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XXII. Instructions by Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland, to his son Algernon Percy, touching the management of his Estate, Officers, &c. written during his confinement in the Tower: Communicated by James Heywood Markland, Esq. F.R.S., F.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

James Heywood Markland Esq.
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Extract

These Instructions were transcribed by Mr. Malone from a MS. preserved in the library at Petworth, and by the late Earl of Egremont I was authorised to lay them before the Society of Antiquaries. They form the second of three treatises, all of which were written by Henry Earl of Northumberland, and addressed to his son. The first, written in 1595, consists of thirty-three pages, and is without a title; but we may gather from the introductory paragraph of the following paper, that its object was similar to the present one.

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Research Article
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Archaeologia , Volume 27 , 1838 , pp. 306 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1838

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References

page 306 note a Vol. iv. p. 374, ed. 1809. In these Instructions his son is directed “to attain the Tongues;” to make diligent researches into the Laws of different countries, the tenures of land, their commodities, the people, their manners, dress, exercises, and diseases. The writer observes, with truth, “Thease things are not difficult to enquire, and they will ask but the enquiring to learn them.” —Again, “What you observe of worthe take notes of; for when you list to take a reweu, the leaves of yowr bookes are easylyer turnd over, then the leaves of yowr memory.”

On the subject of religion the writer seems anxious that his son should continue a Protestant, and he advises him to shun intemperance and excesses on the score of health. Higher motives are not urged; but “Remember,” he says, with good feeling, “that you must dye an Englishe man, and love your owen home best, for I know not where yow can be markt with soe good a blessing as God and yowr Couutry hathe markt you withall.”

page 307 note b The late Earl of Egremont most kindly offered to my examination the collection of Percy MSS. at Petwerth, but that nobleman's death, long to be deplored for far weightier reasons, prevented my being able to avail myself of this permission.

page 307 note c Vide post, pp. 321, 322. According to Camden and other authorities the Earl was found dead in his bed, shot with three bullets near his left breast; his chamber-door was barred on the inside, and a verdict of self-murder was returned.

page 307 note d Somers's Tracts, i. 212.

page 307 note e Sir T. Perrot's was a stolen match, and was celebrated under extraordinary circumstances. Two men guarded the church door, with their swords and daggers under their cloaks. A strange minister performed the service “hastily without the surplice, in his cloak, with his riding boots and spurs.” The Lady “being a daughter of one of the ancient noblesse (though she herself was in the plot), this marriage gave great offence.” —Strype's Life of Aylmer (Oxf. ed. 1821), p. 217.

page 308 note e Mr. Hunter remarks: “I have sometimes thought that Shakespear sought to engage the public sympathy in behalf of this Lady, by representing the Lady Percy in Henry IV. in so amiable a light, at a time when the wife of the existing Percy was treated with neglect by her husband, and especially as she was the sister of Essex, the friend of Southampton, Shakespear's great friend and patron.”

Her burial at Petworth is thus entered: “1619. August. Dorothie, that thrice honourable and right vertuous Lady the Countes of Northumberland; her corps was interred in the Chappell on the 14 of this month.” According to Lysons this Lady's burial is also registered at Isleworth, and he naturally assumes that her interment occurred at that place. Environs of London, vol. iii. p. 112.

page 308 note f Cabala, 356. “The writer was probably the Hon. P. Ruthven, 5th son of William 4th Lord Ruthven and Dirleton. He was an eminent physician, and was confined many years in the Tower of London, whence he was released in 1619. His daughter married Vandyck.” —Retrosp. Review, vol. ii. 2nd Ser. p. 30.

page 309 note g Thomas Percy, the conspirator, was the grandson of Jocelyn Percy, 4th son of Henry 4th Earl of Northumberland [See Collect. Top. & Gen. vol. ii.] and was at this time constable of Alnwick Castle and auditor to Henry the 9th Earl. To this unfortunate connexion the misfortunes which befel the latter may be mainly attributed.

page 310 note h Birch's Historical View of the Negotiations between England, France, and Brussels, p. 244.

page 310 note i These charges will be found set out at length in Collins's Peerage (3rd edit.) iv. 132, but the concise abridgment of them by Dr. Lingard has been here quoted. Hist, of England, vol. ix. p. 90.

