Background
Percy was the only daughter of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset and his wife, Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1699-1754), daughter of Henry Thynne.
Percy was the only daughter of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset and his wife, Frances Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1699-1754), daughter of Henry Thynne.
Sir Hugh"s illegitimate son James Smithson, otherwise Jacques Louis Macie, born in about 1764 to one of Elizabeth"s cousins, bequeathed the fortune which established the Smithsonian Institution. In 1761, Percy became a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, a post she held until 1770. He built Brizlee Tower as one of a number of monuments to commemorate her.
Elizabeth Percy is buried in the Northumberland Vault, within Westminster Abbey.
