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The Silver Bullet

THE SILVER BULLET?

If there is a silver bullet lurking within my genealogists and my research it is being primed for use. Three times, without response, I have asked the College of Arms to consider starting a lateral search to see if John Percy of Beverley (whose eventual fate is unknown” - Table III chart) younger brother of Alan Percy (said to be de jure 12th Earl of Northumberland” - Table III chart, who died without male issue), fled to Taunton to be close to his cousins Robert Percy (The Plotter’s son) and his St Mary Magdalene (our line) children, and could be our John Purse/y. This would explain why we cannot find any sign (other than the 1640’s Civil war interregnum” where the Puritans were wrecking churches and destroying records in the area) where our “John” was born.

As an experiment I recently tried joining the senior side of the Beverley Line above John of Beverley (Table III), with our proven descendants headed by our “John” to see if it exposed anything in support of my hypothesis. The result was startling.

It produced a significant (genealogically) generation predominance of “Edwards” starting at the very top of the Cadet Beverley Line (Table III) with Edward Percy of Beverley (son of Josecline Percy, brother of Henry 5th Earl of Northumberland), the “...ard” person that consecutive Garter Principal Kings’ of Arms Sir Edward Walker and Sir William Dugdale excluded in their consecutive misdirections of descent when acting for the claimants to the vacant Earldom of Northumberland, after the Herald’s mutilation of the records held at the London College of Arms. This Edward was also the father of Alan Percy M.P. of Beverley on the senior side of the Cadet Beverley line and his younger brother Thomas Percy the Gunpowder Plotter on the junior side.

HYPOTHESIS OF SEVEN CONSECUTIVE GENERATIONS
(when joined with our Taunton S. Mary Magdalene line)


Beverley Line	Edward of Beverley	b.1524
	Edward of Beverley	b.c.1550 “one of the four Percies from the North” *
	Edward of Beverley	b.1594
	John of Beverley & Taunton ?	b.c.1640

Our proven Taunton St. Mary Magdalene line	Edward of Taunton	b.1670 (St Mary Magdalene registers)
	Edward of Taunton	b.1692 " "
	Edward of Taunton	b.1720 " "

*My genealogist “felt sure” that one of these was an Edward, likely Edward Percy who Matric. St. Clare Cambridge 1583.

As mentioned earlier, there are sound reasons to believe that John Percy (younger brother of Alan Percy of Beverley “said to be de jure 12th Earl of Northumberland, after the extinction of the Louvain-Percy male bloodline in the main Percy line in 1670—Table III chart) fled in fear of his life to the South West of England likely Taunton Somerset where his cousins the Gunpowder Plotter’s son Robert and his four children lived—the children were all christened, as were our own proven line, at the Taunton St. Mary Magdalene Parish and like us recorded in their registers.

Under this “silver bullet” category the most knowledgeable man in England (outside the possibility of protected or private records being held at Alnwick Castle or Sion House) regarding Brenan's Table III genealogical chart is London’s Brian Piercy (Percy—Piercy Family History Society). I have been in contact with Brian for over a decade and he recently advised me that he had just finished the first update for 100 years, of Brenan's Table III chart as a research tool requiring documentary confirmation —the reasons why this old genealogical chart has been allowed to lie fallow for over a century without being updated and why Brenan had been denied access to revisit the records by the then (1902) Duke of Northumberland over 100 years ago, are provoking. Brian’s update is for the South West of England and it is huge, 4 ft deep, 12 ft long and all in tiny print. After finishing this mammoth undertaking he contacted me with the following encouraging comments :

(a) “Your research is so close!”

(b) “Hypotheses have been developed to link the South West families to one or other of the “four Percies from the North”. From Brian who has always challenged for more and more proof—it speaks volumes. It is also further contributing evidence that John Percy of Beverley likely fled to Somerset where not only his cousins, the Gunpowder Plotter’s family were, but likely his own direct family the descendants of “The 4 Percies from the North.”