William I (Willame) de Percy (d. 1096/9), 1st feudal baron of Topcliffe in North Yorkshire, known as Willame als gernons (Old French, meaning 'with whiskers'), was a Normans nobleman who arrived in England immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066. He was the founder via an early 13th-century female line of the powerful English House of Percy, Earls of Northumberland, and via an 18th-century female line of the Dukes of Northumberland.
Origins
The Cartulary of
Whitby Abbey states that Hugh d'Avranches (later 1st Earl of Chester) and William de Percy arrived in England in 1067, one year after the
Norman Conquest.
It is possible that Percy had been one of the Normans to whom King Edward the Confessor had given lands, but who were later expelled by King Harold Godwinson (d. 1066). The term Als gernons ('bewhiskered'), may explain Percy's unusual Norman epithet, as the Normans were generally clean-shaven, unlike the English, and possibly Percy had assimilated the local custom. Later generations of Percys would use the sobriquet in the form of the first name "Algernon".
The name was taken from Percy, a fief near Villedieu in the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy.
Landholdings
He appears in Domesday as a great landowner, holding 30 knight's fees, including some lands which had belonged to a Saxon lady, whom, "as very heire to them, in discharging of his conscience," he afterwards married. Hugh Lupus, on becoming Earl of Chester, transferred to him his great estate of
Whitby in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he re-founded the Abbey of St. Hilda's, and appointed his brother Serlo de Percy the first prior.
Consolidation
Following the rebellion of Gospatric Earl of Northumbria, and the subsequent Harrying of the North, much territory in northern England and the Earldom of Chester were granted to Hugh d'Avranches, who had been instrumental in the devastation. Percy in turn was granted territory by d'Avranches, in addition to those already held by him
tenant-in-chief from the king.
[Fonblanque, Vol I , p.14] At the time of the
Domesday Book of 1086, Percy held as a
tenant-in-chief 118
Manorialism in
Lincolnshire and the North Riding of Yorkshire, with further lands in
Essex and
Hampshire.
Building works
Percy set about fortifying his landholdings, constructing motte and bailey castles at
Spofforth Castle and at Topcliffe, where was situated the
caput of his feudal barony. He granted land to the
Benedictine order and financed the construction of the new
Whitby Abbey from amongst the ruins of the Anglo-Saxon Abbey of Streoneshalh.
Marriage and progeny
Percy married an English noblewoman called Emma de Port, her epithet presumably came from her landholdings at Seamer, a once thriving
Manorialism in North Yorkshire. Possibly, the lands granted to Percy by the king were
jure uxoris. By Emma de Porte, Percy had four sons:
-
Alan de Percy (d.1130/5), 2nd feudal baron of Topcliffe, who married Emma de Ghent, daughter of Gilbert I de Ghent
-
Walter de Percy
-
William de Percy, 2nd Abbot of Whitby
-
Richard de Percy
Death on the First Crusade
Percy accompanied
Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy, on the
First Crusade, where he died within sight of Jerusalem. His body was buried at
Antioch, and his heart was returned to England and was buried in Whitby Abbey.
Notes
Sources
