Pilgrimage for the Truth

Pilgrimage For The Truth
source -Percy family

My Grandfather Joseph William Percy, eldest son of the Petone Percy family, took me aside at the age of fourteen and told me about the history of the Percys in New Zealand and England and he explained that as the 6th New Zealand consecutive eldest son, it was my responsibility to ensure the continuation of the line. I thought at the time my grandfather was suffering from delusions of Grandeur.

Although there were many times over the subsequent years when title claims were jokingly mentioned, I only began to accept that there may be something very important about my grandfather’s instructions and our family’s old provenances when my then 24 year old son Cameron returned home from an antique buying trip to Palmerston North with questions on the subject. It transpired that he had been “door knocking” after placing wanted to buy circulars in the City’s letterboxes. This particular door was opened on his knock and the man asked, “what relation are you to ‘Bill’ Percy of Masterton?”
Cameron replied “He is my grandfather."

“Do you know he is the rightful Earl of Northumberland?”

It transpired that the man in Palmerston North was John Percy, a distant cousin we had never met, and that his family had been instrumental in saving many important records and letters from the Petone Percy Reserve. This chance discovery by Cameron and John Percy’s foresight was the “trigger” needed to start this “pilgrimage”.

When judging the credibility of the New Zealand Percys, it is desirable to have some understanding of the history of the English Percys and where they came from. It also helps to read the following information in conjunction with the genealogical charts, Tables I, II & III, from Brenan’s c. 1900 book, The House of Percy. These tables are far from perfect especially Table III “The Beverley Line” which was drawn up in a time of intrigue and vested interests, but they give a better perspective and overview of the “hurdles” that faced us and for the most part we have overcome.

Delusions of Grandeur? Read on and draw your own conclusions.

PROVEN FACT:

The Percy family arrived in New Zealand from Sherborne, Dorset in 1842. They were skilled artisans who built houses, churches and bridges as well as being millers of note in New Zealand and Sherborne England.

PROVEN FACT:

They arrived claiming that the family carried the old Louvain-Percy male bloodline and held the true male heir to the 11th Earl of Northumberland Josceline Percy who died in 1670 without male issue.

PROVEN FACT:

They also claimed that they were descended from Thomas Percy the Gunpowder Plotter and his older brother Alan Percy’s (of Beverley), family line, the Beverley line. In 1842 this would have been an inexpedient claim to make if not true. Beatrice Lucy Percy b.1881 also told her grandchildren (still living) of this.

In 1842 the family were unaware that the title claim and the link with the Gunpowder Plotter’s family line added strength to their claim. We have now proven beyond doubt that the circa 1900 Beverley line genealogical “Table III” chart from Brenan’s book “The House of Percy” is riddled with errors.

Not only has our research through the Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene registers shown Thomas Percy the Plotter and his brother Alan’s connection but we have also successfully joined the two previously separated sections of the Beverley Line Table III thereby linking the Plotter and Alan to their family title claims. The faulted “Table III” shows the Plotter’s only son without children and the caption “A son Robert is also mentioned”. The Plotters family has been excommunicated from the Beverley line charts! More on the true story later.

PROVEN FACT:

During 1884 our New Zealand family at the Petone Percy Reserve received correspondence from lawyers representing the late 2nd Earl Digby, Baron of Sherborne who then resided at Sherborne Castle. Like Percy, the Digby name is synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot. It was about a parcel of land in Dorset and they wished to know if our New Zealand ancestor Joseph Percy was still alive. A hand written copy of his reply confirmed he was still living in Petone.

In 1998 I went to England to broaden my research and to hire a genealogist recommended to me by the Percy-Piercy Family History Soc., and to look more closely into the Gunpowder Plot connection between our family and the Digby’s. During my research at Sherborne Castle the archivist unearthed a number of our family wills and I found they had not only been in business with the Digbys, but that more than thirty properties were listed in the 1834 “Sherborne Terrier” as being owned by them. The “Sherborne Terrier” is a land rent roll compiled for Earl Digby and his family by Edward Percy, our Joseph’s nephew. After having established the Sherborne Digby/Percy connection my historian brother Graeme writes “The Digby and Percy families had also been associated with each other many centuries before when the granddaughter of Thomas Percy 7th Earl of Northumberland (Venetia Stanley) had married Sir Kenelan Digby,. Kenelan was the son of Sir Everard Digby (1578-1606) executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. Venetia’s mother, Lady Lucy Percy was therefore 1st cousin to Henry Percy 9th Earl of Northumberland, who was incarcerated in the Tower for his “supposed” involvement in the Plot. Thomas Percy, the Plotter was also related to Venetia Stanley/Digby”. What a strange web we weave!

After hiring my Somerset genealogist who also had some knowledge of Latin which proved to be invaluable, she started to search in Sherborne armed with our pioneering grandfather Joseph’s 1797 birth date, some letters including Earl Digby’s and an early Victorian (c1830) pictorial trade card reading “J. Percy, Builder, Millwright and Engineer. Sherborne Dorsetshire.” After a few false leads she discovered that our family had earlier moved from Taunton to Sherborne in circa 1750. So our focus was now in Taunton, Somerset. Knowing that our line’s religion was Catholic she sought and was given access to the Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene registers. This proved a gem of a source which included a “base born” (illegitimate) ancestor in our direct line. For me what was marvelous about this was that the father claimed him and gave his first and likely only child his own name, that of Edward, a name that features prominently in the first half of the “Beverley Line”. The father of Thomas Percy the Plotter and his brother Alan of Beverley also carried this name.

