ford presented him to the rectory of Mulbarton-cum-Keningham, Norfolk; about the same time he became master of the college of the Holy Trinity at Arundel, which he joined with the two fellows in surrendering to the king on 12 Dec. 1545. It has been suggested that he was the Percy who proceeded M.A. at Cambridge as a grand compounder in 1528, but it is difficult to know why he should have waited so long to take a degree he might have had in 1516. He is mentioned in June 1527 as one of the trustees of his brother, the Earl of Northumberland, who died in that year. In 1530 it appears that he owed Wolsey's estate 9l. for expediting a suit for the union of certain parishes. The Duke of Norfolk gave him the rectory of Earsham, Norfolk, in 1558. Percy died in May 1560, and was buried in the old chapel of St. John's College, where there were a brass and a marble tomb to his memory. One portrait, made in 1549, was at the Norwich Guildhall; he had given a house to the city of Norwich in 1534. Another (a copy), which is in the combination room at St. John's College, shows a refined and ascetic face.
[Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. i. 206; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. (ed. Mayor), i. 8, &c., ii. 566, &c.; J. Bass Mullinger's Hist. of the University of Cambridge, i. 470; De Fonblanque's Annals of the House of Percy, i. 307; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. 779, ii. 4183, iv. ii. 3213, iv. iii. 6748.]
PERCY, ALGERNON, tenth Earl of Northumberland (1602–1668), son of Henry, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], was born in London, and baptised 13 Oct. 1602 (Chamberlain, Letters during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, p. 157; Collins, Peerage, ed., Brydges, ii. 346). Percy was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, as family papers prove, and not at Christ Church, Oxford, as stated by Collins and Doyle (Fonblanque, House of Percy, ii. 367). His father then sent him to travel abroad, providing him with detailed instructions what to observe and how to behave (Antiquarian Repertory, iv. 374). On 4 Nov. 1616 he was created a knight of the Bath (Doyle, Official Baronage, ii. 663). In the parliament of 1624 he represented the county of Sussex, and in those called in 1625 and 1626 the city of Chichester. He was summoned to the House of Lords as Baron Percy on 28 March 1627, and succeeded his father as tenth Earl of Northumberland on 5 Nov. 1632.
Charles I was anxious to secure the support of Northumberland, and conferred upon him, on 16 May 1635, the order of the Garter (Strafford Letters, i. 363, 427; Fonblanque, ii. 630). For the next few years he was continually trusted with the highest naval or military posts. On 23 March 1636 he was appointed admiral of the fleet raised by means of ship-money in order to assert the sovereignty of the seas. It effected nothing beyond obliging a certain number of Dutch fishermen to accept licenses to fish from Northumberland's master. But its ineffectiveness was due rather to the policy of Charles than to his admiral's fault (Gardiner, History of England, viii. 156; Strafford Letters, i. 524; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1635–6, pp. xx, 357). Northumberland was full of zeal for the king's service, and presented to him in December 1636 a statement of the abuses existing in the management of the navy, with proposals for their reform; but, though supported by ample proof of the evils alleged, the commissioners of the admiralty took no steps to remedy them. ‘This proceeding,’ wrote Northumberland to Strafford, ‘hath brought me to a resolution not to trouble myself any more with endeavouring a reformation, unless I be commanded to it’ (Strafford Letters, ii. 40, 49; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1636–7, pp. 202, 217, 251; Fonblanque, ii. 379). Strafford, who had supported Northumberland with all his might, urged him to be patient and constant in his endeavours, and pressed, through Laud, for his appointment as one of the commissioners of the admiralty, or as lord high admiral (Strafford Letters, ii. 54). In April 1637 Northumberland was a second time appointed admiral, but again found himself able to achieve nothing. His disgust was very great. He wrote to Strafford from his anchorage in the Downs complaining bitterly. ‘To ride in this place at anchor a whole summer together without hope of action, to see daily disorders in the fleet and not to have means to remedy them, and to be in an employment where a man can neither do service to the state, gain honour to himself, nor do courtesies for his friends, is a condition that I think nobody will be ambitious of’ (ib. ii. 84; Gardiner, viii. 219; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1637, pp. xxi–xxv). On 30 March 1638 Northumberland was raised to the dignity of lord high admiral of England, which was granted him, however, only during pleasure, and not, as in the cases of Nottingham and Buckingham, for life (ib. 1637–8, p. 321; Collins, ii. 247). It was intended that he should retain his post until the Duke of York was of age to succeed him (Strafford Letters, ii. 154; Gardiner, viii. 338).
