William Baron de Percy

Percy blazon 1000's

• Death Notes
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    Died in sight of Jerusalem.
    

• General Notes
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    William Baron Algernon de Percy ("algers-nons" means "with whiskers' - having a beard).   In 1067 accompanied William The Conqueror on the Norman invasion of England.  He secured the lands of Yorkshire for William The Conqueror against the Picts /Scots.  He was subsequently granted extensive land in Yotkshire, Lincolnshire and Sussex and was created First Baron de Percy.
    
    William de Perci was wild and adventurous and wore a beard(which was apparently unusual at this time). For this he was known as Al-gers-nons (meaning with whiskers) and the name of Algernon has followed the Percy race to this very day.
    There does not seem to be any proof that William de Percy was with William the Conquerer at the battle of Hastings in 1066. In fact it seems that William (Algernon) de Percy arrived in England in 1067 to assist the Conquerer mop up remaining resistance in Yorkshire and shore up the defences against the threat from Scotland and from the possibility of Viking invasion. For his trouble William de Percy was given knights fees and land, initially under Earl Hugh of Chester. By 1086 William's family including brothers Serlo and Picot is charted as owning various estates in Yorkshire and the surrounding counties.
    
    
    In 1070 he was engaged on works connected with the rebuilding of York Castle after its destruction by the Danes and in 1072 he took part in the Conquerors expedition to Scotland. At the Domesday survey he was tenant in chief in the three ridings of Yorkshire, in Lindsey, with a small holding in Nottingham and of Humbledon Hants which he had received with his wife (Emma de Port). He was also an under tenant of the Earl of Chester in Whitby and in Catton and in the city of York and of the Bishop of Durham in Scarborough and Lund.
    He built the castle at Topcliffe and before 1086 he refounded the monastery at Whitby. He was among the Barons present when William The Conqueror heard a plea relating to property of the Abbey of Fecamp and he witnessed charters of William II in the period before 1095. In 1096 he set out on the first crusade and died and was buried at Mount Joy near Jerusalem. (This was also the ancient burial site of Samuel of the Old Testament and the hill today is called Nebi Samwel) just 10 km's NW of Jerusalem. Following Williams dying wishes Sir Ralph Eversly a Knight carried his heart back to England and it was buried at Whitby Abbey. William had sons Alan, Walter, William, Richard and Arnolde.
    William became the 2nd Abbot of Whitby in 1102.
    From Richard sprang the Percies of Dunsley.
    Arnolde de Percy witnessed his father William de Percy's charter to Whitby and from him came the Percies of Kildale and Kilnwick Percy.
    William de Percy had 2 brothers. Serlo de Percy became prior of Whitby Abbey and Picot de Percy was a tenant of William at Bolton upon Dearne and Sutton upon Derwent. Picot de Percy donated the church at Bolton Percy to Nostell priory. His son Robert de Percy gave the church at Sutton upon Derwent to Whitby Abbey witnessed by his son William. There was further issue from this branch of the family for in 1266 Piers de Percy held Wharram Percy in Chief and had other lands in Sutton upon Derwent, Carnaby and Bolton Percy which all came under the Percy fee. Piers de Percy was of the direct male Percy lineage, which apparently became extinct in 1168.
    
    This excerpt is from - The Conqueror and His Companions by J.R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874.
    
    The name of Percy, strange to say, does not occur in the Roll of Battle Abbey; for I cannot agree with my old friend Sir Bernard Burke in his discovery of it in Percelay, a form in which I have never found it in any authority. Strange, because in view of the numerous interpolations it contains, one can scarcely imagine the omission of a name so distinguished in Anglo-Norman history. But for those manifest additions the fact of the absence of the name of Percy would go far to establish the genuineness of the Rolls, as no member of that family appears to have fought at Senlac, and William de Percy must be placed in the list of those noble Normans who "came over with the Conqueror" on his return to England in 1067, amongst whom I have already mentioned Roger de Montgoineri and Hugh d'Avranches.
    William de Percy was the sworn brother-in-arms of the latter, and accompanied him to England, and who on being made Earl of Chester transferred to him the lordship of Whitby, with the extensive domains attached to it in the East Riding of Yorkshire. By what service he obtained the vast possessions held by him at the time of the general survey we have no information, an old manuscript, quoted by Dugdale, simply saying that, "being much beloved by the King," he enjoyed them through his bounty, and it is not till we arrive at the reign of Stephen that we hear of any remarkable actions attributed to his descendants, when his great-great-grandson, William de Percy, distinguished himself by his valour in the famous battle of the Standard. The name of this ancient and noble family was derived from their great fief of Perci, near Villedieu, in Normandy, and according to tradition they were the descendants of one Mainfred, a Dane, who had preceded Rollo into Neustria. Geoffrey, the son of Mainfred, followed him in the service of Rollo, and was succeeded in rotation by William, Geoffrey, William, and Geoffrey, all born in Normandy, the latter Geoffrey being the father of William de Percy, the subject of this notice, and of Serlo, his brother, the first abbot of Whitby, a monastery founded by William on the site of one called Skinshale, which had been destroyed by Inguar and Hubba.
    Upon this abbey William bestowed the towns of Seaxby and Everley; but resumed and regranted them to Ralph de Everley, his esquire, who had been in his service many years. Abbot Serlo, his brother, feeling injured by this proceeding, made his complaint to William Rufus, with whom he had been on terms of intimacy during the reign of his father, and the King ordered restitution to be made. Serlo, however, was not satisfied with the restoration of the towns, and having no confidence in his brother, determined to quit Whitby and establish himself where he should hold under the King only, and be out of his brother's power. He therefore begged of Rufus six carucates of land in Hakenas and Northfield, and translated thither part of the community of Whitby.
    William de Percy married a lady named Emma de Port, "in discharging of his conscience," says our ancient writer, she being "very heire" to the estates given to him by William the Conqueror, and in 1096, having joined the first Crusade in company with Robert Court-heuse, died at Montjoye, near Jerusalem, the celebrated eminence so named by the Christian Pilgrims, because from there they first caught sight of the sacred city. His body was brought back to England, and buried in the chapter house at Whitby.
    This Anglo-Norman race of the Percys apparently became extinct in the male line at the close of the 12th century by the deaths, without issue, of the four sons of his grandson William, when this great inheritance was divided between their two sisters and co-heirs, Maud, wife of William de Mauduit, Earl of Warwick, who died without issue, and Agnes, on whom the whole possessions of the Percys in England devolved, and passed with her hand to Joceleyn de Louvaine, brother of Adeliza, Queen of Henry I, who assumed the name of Percy, retaining the arms of his own family.
    From the issue of this marriage descended those great Earls of Northumberland and Worcester, whose deeds and fortunes are interwoven with the most important portions of our history from the reign of Henry III to that of Charles II.
    
    The title of Earl of Northumberland was created several times in the Peerages of England and Great Britain. Its most famous holders were the House of Percy (also Perci), who were the most powerful noble family in Northern England for much of the Middle Ages. The heirs of the Percys were ultimately made Duke of Northumberland in 1766.