was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. 1805, and D.D. 1825; he was admitted ad eundem at Oxford in 1834. He subsequently joined St. John's College. Having taken holy orders, he married, 19 May 1806, Mary, eldest daughter of Manners Sutton [q. v.], archbishop of Canterbury, by whom in 1809 he was collated to the benefices of Bishopsbourne and Ivychurch, Kent. In 1810 he was appointed chancellor and prebendary of Exeter, which appointments he held till 1816. On 21 Dec. 1812 he was installed chancellor of Salisbury Cathedral. In 1816 he was collated by his father-in-law to a prebendal stall at Canterbury Cathedral, and in the same year he received the enormously rich stall of Finsbury at St. Paul's, which he held till his death. In 1822 he was made archdeacon of Canterbury, and in 1825, on the death of Dr. Gerrard Andrewes [q. v.], he was raised to the deanery. Two years later (15 July 1827), on the death of Dr. Walker King, he was consecrated bishop of Rochester, from which see, after a few months' tenure, he was translated, on the death of Dr. Samuel Goodenough [q. v.], to that of Carlisle. This bishopric he held till his death.
While dean of Canterbury he promoted the repair of the interior of the cathedral, 'clearing off the whitewash and removing modern incongruities,' personally superintending the work. As a bishop, though not approaching the modern standard of episcopal activity, Percy proved himself able and efficient. 'With him,' writes Chancellor Ferguson, 'a new regime set in,' and a quickened life began to stir in the diocese. In 1838 he established a clergy aid society, and in 1855 a diocesan education society. He found Rose Castle, the episcopal residence, much dilapidated and deformed with incongruous additions. Determined to make it worthy of the see, he called in the quaker architect Thomas Rickman [q. v.], under whose directions the house was entirely remodelled without any detriment to its mediaeval character. The main cost was defrayed out of the episcopal revenues, but he is stated to have spent 40,000l. of his own money on the gardens, grounds, and outbuildings. A rosary, in which he delighted, was laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton [q. v.], who also formed the terraced gardens. A prelate of the old school, he is described as a genial specimen of a courtly country gentleman. He was fond of farming, in which he showed much practical skill. Few were better judges of a horse. On his long journeys to and from London, to attend the House of Lords, he used to drive his four horses himself. He died at Rose Castle on 5 Feb. 1856, and was buried in the parish churchyard of Dalston. His first wife, by whom he had a large family of three sons and eight daughters, died in September 1831. He married, secondly, in February 1840, Mary, the daughter of Sir William Hope Johnstone, G.C.B. His eldest son, Algernon, married Emily, daughter of Bishop Reginald Heber [q. v.], and heiress of her uncle, Richard Heber [q. v.], and assumed the name of Heber in addition to his own.
[Burke's Peerage, ed. 1895, p. 1074; Gent. Mag. 1856, pt. i. p. 421 ; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Ferguson's Diocesan Hist. of Carlisle; private information.]
PERCY, JAMES (1619–1690?), claimant to the earldom of Northumberland, born, it was alleged, at Harrowden in Northamptonshire in 1619, was the only surviving son of Henry Percy, by Lydia, daughter of Robert Cope of Horton in Northamptonshire. His grandfather was generally admitted to be Henry Percy ‘of Pavenham’ in Bedfordshire. When, upon the death of Jocelyn Percy, eleventh earl of Northumberland, and son of Algernon, tenth earl [q. v.], his only daughter Elizabeth, eventually Duchess of Somerset, succeeded to all the transmissible honours of her ancestry, James Percy, who had hitherto successfully followed the trade of trunkmaker in Dublin, came forward and challenged her great inheritance. The eleventh earl died at Turin on 21 May 1670, and the trunkmaker arrived in London in pursuit of his claims on 11 Oct. in that year. He waited, however, for some months, until the widowed countess, who was pregnant, had given birth to a dead child, and it was not until 3 Feb. 1671 that he entered his claim at the signet office, and presented a petition to the House of Lords praying for recognition in his person of the title, style, honours, and dignity of Baron Percy and Earl of Northumberland, as great-grandson of Sir Richard Percy, the fifth son of Henry, eighth earl [q. v.] Through Sir Richard, a soldier of repute, who had died at Angers, aged 73, in 1648, he claimed to be next-of-kin in the male line. Shortly afterwards the dowager-countess protested against his claim, and on 28 Feb. 1672 the House of Lords dismissed his petition as baseless. Not only, it was contended against the petitioner, had Sir Richard by general belief died unmarried, but it was impossible that a man born in 1575 should have a great-grandson born in 1619. Undeterred by the failure of his first assault upon the title, which he regarded as ‘tentative or merely provocative
