HERBERT, Percy (c. 1597-1667)

Percy Herbert was named after his maternal grandfather, Henry Percy, earl of Northumberland. Little is known of his early life, but he was returned to the Commons to represent Shaftesbury in 1621, largely on the interest of his father’s cousin, Philip Herbert^†, 4th earl of Pembroke. Herbert made an advantageous marriage to an heiress, Elizabeth Craven, daughter of a wealthy merchant taylor and former lord mayor. Add. Ch. 75310. Herbert himself acknowledged that her ‘fortune made up’ his estate. TNA, PRO 30/53/7/33. Herbert and his wife converted to Catholicism in 1634.

In January 1641 Herbert was accused in Parliament of seizing arms on behalf of the king and was declared a delinquent. Although impeachment proceedings were begun against him, he was released ‘from restraint’ on bail in June 1642. CJ, ii. 75, 253-4, 548, 628, 639. He returned to Powis Castle and garrisoned it for the king, but (according to a later petition from his wife) his father took over the castle and made allegations that Herbert was betraying the king’s interest. Herbert was summoned by Charles I to Oxford where he remained without charge until September 1644 when he escaped during hostilities. Herbert Corresp. ed. W.J. Smith 23, 26. Later that year he was in the Low Countries with his son William Herbert, later 3rd Baron Powis. He appears to have been back in London in early 1646 when he petitioned the joint committee for sequestration for access to one third of his estate, claiming that his recusancy was the only ground for his sequestration. The request was turned down when evidence was presented concerning the previous orders of the Commons. Herbert Corresp. 22. Although prepared to support Charles I, Herbert seemed to have misgivings about his role as a Catholic fighting for the ‘true Protestant religion’ of the king. PRO 30/53/7/33.

When Herbert and his son travelled in Europe in the late 1640s they met up with Charles Berkeley, later earl of Falmouth, and his brother, later Sir Maurice Berkeley^‡, in Naples in 1646, together with their tutor Father Hugh (Serenus) Cressy, the Catholic apologist who promoted the concept of an oath of loyalty for English Catholics. Herbert had returned to England by 1650 to try to combat proceedings against his estate. His delinquency was upheld and his estates in Montgomeryshire and Middlesex were forfeited and sold. CCC, 2193-6. His total wealth is difficult to assess. During the 1620s he is known to have possessed lands in Cornwall and Middlesex, and in 1662 an assessment put the value of his estate in Northamptonshire alone at £1,000 p.a. Arch. xxxix. 465-6; Add. 34222, f. 38.

Herbert disappeared from public life in the 1650s and was only allowed to travel within England under licence. CJ, vi. 446; CSP Dom. 1658-9, pp. 576-7. His wife, regarded as a woman of ‘strong character’, managed his affairs very capably during these years. Herbert Corresp. 6, 22, 23. Herbert devoted himself to writing and published Certaine Conceptions (1650), a series of religious reflections prompted by the illness of his son and a belief that the events of the last decade had been due to ‘a secret poison long time ago engendered in the heart of this nation’ and the novel Cloria and Narcissus (1653-61).

On 22 May 1660, following a petition from Powis, the Lords granted an order preventing the felling of timber from and despoilation of his land. On 18 July, they ordered that he be put into possession of land that had been sold without his consent. A further order was made the same day to include also those estates which remained in the hands of the trustees for sale of delinquents’ estates. Powis first sat in the House of Lords on 27 July 1660, and then attended on 23 of the sittings before the adjournment of 13 Sept., 56 per cent of the total. He was not present when the House resumed on 6 Nov. 1660, first attending on the 15th and sitting on ten occasions, 22 per cent of the total. He was not appointed to any committees. He last attended the Convention on 13 Dec. 1660.

Powis was absent from the start of the first session of the Cavalier Parliament, on 8 May 1661. He was still absent when the House was called over on 20 May, attending for the first time on the 24th. Powis attended 37 days of the session before its adjournment at the end of July 1661, 58 per cent of total. However, he was absent when the session resumed on 20 Nov. and never attended again. At subsequent calls of the House his absence was usually excused on grounds of ill health. Powis’s proxy was registered in favour of his brother-in-law William Craven, Baron (later Earl of) Craven, on 20 Feb. 1663, for the remainder of the session. Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, believed that Craven would use Powis’s proxy to support George Digby, 2nd earl of Bristol, in his attempted impeachment of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon. Powis again registered a proxy in favour of Craven on 22 Mar. 1664, which was discharged at the end of the session.

On 19 Dec. 1664, the Lords were informed that John Langford, a servant of Powis, had been detained as a prisoner in the common gaol of Montgomery by William Morgan, deputy sheriff of county, contrary to privilege of Parliament. Morgan was ordered to appear at the Bar on 17 Jan. 1665 to show why he had ignored the protection granted by Powis, but no further proceedings were recorded.

Powis died on 19 Jan. 1667 and was buried at Welshpool. In his will he left his estates to his son and successor William Herbert, 3rd Baron Powis.