Biography of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland 1715-1786

Paternal Family Tree: Smithson

On 19 Dec 1715 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland was born to Langdale Smithson (age 35).

On 22 Mar 1729 [his grandfather] Hugh Smithson 3rd Baronet (age 72) died. His grandson Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 13) succeeded 4th Baronet Smithson of Stanwick in Yorkshire.

Monument to Hugh Smithson 3rd Baronet (age 72) in Church of St John the Baptist Stanwick [Map].

Hugh Smithson 3rd Baronet: In 1657 he was born to Jerome Smithson 2nd Baronet. In 1684 Jerome Smithson 2nd Baronet died. His son Hugh Smithson 3rd Baronet succeeded 3rd Baronet Smithson of Stanwick in Yorkshire.

On 06 Jul 1740 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 24) and Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 23) were married. She the daughter of Algernon Seymour 7th Duke Somerset (age 55) and Frances Thynne Duchess Somerset (age 41).

On 14 Aug 1742 [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland was born to Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 26) and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 25).

On 11 Sep 1744 [his brother-in-law] George Seymour (age 19) died.

On 21 Jan 1750 [his son] Algernon Percy 1st Earl Beverley was born to Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 34) and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 33).

On 07 Feb 1750 [his father-in-law] Algernon Seymour 7th Duke Somerset (age 65) died. He was buried at Northumberland Vault, Crypt, Westminster Abbey. His half fifth cousin once removed Edward Seymour 8th Duke Somerset (age 55) succeeded 8th Duke Somerset. Earl Hertford extinct. Mary Webb Duchess Somerset (age 53) by marriage Duchess Somerset. His daughter [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 33) succeeded 2nd Baroness Percy. His nephew Charles Wyndham 2nd Earl Egremont (age 39) succeeded 2nd Earl Egremont.

1756 Creation of Garter Knights

In 1756 King George II of Great Britain and Ireland (age 72) created new Garter Knights as follows:

572nd William Cavendish 4th Duke Devonshire (age 35),

573rd Henry Howard 4th Earl Carlisle (age 61),

574th Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 40),

575th Francis Seymour-Conway 1st Marquess Hertford (age 37).

In 1761 [his father] Langdale Smithson (age 81) died.

In 1762 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 46) was appointed Privy Council.

On 02 Jul 1764 [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland (age 21) and [his daughter-in-law] Anne Stuart (age 19) were married. She the daughter of John Stuart 3rd Earl Bute (age 51) and Mary Wortley-Montagu Countess Bute (age 46). He the son of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 48) and Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 47).

In 1766 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 50) was created 1st Duke Northumberland. [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 49) by marriage Duchess Northumberland.

On 08 Jun 1775 [his son] Algernon Percy 1st Earl Beverley (age 25) and [his daughter-in-law] Isabella Susan Burrell Countess Beverley (age 24) were married at Syon House [Map]. He the son of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 59) and Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 58).

Before 05 Dec 1776 [his daughter] Elizabeth Anne Frances Percy was born to Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 60) and [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 60).

On 05 Dec 1776 [his wife] Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland (age 60) died. Her son [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland (age 34) succeeded 3rd Baron Percy

Before 23 May 1779 [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland (age 36) and [his daughter-in-law] Anne Stuart (age 34) were divorced.

On 23 May 1779 [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland (age 36) and [his daughter-in-law] Frances Julia Burrell Duchess Northumberland (age 26) were married. He the son of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 63) and Elizabeth Seymour Duchess Northumberland.

On 28 Jun 1784 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 68) was created 1st Baron Lovain.

On 06 Jun 1786 Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland (age 70) died. His son [his son] Hugh Percy 2nd Duke Northumberland (age 43) succeeded 2nd Duke Northumberland, 2nd Baron Lovain, 5th Baronet Smithson of Stanwick in Yorkshire. [his daughter-in-law] Frances Julia Burrell Duchess Northumberland (age 33) by marriage Duchess Northumberland.

Before 02 Aug 1788 Thomas Gainsborough (age 61). Portrait of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland.

