being very protracted, the Duchess of Somerset (who was the daughter and heiress of Earl Jocelyn) brought the matter once more before the Lords in 1685, and her petition was referred to the Committee of Privileges.  In reply to her petition Percy presented one of complaint, which was also sent to the Committee.  No decision, however, seems to have been arrived at, and the reign of King James came to a close without further action.  In the first year of the reign of William and Mary (1689), Percy returned to the charge with a fresh petition and a fresh demand for recognition and justice.  These documents are still extant, and some of them are very entertaining.  In one he candidly admits that he has been, up to the time when he writes, in error as to his pedigree, and, abandoning his old position, takes up fresh ground.  In another, “The claimant desireth your lordships to consider the justice and equity of his cause, hoping your lordships will take such care therein that your own descendants may not be put to the like trouble for the future in maintaining their and your petitioner’s undoubted right;” and lest the argumentum ad homines should fail, he asks, “Whether or no three streams issuing from one fountain, why the third stream (though little, the first two great streams being spent) may not justly claim the right of the original fountain?” In addition, he appends a sort of solemn declaration, in which he represents himself as trusting in God, and waiting patiently upon the king’s sacred Majesty for his royal writ of summons to call him to appear and take his place and seat according to his birthright and title, “for true men ought not to be blamed for standing up for justice, property, and right, which is the chief diadem in the Crown, and the laurel of the kingdom.”  That summons never was destined to be issued.  When the Committee for Privileges gave in their report, it declared Percy’s conduct to be insolent in persisting to designate himself Earl of Northumberland after the previous decisions of the House; and the Lords ordered that counsel should be heard at the bar of the House on the part of the Duke of Somerset against the said James Percy.

This was accordingly done; and the Lords not only finally came to the decision “that the pretensions of the said James Percy to the earldom of Northumberland are groundless, false, and scandalous,” and ordered that his petition be dismissed, but added to their judgment this sentence, “That the said James Percy shall be brought before the four Courts in Westminster Hall, wearing a paper upon his breast on which these words shall be written:  ’THE FALSE AND IMPUDENT PRETENDER TO THE EARLDOM OF NORTHUMBERLAND.’” The judgment was at once carried into execution, and from that time forward the unfortunate trunkmaker disappears from the public view.  He does not seem to have reverted to his old trade; or, at least, if he did so, he made it profitable, for we find his son, Sir Anthony Percy, figuring as Lord Mayor of Dublin