Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, (6 June 1786) was a British politician and courtier.

Origins

Hugh Smithson was born , the son of Langdale Smithson (b. 1682) of Langdale, and Philadelphia Reveley. He was a grandson of Sir Hugh Smithson, 3rd Baronet, from whom he inherited the Smithson Baronetcy in 1733.

Marriage, projects and patronages He changed his surname to Percy in 1749, nine years after his marriage with Lady Elizabeth Seymour (1716–1776), daughter of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset, on 16 July 1740, through a private act of Parliament, the (23 Geo. 2. c. 14 ).

His wife was Baroness Percy in her own right, and indirect heiress of the Percy family, which was one of the leading landowning families of England and had previously held the Earldom of Northumberland for several centuries. The title Earl of Northumberland passed by special remainder to Hugh Percy, as Elizabeth's husband, when her father died on 7 February 1750; he had been created 1st Earl of Northumberland in 1749. In 1766, the earl was created 1st Duke of Northumberland and was created Baron Lovaine on 28 June 1784, with a special remainder in favour of his younger son, Algernon (in reference to the Louvain family of the Landgraviate of Brabant, which married the Percy heiress, was the origin of the Percy family of England). He was created a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1756 and a Privy Counsellor in 1762.

He took a somewhat prominent part in politics as a follower of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and was one of George III's confidential advisers. He held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1763 to 1765, and that of Master of the Horse from 1778 to 1780. Thomas Chippendale dedicated his Gentleman & Cabinet maker's director (1754) to him. Northumberland Row, site of the ancient Smithson house in Tottenham High Cross. The Duke and Duchess were prominent patrons of Robert Adam for neoclassical interiors in the Jacobean mansion Northumberland House, the London seat of the Earls of Northumberland; it was demolished 1870–1871 to enable the creation of Trafalgar Square. Remnants of the Northumberland House Glass Drawing-Room are preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The greater Adam interiors for the Duke are at Syon House, executed in the 1760s. At Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, the Duke employed James Wyatt, whose work has been effaced by later remodellings. One or other Adam designed Brizlee Tower for the duke.

Landholdings / seats Alnwick Castle, Northumberland Syon House, Middlesex Northumberland House, Strand, London Stanwick Park, Stanwick St John, North Yorkshire, the seat of the Smithson baronets. Kielder Castle, in the Kielder Forest, Northumberland, a shooting box built in 1775 by the 1st Duke to his own design by William Newton.

Death and burial Percy died in 1786 and was buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.

Family The Duke and Duchess had three children: