Hugh Percy

The first son of the 2nd Duke of Northumberland suceeding to the dukedom in 1817, mere months after his marriage. He obtained an MA and LLD from Cambridge in 1805 and 1809, he was in 1834 appointed high steward and in 1840 chancellor. As a politician in the House of Lords he spoke infrequently, considered a more moderate tory than his father had been, his career began when he was elected M.P. for Buckingham in 1806 then for Westminster in the same year and was summoned to the Lords in 1812. He attempted in 1807 to turn the Slave Trade Abolition Bill into a Slavery Abolition Bill it is debated whether this was from an anti-slavery perspective or an attempt to rile up his political opponents. He opposed Catholic emancipation and was in most of his political influences illiberal, he was in favour of using force for strikebreaking with miners in his constituency, supported a bill to prohibit all drilling/mining without a license issued by a lord lieutenant. In 1829 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, governor of King’s College London and in 1834 a trustee of the British Museum. He and his wife were close but had no children, Charles Greville suggested that Percy relied on his wife’s advice frequently.