Our genealogist writes :

“Dear Kevin,

“ - fascinating stuff, but possibly not what you want to hear!” etc. etc. “Now for the baptism of Edward, round about 1690 I thought. 1692 EDWARD the base child of Edward Pursey. Edward being illegitimate is a bit of a problem. It is very strange that he is baptized under his father’s name. Usually the mother’s name goes into the register. Perhaps Edward’s mother died in childbirth, or perhaps his father was anxious to claim him. All this is all very exciting. I wish I had a tree like this.
“Yours sincerely,” etc.

“Dear Kevin,
“Just a quick note to tell you I picked the right archivist and she let me have the original of the first Taunton register and I found Edward (the father)! I enclose a photocopy. It was much easier to read in the original although very faded from the damp. You will see he is the son of John Purse. I ignored the surname at first but as I continued I found it was indeed a version of Percy.
“What excitement!”

During the research we found that our family surnames varied in spelling—Percey, Pursey, Purse, Persey, Percy. The Percy-Piercey Family History Society confirmed that this is normal, and that the record takers were often not well educated and recorded phonetically.

Then disaster struck! Our genealogist reported back on the state of the Taunton Parish registers from which we thought we could make the final connection to the “Beverley Line”.

She wrote:

“From about 1640 to about 1660 the registers are very badly kept, because of the Civil War and the interregnum (when the Puritans were wrecking churches and destroying records because of Popish practices, etc.). This type of entry abounds: ‘All though the 1640’s, have many been left out’.” She continues, “So it seems we can never be sure if John Purse was born in Taunton or who his parents were, but I would be surprised if all the Percys were left out and think it more likely they decided to leave the town where so much heavy fighting was going on, and live in one of the surrounding villages.”

After checking back through our accumulated information, we discovered that Robert the Plotter’s son and his two youngest sons Thomas and James had signed the Protestation Returns (all men, of any substance had to “protest” or swear loyalty to the King) in Taunton, and our “proven” John Purse/y a short distance away in Bradford. After going back 360 years, there we were in the 1640’s stalled with little hope (other than luck) of progress.

PROVEN FACT:

All the above is documented in the Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene registers.

I contacted my brother Graeme and we had a “round table” on where we go from here. - Graeme is our historian and has already written one book (Normandy to New Zealand) and is currently over 2000 pages into another (unnamed as yet) on the Percys worldwide. The Duke of Northumberland sent us a signed photo for his first book and high praise for “This excellent and well researched history of the New Zealand branch). We emerged from our “round table” deciding to continue our search, but this time our challenge was to search the faulted Table III genealogical chart downwards from Thomas Percy “The Plotter” who is in our early New Zealand history, and see if we could make the connection back to our proven Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene line. If we could do this then the other part of our history, the title claim, would have credence as this would take us into the arena of two unproven claims for the “Earldom and Estates of Northumberland” - James Percy (“The Trunkmaker”) and Francis Percy, Alderman and Mayor of Cambridge b.1649 d.1716. Francis looked promising as this was one of our proven line’s first names.

Unfortunately for us, “The Plotter’s” line in the first section of the “Beverley” genealogy line chart III, is shown as having been terminated with the following references to his two children—”A daughter m Robt Catesby of Ashby Legers, Co. Northants (son of the conspirator in the Gunpowder Plot)” and “A son Robert is also mentioned”. The second unconnected section of the “Beverley Line” is headed somewhat vaguely with the caption “(The Four Percies said to have been brought from the North, circa 1559)”. One of “The Four Percies” was named Robert who married Emma Meade of Taunton, but the age didn’t fit for him to be The Plotter’s son. The venue of the marriage did however as Taunton is the town of our last proven ancestor John Purse/y. To progress we would have to somehow join the two sections of the Beverley Line that had been separated for over two centuries, and then prove it beyond doubt. It took us several months to confirm what we had already suspected, that the Beverley Line genealogy chart was severely flawed, perhaps deliberately so, to frustrate future claims to the Earldom, by Thomas Percy The Gunpowder Plotter or his brother Alan’s descendants. One day while researching an old “Dictionary of National Biography” (a reliable source) my brother Graeme discovered an entry that proved it was the Plotter’s son Robert who had married Emma Meade of Taunton and not the Robert Percy under the heading “The Four Percies from the North”. The other was either an unconnected Robert Percy or an “impostor”. The two separate sections of the “Beverley Line” were now effectively joined and as confirmation we found ourselves not only in the arena of the title claims but right slap bang back in the middle of the Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene registers—our Parish! Placing the correct Robert (The Plotter’s Son) in the place of the impostor the Table III chart shows him as having only two children, Francis and Richard. Going back into our genealogist’s reports we found the eldest son Francis had been christened in our Taunton St. Mary Magdalene Parish in 1616 as were three other, unrecorded (in Table III) siblings, two younger brothers (Thomas and James) and a sister Ann.

The younger brother, Richard, though shown on the chart, was not christened at the Parish and was another “introduction” to the Table III chart. I later found he was in fact a distant cousin. The absence of the now proven two brothers and sister from Table III may not have been accidental. Without Thomas b.1622, and James b.1626, inclusion in the Beverley Line, the line is shown as having died out two generations later. Francis, the eldest son of the Taunton St Mary Magdalene line claimed to be the rightful heir and his son Francis Percy, later to become Alderman and Mayor of Cambridge, claimed to have been de jure Earl of Northumberland also. When his male line died out the line of descent would then revert back to his father’s (Francis) unrecorded younger brothers in Taunton, Thomas 1st and James 2nd. It is Thomas that we believe to be the father of our proven ancestor John Purse/y born c.1645—50, married 1664 Taunton Parish of St Mary Magdalene but there is also a very real possibility that our proven John Purse/y could also be John Percy, younger brother of Alan Percy of Beverley “said to be de jure 12th Earl of Northumberland”. Our two family provenances apply equally to both “Johns”.

Till we meet again -Regards - edmondsallan