page 311 note k In a petition addressed to the King (14 April 1613), the Earl offers this place as a compensation for the oppressive fine imposed on him. “Sion, and please your Majesty, is the only land I can put away, the rest being entayled. I had it before your Majesty's happy entry 48 years by lease, without paying any rent, but such as was given back again, certain in other allowances. It hath cost me, since your Majesty bestowed it upon me, partly upon the house, partly upon the gardens, almost 9,000l, The lands, as it is now rented, and rated, is worth to be sold 8,000l. within a little more or lesse. If your Majesty had it in your hands, it would be better than 200l. a year more, by the copyholders estates, which now payeth but two years old rent fine; dealing with them, as you do with all your copyholders in England, is worth, at the least 3,000l. The house itself, if it were to be pulled down and sold, by view of workmen, comes to 8,000 and odde pounds. If any man, the best husband in building, should raise such another in the same place, 20,000l. would not do it; so as according to the work it may be reckoned at these rates 31,000l; and as it may be sold and pulled in pieces 19,000l. or thereabouts.”

page 311 note l Collins, iv. p. 135.

page 312 note m Hallam 's Constitutional History, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 47.

page 312 note n These letters form such a valuable illustration of the Earl's life, that they ought not to have been omitted in the last edition of Collins's Peerage. The same remark applies to the correspondence with Sir Francis Vere.

page 312 note o Tytler's Life of Raleigh, p. 329.

page 314 note p Birch's Historical View, p. 246.

page 311 note q Essay on Riches.

page 315 note r See a lively description of a scene which occurred at this mansion in 1620, between the Lord Viscount Lisle and the Lord Doncaster, sons-in-law of the Earl of Northumberland, and in which the Earl himself was a principal actor. —Sydney Papers, vol. i. p. 121.

page 315 note s In the register the Earl's burial is entered as having taken place on the 6th November, the day after his death. Considering the high rank of the party, and the preparations customary on such occasions, this is extraordinary. Perhaps his disease was of a malignant character.

page 316 note a Although Mr. Malone states that the date of 1609 is the heading of the original MS., there is reason to suspect that it must have been written later, if the former code of instructions was prepared fourteen years previously for the use of the same person, Collins states that Earl Algernon was baptized 13 Oct. 1602; and see quotation from Harl. MS. 5353, ante (p. 308). Possibly the former MS. was drawn up by the Earl either upon his having a son prior to the birth of Earl Algernon, or prospectively in the event of his having an heir. There is proof that Algernon was not thefirst-bornson. In the Sydney Papers (7th Nov. 1595) it is stated, “My Lady of Northumberland is now knowen to be with child:” and again (2nd June 1597), “My Lord of Northumberland is much grieved at the death of the Lord Percy, his son.” This explains an entry in the register of burials at Petworth, “1597, May 31, Henry Lord Percy.” The period of 14 years, dated from 1595, may thus be accounted for.

Several alterations in the orthography and phraseology of this MS. have been made by a later hand, perhaps that of Algernon tenth Earl of Northumberland, but I have constantly followed the original. —Malone.

page 318 note b This mode of pronouncing the word power was carried over to Ireland in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and remains to this day in the pronunciation of the family of that name in the South. —Malone.

page 319 note a The writer has only left the first three chapters; notwithstanding which, his work is nearly complete, for his division is inartificial, and the whole ought to have been comprised in three chapters. His three cautions (as he calls them) should have made part of the first chapter; and, in fact, in that chapter he has touched some of the topics which he proposed as the subject of the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters. —Malone.

page 320 note d The economy of every nobleman's house was formed on the model of the Royal Establishment. He had his Master of the Horse, his Cofferer, his Auditor, Clerk of the Kitchen, Yeoman of the Chamber, Steward of the Household, Comptroller, &c. &c.; and these were all called his Officers.—Malone.

page 320 note e Katharine, eldest daughter and coheir of John Neville, Lord Latimer, and Lady Lucy Somerset his wife. Another daughter married Sir Thomas Cecil (eldest son of Lord Treasurer Burghley), afterwards the first Earl of Exeter.

page 321 note f Packed—combined.

page 322 note f See ante, p, 307.

page 322 note g This passage gives a curious feature of ancient times. All the minor branches of every family looking up to the Chief, those for whom he could not make any other provision he employed either as officers or servants. This custom prevailed in Ireland in the middle of the last (18th) century.—Malone.

page 322 note h We shall find the Earl again deploring this want of confidence on the part of his father, and perhaps the same conduct is always attended with similar results. “A spendthrift son, it is said, ought not to be told the value of his expectations. The objection that he will anticipate and waste the property, is scarcely specious. To inculcate prudence, give a son a suitable education, and apprise him fully of the circumstances in which he is placed. Every one's experience will acknowledge that mystery is the bane of domestic happiness, and that unreserved disclosure is the best promoter of it.” Evidence of Mr. Bickersteth (now Lord Langdale) on the Establishment of a General Register, April 1832.

page 323 note i Defalldng—subtracting—diminishing.

page 323 note k Baffeling—disgracing.

page 324 note l Bonds which they had entered into, to raise money for their master.—Malone.

page 324 note m The writer, before his confinement in the Tower, usually passed his summer at Alnwick. He had now been four years confined, and his son Algernon, to whom this discourse is addressed, it appears resided at Petworth, probably for the sake of being near his father.—Malone.

page 328 note n If the tie between master and servant was generally thus slender, well might Orlando speak with delight of the fidelity which Adam had exhibited from the age of seventeen to fourscore:

“Thou art not for the fashion of these times,

When none will sweat but for promotion;

And, having that, do choke their service up

Even with the having: it is not so with thee.”

