page_title: Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland
section_title: Second marriage
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland / Second marriage
caption_attribution_description: English: Children of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland (1742-1817) and his second wife Frances Julia Burrell (1752-1820).
context_page_description: Lieutenant General Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland FRS was an officer in the British army and later a British peer. He participated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Long Island during the American War of Independence, but resigned his command in 1777 due to disagreements with his superior, General William Howe.
  Born Hugh Smithson, he assumed the surname of Percy by Act of Parliament along with his father in 1750 and was styled Lord Warkworth from 1750 until 1766. He was styled Earl Percy from 1766, when his father was created Duke of Northumberland. He acceded to the dukedom in 1786.
context_section_description: Percy was granted a divorce in Parliament from Lady Anne in 1779 on the grounds of her adultery and immediately married Frances Julia Burrell on 23 May 1779, with whom he had six daughters and three sons, with three daughters and two sons surviving him.
  In 1786, he acceded to the title upon his father’s death and continued his father's agricultural improvements. For example, when corn prices fell after 1815, he reduced his rents by twenty-five percent. He held twice-weekly gatherings at Alnwick Castle, inviting tenants and local tradespeople. He exercised considerable influence in politics, though he never obtained office.  He became a general in 1793, and assumed command of the Percy Yeomanry Regiment in 1798 and as colonel of the Royal Horse Guards in 1806.
  Notorious for a bad temper as well as for being one of the richest men in England, the second Duke of Northumberland died suddenly of "rheumatic gout" in July 1817. He was buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey, and was succeeded by his son Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland. Percy's illegitimate half brother was James Smithson, whose bequest founded the Smithsonian Institution.
caption: The Children of the Second Duke of Northumberland, oil on canvas, Gilbert Stuart, 1787.
exif: {}