View source for Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore)

{{Short description|Irish Anglican bishop (1729–1811)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
[[File:Thomas_Percy.jpg|thumb|Thomas Percy]]
'''Thomas Percy''' (13 April 1729 – 30 September 1811) was [[Bishop of Dromore]], County Down, Ireland. Before being made bishop, he was chaplain to [[George III of the United Kingdom]]. Percy's greatest contribution is considered to be his ''[[Reliques of Ancient English Poetry]]'' (1765), the first of the great [[ballad]] collections, which was the one work most responsible for the ballad revival in English [[poetry]] that was a significant part of the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] movement.<ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "[[wikisource:1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Percy,_Thomas_(bishop)|Percy, Thomas (bishop)]]". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. '''21''' (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pg. 136.</ref>

== Life ==
He was born as Thomas Percy in [[Bridgnorth]], [[Shropshire]], the son of Arthur Lowe Percy a grocer and farmer at Shifnal who sent Thomas to [[Christ Church, Oxford]] in 1746 following an education firstly at [[Bridgnorth Grammar School]] followed by nearby [[Adams' Grammar School]] in [[Newport, Shropshire|Newport]]. He graduated in 1750 and proceeded M.A. in 1753. He was ordained deacon in 1751, and preached at several churches in the Bridgnorth area before becoming priest in 1753, when he was appointed to the vicarage of [[Easton Maudit]], [[Northamptonshire]], and three years later was instituted to the rectory of [[Wilby, Northamptonshire|Wilby]] in the same county, benefices which he retained until 1782. In 1759 he married Anne, daughter of Barton Gutterridge.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 43|year=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=747|isbn=0-19-861393-8}}</ref>

Dr Percy's first work, ''Hau Kiou Choaan, or The Pleasing History'', was published in 1761. This is a heavily revised and annotated version of a manuscript translation of the ''[[Haoqiu zhuan]]'' (好逑傳), and is the first full publication in English of a Chinese novel.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} The following year, he published a two-volume collection of sinological essays (mostly translations) entitled 'Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the Chinese.'{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Percy|first=Thomas|date=1762|title=Miscellaneous pieces relating to the Chinese. Vol. I & Vol. II. London: Printed for R, and J. Dodsley in Pall-malt.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWpbAAAAQAAJ}}</ref> In 1763, he published ''Five Pieces of Runic Poetry'', translated from the [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]. The same year, he also edited the Earl of Surrey's poems with an essay on early [[blank verse]], translated the [[Song of Solomon]], and published a key to the [[New Testament]].  His ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_yOJHxjC5oC Northern Antiquities]'' (1770) is a translation from the French of [[Paul Henri Mallet]]. His edition of the 'Household Book' of the Earl of Northumberland (1770) (''The Regulations and Establishment of the Household of Henry Algernon Percy, the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, at his Castles of Wresill and Lekinfield in Yorkshire. Begun anno domini M.DXII'') is of the greatest value for the illustrations of domestic life in England at that period.

These works are of little estimation when compared with the ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' (1765). In the 1760s, he obtained a manuscript of ballads (the [[Percy Folio]]) from a source in [[Northumberland]].  He had in mind the idea of writing a history of the Percy family of the peerage (the [[Duke of Northumberland|Dukes of Northumberland]]), and he had sought materials of local interest.  He had sought out old tales from near [[Alnwick]], the ancestral home of the Northumberland Percy family, and he had come across many ballad tales.

In 1763, Percy, aiming for the market that ''[[Ossian]]'' had opened for "ancient poetry" (see [[James Macpherson|James MacPherson]]), published ''Five Pieces of Runic Poetry'' from [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], which he translated and "improved."

Percy was a friend of [[Samuel Johnson]], [[Joseph Warton|Joseph]] and [[Thomas Warton]], and [[James Boswell]].  In 1764, Dr Johnson and others encouraged Percy to preserve the poetry he was finding at home.  Percy therefore took the ''ballad'' material he had from his folio and began searching for more ballads, in particular.  He wanted to collect material from the border areas, near Scotland.  In 1765, he published the ''Reliques'' to great success.

Appointed a chaplain to [[George III of the United Kingdom|the king]] in 1769, Percy was formally admitted to [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]] that year, and received a doctorate of divinity from [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] in 1770.<ref>{{acad|id=PRCY769T|name=Percy, Thomas}}</ref>

Still not having secured an adequate living, Thomas Percy continued with his project of commemorating the Alnwick area, and so he composed his own ballad poem on [[Warkworth Castle]], then a ruin, which the Dukes of Northumberland controlled and which the Duchess of Northumberland favored for its sublime views.  Combining the vogue for the "[[Churchyard Poets]]" and the ballad vogue that he himself had set in motion, Thomas Percy wrote ''The Hermit of Warkworth'' in 1771.  Samuel Johnson famously composed three ex tempore [[Parody|parodies]] of this verse in the 1780s.  When an admirer too often told Johnson of the beautiful "simplicity" of the ballad verse form, Johnson pointed out that the line between simplicity and simple mindedness is narrow: just remove the sense.  He then demonstrated:<blockquote>
: "The tender infant meek and mild
:: Fell down upon a stone;
: The nurse took up the squealing child
:: But yet the child squeal'd on."
</blockquote>Thomas Percy was angered by the parody, but [[Hester Thrale]] says that he soon came to his senses and realized that Johnson was satirizing the form, and not the poem.

