. Fulman, 1684; Warkworth's Chronicle, the Arrival of Edward IV, Polydore Vergil (publ. by the Camden Society); Fabyan's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, 1811; Hall's Chronicle, ed. Ellis, 1809; Bernard André in Gairdner's Memorials of Henry VII, Campbell's Materials for the Reign of Henry VII (in Rolls Ser.); Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, 1892; Gairdner's Richard III; Wilhelm Busch's Hist. of England under the Tudors, Engl. transl.; Hutton's Battle of Bosworth Field, 1813; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, 1812; De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy, 1887.] From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Percy,_Henry_(1446-1489)_(DNB00) https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/408/mode... to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati44stepuoft#page/409/mode...