Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland

For other people of the same name, see Elizabeth Percy (disambiguation).

File:Elizabeth Percy Reynolds.jpg

Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland (née Seymour; 26 November 1716 – 5 December 1776), also suo jure 2nd Baroness Percy, was a British peer.

Life

Percy was the only daughter of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset and his wife, Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1699-1754), daughter of Henry Thynne.

On 16 July 1740, she married Sir Hugh Smithson, Bt and they had two sons, Hugh (1742–1817) and Algernon (1750–1830). On her father's death in 1750, she inherited his barony of Percy and her husband acquired from her father his earldom of Northumberland by special remainder and changed his family name from Smithson to Percy that year. Sir Hugh's illegitimate son James Smithson, otherwise Jacques Louis Macie, born in about 1764 to one of Elizabeth's cousins, bequeathed the fortune which established the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1761, Percy became a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, a post she held until 1770. She became a duchess in 1766 when her husband was created Duke of Northumberland, and on her death in 1776 her barony and the earldom of Northumberland passed to her eldest son, Hugh, who inherited his father's dukedom ten years later. He built Brizlee Tower as one of a number of monuments to commemorate her.

Elizabeth Percy is buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.

Ancestry

Family of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland

16. Francis Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Trowbridge               8. Charles Seymour, 2nd Baron Seymour of Trowbridge                       17. Frances Prinne               4. Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset                             18. William Alington, 1st Baron Alington               9. Elizabeth Alington                       19. Elizabeth Tollemache, daughter of Sir Lionel Tollemache, 2nd Baronet               2. 7th Duke of Somerset                                   20. Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland               10. Joceline Percy, 11th Earl of Northumberland                       21. Elizabeth Howard               5. Elizabeth Percy                             22. Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton               11. Elizabeth Wriothesley                       23. Elizabeth Leigh               1. Elizabeth Seymore                                         24. Sir Henry Frederick Thynne               12. Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth                       25. Mary Coventry               6. Hon. Henry Thynne (1675–1708)                             26. Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea               13. Lady Frances Finch                       27. Mary Seymour               3. Frances Thynne                                   28. Sir John Strode, possibly the MP for Dorset               14. Sir George Strode, brother of John Strode (died 1679)                       29. Anne Wyndham, dau of Sir John Wyndham and Joan Portman.               7. Grace Strode (d 3 Sept 1725)                             30. Sir John Fitzjames (MP), of Leweston, Dorset, MP for Dorset, then Poole.               15. Grace FitzJames, one of five daughters and co-heirs                       31. Margaret Stephens, the daughter of Nathaniel Stephens of Eastington, Gloucestershire

References

Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Algernon Seymour	Baroness Percy 1750–1776	Succeeded by Hugh Percy