George Percy (governor)

The Honourable George Percy
Painting of George Percy (Syon House)
In office 1609–1610
Preceded by	John Smith
Succeeded by	Thomas Gates
In office 1611–1612
Preceded by	Thomas West
Succeeded by	Thomas Dale
Personal details
Born	b. 1580 Kingdom of England
Died	1632(1632-00-00) (aged 51–52) Dutch Republic
Spouse	Anne Floyd
Children	Anne Percy
Known for	"Discourse of the Plantation of the Southerne Colonie in Virginia" (c. 1608) "True Relation of the Proceedings in Virginia" (c. 1624)
Signature

The Honourable George Percy (b. 1580 – d. 1632) was an English explorer, author, and early Colonial Governor of Virginia.

Early life

Master George Percy (sometimes written as "Percie" or "Percye") was born in England, the youngest son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland and Lady Catherine Neville. He was sickly for much of his life, possibly suffering from epilepsy or severe asthma. He graduated from Oxford University in 1597. While at university, he gained admission to Gloucester Hall and the Middle Temple.

Percy's vocation was the military. His first service came in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain in the early 1600s. He also served in Ireland.

Life in Virginia

Coat of Arms of George Percy

Percy was part of the first group of 105 English colonists to settle the Jamestown Colony. It is thought he was sent to the warmer climate of Virginia to benefit poor health. He departed England in December 1606 and kept a journal of his voyage. He arrived in Virginia in April 1607 and recorded the struggles of the colonists to cope with the American environment, disease, and the Powhatan Native Americans. "Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable distress," he wrote in his journal, "not having five able men to man our bulwarks upon any occasion."

Although Percy had a higher social rank than all of the other first colonists, he was initially denied a seat on the Virginia Council. Nevertheless, he took the lead in the early life of the colony, taking part in the expedition to the James River falls in May and June 1607. In autumn 1607, he sided with the President of the colony, Edward Maria Wingfield, who was subsequently deposed by John Ratcliffe, Gabriel Archer, and Captain John Smith. From late 1607 until autumn 1609, Percy had little power in Jamestown but served as Smith's subordinate.

When Smith left the colony in September 1609, Percy assumed the presidency of the colony. However, his persistent illness kept him from executing his office, leaving the duties of the presidency to Ratcliffe, Archer, and John Martin. It was during Percy's tenure that the colony suffered through the "Starving Time" in the winter of 1609–10. "Now all of us at James Town beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger, which no man truly describe but he which hath tasted the bitterness thereof," he recounted later. Percy accomplished little while President, other than to order to construction of Fort Algernon at Old Point Comfort. When Sir Thomas Gates arrived in May 1610, Percy happily surrendered control of the colony to him.

In June 1610, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr arrived in Jamestown and with a commission to serve as the colony's governor. De la Warr appointed Percy to the council and named him captain of the Jamestown fort. In August 1610, De la Warre sent Percy and seventy men to attack the Paspahegh and Chickahominy tribes. The force ravaged the tribal settlements, burning their buildings, decimating their crops, and indiscriminately killing men, women, and children. Percy also led the successful defense of the Jamestown fort against a Native American attack and earned the praise of De La Warr. When the Governor returned to England in March 1611, he appointed Percy to lead the colony in his absence. "But the winds not favoring them, they were enforced to shape their course directly for England—my lord having left and appointed me deputy governor in his absence, to execute martial law or any other power and authority as absolute as himself."

Percy's term as Governor lasted until shortly before 25 May 1611, when Sir Thomas Dale, his replacement, wrote to the Virginia Company from Jamestown, that he was received by Percy, who, after hearing his commission read, surrendered up his own, 'it being accordingly so to expire.'.

On 22 April 1612, he departed Virginia for England.

After Virginia

After his service as Virginia colony governor, Percy returned to England but remained interested in colonization schemes. In 1615, he proposed an expedition to Guiana but found no supporters. In 1620, he sold his four shares in the Virginia Company and returned to military service.

Percy returned to the Netherlands in 1621 when war between Spain and the Dutch Republic resumed. He was the commander of a company in the Low Countries in 1627...

Percy returned to England, where died before 19 March 1632, where and when he was buried at London St Giles without Cripplegate, Middlesex (London), England. He most likely died while living in London at Syon House, the London home of his brother the Duke of Northumberland. It was located in the Parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. Syon House remains in the family of the Dukes of Northumberland, the latest of which still resides there.

Marriage and Family

Only one author asserts, with no date, place or sources cited, that George Percy married a woman named Anne Floyd. It is also asserted by some, again without any proof, that the couple had one daughter, Anne Percy, who married Governor John West. This author also contradicts other authoritative sources. At least two other authoritative sources assert that George Percy died unmarried in 1632 In this work, following the list of sons of the Eighth Earl, George being at the very end, then a list of the three daughters of the Eight Earl, being sisters of George Percy: Lady Anne Percy, who died an infant, Lady Lucy Percy and Lady Eleanor Percy. The last two married and had issue. It could be that from this list of the sisters of George Percy, misinterpreted as being his family, the myth of a wife Ann and daughter Ann may have first arisen. This author cites one of his primary sources thus: "This account of the issue of the eighth Earl of Northumberland, so full and accurate, is chiefly given from MS Collections of the late Thomas Butler, Esq. agent to his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, and clerk of the peace for the county of Middlesex, who died 1777. The births, & c are chiefly from Petworth Register.". This seems to indicate primary sources from the family register. But those manuscripts are currently held privately in England.

Based on these multiple credible sources, he clearly also could not have had a daughter Ann.

Ancestry

Ancestors of George Percy (governor)

Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland Sir Thomas Percy Catherine Spencer Henry Percy, 2nd/8th Earl of Northumberland Guiscard or Wychard (or Guicciard or Richard) Harbottle of Beamish Eleanor Harbottle Jane (or Joan) Willoughby George Percy John Nevill, 3rd Baron Latymer John Nevill, 4th Baron Latymer Dorothy de Vere Lady Katherine or Catherine Nevill Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester Lucy Somerset Elizabeth Browne

Sources

• Jeffrey D. Groves, "George Percy," in American National Biography, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 17:318–19.
• John W. Shirley, "George Percy at Jamestown, 1607–1612," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 57 (1949): 227–43.
• Philip L. Barbour, "The Honorable George Percy, Premier Chronicler of the First Virginia Voyage," Early American Literature 6 (1971): 7–17.
• Brenan, Gerald (1902). A History of the House of Percy, from the Earliest Times Down to the Present. London: Freemantle. pp. 208–9.