presented his
petition.

The case remained in the House of Lords for nearly six years. On the
30th of May 1808 it was brought on for hearing before the Committee
for Privileges, when Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Gaselee, and Mr. Hargrave,
appeared for the petitioner, and the Crown was represented by the
Attorney-General and a junior counsel. A great mass of documentary and
genealogical evidence was produced; but after a most painstaking
investigation, Lords Erskine, Ellenborough, Eldon, and Redesdale came
to the conclusion that Nicholas Vaux, the petitioner, had _not_ made
out his claim to the Earldom of Banbury, and the House of Lords, on
the 11th of March 1813, endorsed their decision.

JAMES PERCY--THE SO-CALLED EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND.

In 1670 Jocelyn Percy, the eleventh Earl of Northumberland, died
without male issue. Up to his time, throughout the six hundred years,
the noble family of Percy had never been without a male
representative, and the successive earls had almost invariably been
soldiers, and had added to the lustre of their descent by their own
valiant deeds. But when Earl Jocelyn died, in 1670, he left behind him
a solitary daughter--whose life was in itself eventful enough, and who
became the wife of Charles Somerset, the proud Duke of Somerset--but
who could not wear the title, although she inherited much of the
wealth of the Percys.

Jocelyn Percy was, however, scarcely cold in his grave when a claimant
appeared, who sought the family honours and the entailed lands which
their possession implied. This was James Percy, a poor Dublin
trunkmaker, who came over to England and at once assumed the title.
His pretensions aroused the ire of the dowager-countess, the mother of
Earl Jocelyn, who, on the 18th of February 1672, presented a petition
to the House of Lords on behalf of herself and Lady Elizabeth Percy,
her grand-daughter, setting forth that "one who called himself James
Percy (by profession a trunkmaker in Dublin) assumes to himself the
titles of Earl of Northumberland and Lord Percy, to the dishonour of
that family." This petition was referred, in the usual course, to the
Committee for Privileges. This was immediately followed by a petition
from the claimant, which was read, considered, and dismissed. However,
both parties appeared before the House of Lords on the 28th of
November, James Percy claiming the honours, and the countess declaring
him an impostor. Percy craved an extension of ti