Diary of a Dean by Merewether. 1849. The tumulus [Map] was originally formed upon the gradual slope of a hill, rising from north to south at an angle of about four degrees from its point of section with the horizontal base-line of the natural hill. The circumference of the tumulus, after the removal for its formation of the before-mentioned natural hill on the east, north, and west sides to a very considerable extent, is 1550 feet; and it is remarkable, although I have not seen it noticed by former writers, that the verge of the base is set round with sarsen1 stones, 3 or 4 feet in diameter, and at intervals of about 18 feet; of these, however, only eight are now visible, although others may be covered with the detritus of the sloping sides of the tumulus, and overgrown with turf. The tumulus rises at an angle of 32 degrees, is in its vertical measurement 125 feet high, and has on its summit a level area of about 100 feet in diameter, in which are still observable the remains of the shaft worked in 1777 by the Duke of Northumberland and Colonel Drax, and the mounds of earth which the excavators had not taken the trouble to throw in. It is much to be regretted that no detailed account of these operations is upon record, and it is hardly credible that they could have been completed without some account of their progress and the discoveries effected, and perhaps even yet such documents may come to light2 On the south the original constructors of this stupendous mound left two narrow isthmuses of earth, connecting it with the original hill, about 20 feet below its summit, on the north side of the London and Bath road, and about 19 feet above the (geometrical) base of the tumulus. From the western isthmus the tunnel was commenced. The first 75 feet were cut through the natural and compact bed of chalk—the structure of the original hill; but at that distance the upper line of the tunnel cut into the surface of the original hill, which was clearly marked by the vegetable mould, and upon that by a layer of bluish clay about 2 inches thick, very soft and tenacious, which represented evidently the decayed and compressed turf and grass on the former surface of the hill; above this was the brownish earthy, chalky rubble, the artificial components of the mound differing from that nearer to the centre, as that was piled up from a moist, this from a higher and drier situation. The workmen were continually progressing day and night, as each of the three gangs worked eight hours, three men only at a time having room to excavate, fill and wheel the barrows. From the points of junction of the tunnel in the natural chalk with the line of the surface of the original hill, they followed that line as their guide, keeping it about 2 feet below the ceiling of the tunnel; inasmuch as there could be little doubt that whatever deposit might be found would be either on the surface of the original ground near the centre, or in a cist formed immediately below that line.

Note 1. 'Sarsen' is the name given by the inhabitants of this district to the fine compact white sandstones of which Avebury Temple, Stonehenge, the Cromlech [Map] at Clatford, and the Grey Wethers, are composed; and of which there are tens of thousands still scattered over these hills and their valleys; some having evidently formed cistvaens, with the gallery of approach to the chamber, some cromlechs, some avenues of approach to consecrated spots, some circles round the sepulchral deposits, some lines of demarcation, few of which are known as they deserve to be, and all, alas, are annually reduced in their number by the appropriation of them to the purposes of building. The stone for the new railway-bridge at Windsor is taken from Clatford Bottom [Map]. The cromlech [Map] there I recollect when it stood in the midst of the Valley of Stones; now it is surrounded by a field of turnips.

Note 2. The following are statements made by two old men as to the former examination of Silbury Hill:

Richard Maskelyn, of Beckhampton, aged eighty, has often heard his father tell of the miners out of Cornwall that cut in to Silbury Hill; they went, as he heard, down to the bottom, and they found "a man."

John Blake, of Avebury, aged ninety-five years, states that he recollects when the miners from Cornwall dug into Silbury Hill; it was when he was keeping company with his first wife, and was about twenty years of age. He went with her to see the place, and they cut her gown. They went down to the bottom, and found a man — i. e. a skeleton, in the phraseology of the Wiltshire Downs, where the flint-diggers are constantly in the habit of finding skeletons, both in the barrows and frequently on the verge or slope of them, as well as in the plain down, unmarked by any irregularity of surface. These two old men, therefore, may have been led to infer what was expected, and to declare that "a man" was found; though such assertion indicates rather what they would deem likely than the positive fact.

I subjoin the only record of this operation known, extracted from Douglas's Nenia Britannica, 1793, p. 161:

"The great hill of Silbury, generally considered as a barrow, was opened by the direction of the late Duke of Northumberland and Colonel Drax, under the supposition of its being a place of sepulture. Miners from Cornwall were employed, and great labour bestowed upon it. The only relic found at the bottom, and which Colonel Drax shewed me, was a thin slip of oak-wood: by burning the end of it in a wax-taper we proved it not to be whalebone, which had been so reported. The smell of vegetable substance soon convinced the Colonel of his mistake. He had a fancy that this hill was raised over a Druid oak, and he thought the remains of it were discovered in the excavation; there was, however, no reason for considering it to have been a place of sepulture by the digging into it. The bit of a bridle discovered by Stukeley, and his assertion of a monarch being buried there, has only the pleasure of conception to recommend it. It is not likely the monarch would have been buried near its surface, when such an immense mound of earth had been raised for the purpose; and the time in raising it would not agree with the nature of a funeral obsequy, which must require a greater degree of expedition."

Ancestors of Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland 1715-1786

Great x 3 Grandfather: Antony Smithson

Great x 2 Grandfather: Hugh Smithson 1st Baronet

Great x 1 Grandfather: Jerome Smithson 2nd Baronet

GrandFather: Hugh Smithson 3rd Baronet

Father: Langdale Smithson

Hugh Percy 1st Duke Northumberland