As you like it, II. 3.

page 328 note o Lord Burghley's advice to purchase obedience from attendants is far more consonant to good sense and good feeling. “Feed them well and pay them with the most; and then thou mayest boldly require service at their hands.”

page 329 note p Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy did not appear until 1621, but there is a striking resemblance between the sentiments on women in this chapter and those which are expressed by that celebrated writer in Memb. III. Subject III. of his work.

page 331 note q In the picture of Anne Clifford, at Skipton Castle, the following works were introduced—Eusebius, St. Augustine, Josephus, and the Arcadia. It was of this lady that the divine who preached her funeral sermon observed, that “she could discourse on all subjects from Predestination to Slea-Silk.” Whit. Craven, 315. “That charm of ages,” as Dr. Young calls it, the Arcadia, had reached three, if not four editions, when this MS. was written.

page 333 note s Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy, being impeached in 1592 for libelling the Queen and for other offences, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. He died soon afterwards in the Tower. His estate went by the Queen's favour (as he had formerly settled it) to his son, who married the Earl of Essex's sister.–—Camd. Annals. “I hear that what troubles him (Essex) greatly is certain lands of Sir John Perrot's, which is now again called in question for the Queen, who (sic) since his death by due course of law was adjudged to be the right of my Lady Northumberland and her daughters.”—Sydney Papers, 21 Feb. 1596. See Lodge's Illustrations, iii. 11, and ante, p. 307.

page 337 note s The Gentleman Usher constantly attended his mistress when she went abroad, and even went on messages to make inquiries concerning the health of her female friends. It should seem from what is here stated, that he was sometimes employed also by his mistress in secret services.—Malone.

page 338 note t We Lave here an instance of what is so commonly found in our dramatic writers of this period, where servant is the common term for a lover or suitor, who in return called the object of his addresses mistress. See Shirley's Hyde Park and Massinger's Unnatural Combat.

page 340 note u Our ancestors most discourteously threw the labour of carving upon females, and Roger North touches upon it as one of the “preeminences of their sex,” and as alone entitling them to the head of the table.—Lives of the Norths, iii. 305. “There were, it appears, at one time, professed carving masters, who taught young ladies the art scientifically, from one of whom Lady M. W. Montagu took lessons three times a week, that she might be perfect on her father's public days,” on which occasions very laborious duties devolved on her.—Letters and Works edited by Lord Wharncliffe, i. 2.

page 340 note u The belts in which rapiers were hung were called hangers. They were frequently embroidered. —Malone. See Every Man in his Humour, Act i. 4.

page 344 note t Have we not here an allusion to Car, whose “propernes of person” had about this period made so strong an impression upon the reigning monarch?

page 346 note z Pin-money. See Barrington on the Statutes, p. 205.

page 346 note a See the first head of Lord Burghley's valuable Instructions to his son Robert Cecil: “Choose not a base and uncomely creature, altho' for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others, and loathing in thee. Neither make choice of a dwarf and a fool.”

page 346 note b Macbeth's policy, we see, was applied to other purposes besides those of state and ambition:

“There's not a one of them, but in his house

I keep a servant fee'd.”—Malone.

page 346 note c This word occurs in Massinger, but it is there applied to the male sex.

page 349 note d Scholars in this and many other works of the same age, are spoken of as men of a particular profession, like divines, lawyers, &c. This is a striking proof that scholarship, instead of being general among all the higher ranks, as it is at present, was then confined to a comparatively small class.—Malone.

page 350 note e It is manifest that impostures is here used for impostors: so that the mistake of printing, “impostures to true fear,” in Macbeth, instead of “impostors,” &c. might easily have happened.

page 350 note f The author had at first written “empericks;” which shews that he used impostures for impostors.—Malone.

page 351 note g Ingeniously was very generally used for ingenuously in the age of this writer.—Malone, and Nares's Glossary.

page 352 note h Phenomena seems to be here meant.—Malone.

page 352 note i By foreign officers are meant, land-stewards, surveyors, receivers of rents, &c. Domestic officers have been already enumerated.—Malone.

page 354 note k Here we have another proof of that phraseology which Mr. Steevens has positively asserted was not in use in Shakspeare's time. See Romeo and Juliet, Act i. sc. 2, and Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 1. “In what enormity is Marcius poor in,” where the latter in has been arbitrarily thrown, out of the text.—Malone.