at his Castles of Wressle and Leconfield in Yorkshire,’ 1768. This work also made a new departure. It stands chronologically at the head of the long series of household regulations and accounts whose publication has rendered the knowledge of old English life minute and exact.
In 1770 he published another work of great importance on account of its recognition of the high interest of the old Norse life. This was entitled ‘Northern Antiquities, with a Translation of the Edda and other pieces from the Ancient Islandic Tongue. Translated from M. Mallet's Introduction to L'Histoire de Dannemarc, &c. With additional Notes by the English Translator and Goranson's Latin Version of the Edda.’ Percy's preface is a vigorous and well-informed refutation of a view that had been ‘a great source of mistake and confusion to many learned writers of the ancient history of Europe, viz. that of supposing the ancient Gauls and Germans, the Britons and Saxons, to have been originally one and the same people, thus confounding the antiquities of the Gothic and Celtic nations.’ In 1771 he published his familiar ballad ‘The Hermit of Warkworth,’ a composition very characteristic of the eighteenth century.
Meanwhile he had not neglected the studies associated directly with his profession as a clergyman. In 1764 he published ‘A New Translation of the Song of Solomon;’ and in 1769 ‘A Key to the New Testament,’ which was thrice reissued. He was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Northumberland, and in 1769 chaplain to the king. At last substantial preferment came. In 1778 he was made dean of Carlisle; but he did not resign the livings of Easton-Maudit and Wilby till four years later, when he became bishop of Dromore in Ireland. Dr. Robert Nares [q. v.] succeeded him at Easton.
Twenty-nine years had Percy been connected with Easton, and twenty-nine years was he connected with Dromore. But his only contribution to literature after leaving Easton was ‘An Essay on the Origin of the English Stage, particularly on the Historical Plays of Shakespeare.’ When the fourth edition of the ‘Reliques’ appeared in 1794, his nephew, the editor, defended him against the truculence of Joseph Ritson [q. v.], who denied the existence of the famous folio manuscript. Possibly Ritson's insolence did something to dishearten Percy from fresh literary labours. Moreover, the distance of his home from London was not without effect. The county of Down was very much out of the world. ‘Letters to him frequently never reached their destination, and he was months in arrear with the last magazine.’ But his correspondence shows that interest in literary things never abated. In 1801 he contributed to an edition of Goldsmith's ‘Miscellaneous Works’ materials ‘for an improved account of the author's life.’
Percy resided constantly in his diocese, ‘discharging the duties of his sacred office with vigilance and zeal, instructing the ignorant, relieving the necessitous, and comforting the distressed with pastoral affection.’ About 1804 his eyesight began to fail; at the end of 1805 he writes that ‘it is with difficulty I transcribe my name.’ Twelve months later his wife died, a woman of great tact as well as a devoted and affectionate partner. For nearly five years he lingered on, bearing both his blindness and his bereavement with a touching equanimity. He died on 30 Sept. 1811, and was buried by the side of Mrs. Percy in the transept he had added to his cathedral.
Percy married in 1759 Anne, daughter of Barton Gutteridge of Desborough, Northamptonshire, not far from Rothwell, whose name he spells Goodriche on her tombstone. His well-known lines to Nancy were addressed to her before she became his wife; they were printed in 1758 in the sixth volume of Dodsley's ‘Collection of Poems.’ In 1771 Mrs. Percy was appointed nurse to Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent. Six children were born to him, two of whom died at Easton; a third, said to have been a youth of great promise, died at Marseilles in 1783; and a fourth son, who had been a king's scholar at Westminster, died at Dromore of consumption. Two daughters survived him—viz. Barbara, married to Ambrose Isted of Ecton House, near Northampton; and Elizabeth, wife of Archdeacon the Hon. Pierce Meade.
Percy's portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds and was engraved by Dickinson.
In 1840 was formed, in commemoration of Bishop Percy, the Percy Society for the Publication of Ballad Poetry. It was dissolved in 1852, after publishing ninety-six volumes.
[Life of Bishop Percy, by the Rev. J. Pickford, in Bishop Percy's Folio MS. ed. Hales and Furnivall, 1867–8; Percy, Prelate and Poet, by Alice C. C. Gaussen, 1908; Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, ed. Wheatley, 1876–7; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. vols. vi. vii.; Letters from Thos. Percy, D.D., &c., to George Paton, Edinburgh, 1830; Notes and Queries, passim; Boswell's Johnson.]
PERCY, WILLIAM de, first Baron Percy (1030?–1096), surnamed Algernon or ‘als gernons’ (with the moustaches), belonged
