THE PERCY PEDIGREE.
[To THE EDITOZ OF THE "Srsor.kroa."] SIR,—May I be allowed, in the interest of accuracy, to correct a statement in your article in the Spectator of January 7th on " The Late Duke of Northumberland " ? You assert that " unless we accept the absurd opinion that pedigree cannot
descend through women he was the lineal heir of a Percy who came in with the Conqueror." This error is a not uncommon one, but although the present Dukes of Northumberland arc descended, like several other families, from the Percya (through two females), they are not the heirs of that family or of any branch of it. The heir of the last Percy Earls is the Duke of Atholl, who inherits a barony of Percy (1722) older than any peerage dignity held by the late Duke of Northumberland. And even he is not the heir of the Percy Earls before 1572, whose representation has passed, through women, into other lines.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[We used the word "heir " rather carelessly perhaps, but ons calls the Queen the heiress of William I.—ED. Spectator.]
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