Soon after, he said,<blockquote>
: "I put my hat upon my head
:: And went into the Strand.
: There I met another man
:: Whose hat was in his hand."
</blockquote>This extemporized [[parody]] was written down by Boswell and others.  It may have been aimed less at Percy than at the ballads that were then appearing nearly daily on every subject.

Percy carried out most of the literary work for which he is now remembered at [[Easton Maudit]]. When he became famous, he was made domestic chaplain to the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, and was tempted into the belief that he belonged to the illustrious house of Percy. Through his patron's influence he became Dean of [[Carlisle Cathedral]] in 1778 and was ordained as Bishop of [[Dromore, County Down|Dromore]] in [[County Down]] in 1782.

His wife died before him in 1806; the bishop, blind but otherwise in sound health, lived another five years. Both were buried in the [[transept]] which Percy had added to [[Dromore Cathedral]].

== Literary work ==
The ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' set the stage not only for [[Robert Burns]], but also for [[William Wordsworth|Wordsworth]] and [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge|Coleridge's]] ''[[Lyrical Ballads]].'' The book is based on an old [[manuscript]] collection of poetry, which Percy claimed to have rescued in Humphrey Pitt's house at [[Shifnal]], Shropshire, "from the hands of the housemaid who was about to light the fire with it." The manuscript was edited in its complete form by JW Hales and [[Frederick James Furnivall|FJ Furnivall]] in 1867–1868.  This manuscript provides the core of the work but many other ballads were found and included, some by Percy's friends Johnson, [[William Shenstone]], [[Thomas Warton]], and some from a similar collection made by [[Samuel Pepys]].

Percy "improved" 35 of the 46 ballads he took from the Folio. In the case of The Beggar's daughter of Bednal Green ([[Bethnal Green]]), he added the historical character of [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester|Simon de Montfort, Earl of Evesham]] (''sic''). In this version the ballad became so popular that it was used in two plays, an anonymous novel, operas by [[Thomas Arne]] and [[Geoffrey Bush]], and [[Carl Loewe]]'s ballad "Der Bettlers Tochter von Bednall Green". A fuller account of the history of the ballad can be found in "The Green" by A. J. Robinson and [[Hubert Chesshyre|D. H. B. Chesshyre]].

== Collections ==
[[File:Young_Thomas_Percy.jpg|thumb|Thomas Percy, 1775]]
Percy's collection of c.120 volumes were kept by his daughters on his death and were presented to the [[Bodleian Libraries]] in 1933 by his great granddaughter, Miss Constance Meade.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Rare Books Named Collections|url=https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/weston/finding-resources/catalogues/rare_books_named_collections|access-date=2020-12-07|website=Bodleian Libraries}}</ref>

These were mainly literary works of the 17th-19th centuries, including annotated copies of Goldsmith, Johnson and other 18th century authors. Additionally, the collection includes a set of The Rambler (1756) with MS notes by Percy, and a set of The Idler (1761) with MS notes by Percy and Johnson.<ref name=":0" />

Printed ephemera, which had also been passed into the Meade family alongside Percy's books and papers, was given to John Johnson's collection of printed ephemera at the University Press in 1930. This is now part of the John Johnson collection at the [[Bodleian Library]].<ref name=":0" />

The [[Percy Society]] (1840-1852) was founded to publish ballads with their accompanying music. [[Edward Francis Rimbault]] and [[William Chappell (writer)|William Chappell]] were among the members.<ref>''Historical Dictionary of English Music ca. 1400–1958'' ed. by Charles Edward McGuire, Steven E. Plank (2012), p. 223</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

=== General references ===

* Watt, James. "[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ecy/summary/v048/48.2watt.html Thomas Percy, China, and the Gothic]." ''[[The Eighteenth Century (journal)|The Eighteenth Century]]''. Volume 48, Number 2, Summer 2007, pp.&nbsp;95–109, 10.1353/ecy.2007.0013. Available at [[Project MUSE]].

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}} {{wikisource-author}}

* [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00056.shtml Thomas Percy] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)]
* [http://www.rascal.ac.uk/index.php?CollectionID=380&navOp=locID&navVar=25 The Percy Library at Queen's University Belfast]
* [http://www.bishoppercyshouse.co.uk Bishop Percys House, Bridgnorth]
* [[Hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.tpercy|Thomas Percy Correspondence]]. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

{{Bishops of Dromore}} {{Deans of Carlisle}} {{Officer holders in the Diocese of Carlisle}}

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