(1742 - 1817), e. s. of 1st D. of Northumberland; assumed name of Percy in lieu of Smithson 1750; sty. Ld. Warkworth 1750 - 66 and E. Percy 1766 - 86 when suc. fa. as 2nd D.; educ. Eton and St John's Camb. 1760; army officer, capt. 1759, lt.-col. 1762, gen. 1793; MP 1763 - 76; Dilettanti 1764; m. 1 1764 Ldy. Anne Stuart, dau. of 3rd E. of Bute [S] (div. 1779), 2 1779 Frances Burrell; FSA 1787; FRS 1788; KG 1788.
1761 - 3 [dep. Portsmouth 25 Aug. 1761] Naples (27 Oct. 1761 - 24 Jan. 1762) [Constantinople] Florence (Sep. - ), Pisa (Nov. 1762), Rome (by 11 Mar. 1763 - ), Venice (by 30 Apr. - after 29/30 May) [Paris by Jul.]
Having, according to Horace Walpole, 'a miserable constitution', Lord Warkworth was sent abroad with a tutor Jonathan Lipyeatt in August 1761. Sir James Gray reported his arrival at Naples 'in perfect health' on the Kennington with Baron Stosch [Heinrich Muzell (1723 - 82), called Baron Stosch from 1757].1 Warkworth found 'a vast many English' there,2 among them James Adam who condescendingly described him as 'a fine obliging boy: we play frequently at chess'.3 Three months later Warkworth was still in Naples, and on 24 January 1762 he sailed to Constantinople with Henry Grenville.4 Horace Mann later said that the 'two Lords Piercy' [the other being Lord Algernon Percy] had recovered their health by sailing about the Mediterranean.5
In May 1762 Warkworth was about to return to Italy overland (with a Mr Porter), intending to pass the following winter at Naples,6 but in September he was in Florence, resolved to pass the winter there with Thomas Dundas and Lord Fordwich (later 3rd Earl Cowper).7 In November he visited Pisa.8 By March 1763 he was in Rome,9 where he sat twice for his portrait: to Nathaniel Dance before the Colosseum with Lipyeatt (priv. coll.) and to Batoni (Alnwick; Clark/Bowron 261). He also commissioned two landscapes from Solomon Delane which James Martin saw at Rome the following year.(10) On 16 April Warkworth was expected at Venice with Dundas and he had arrived by the 30th.(11) At the end of May both Warkworth and Dundas accompanied Lord Northampton at his offical entry as British ambassador into Venice. On 22 July James Martin bought Lord Warkworth's chaise in Paris.(12)
1. SP 105/313, f.650 (27 Oct. 1761). 2. Fleming, Adam, 375. 3. Ibid., 291. 4. SP 105/314, f.44 (Gray, 25 Jan. 1762). 5. Wal. Corr., 24:203 (14 May 1776). 6. SP 105/314, f.167 (Gray, 18 May 1762). 7. Abercairny MSS, GD24/1/391 (Abb? Gilles, 12 Sep. 1762). 8. Wal.Corr., 21:512n14. 9. Seafield MSS, GD 248/49/2 (D. Crespin, 11 Mar. 1763). 10. Martin jnl.MSS (18 Sep. 1764). 11. SP 105/315, ff.92, 112 (Murray, 16, 30 Apr. 1763). 12. Martin jnl.MSS.