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The Perrin Family The Perrin Family The Perrin family in America is English in origin. HOW I'M RELATED I am a Perrin family descendant through my father, Raymond Joe Butler, who was the son of Alice Tate Butler and Charles W. Miles, who was the son of Maggie Hodge and John W. Miles, who was the son of William B. Miles and Mary Farrar, who was the daughter of Jane (maiden name unknown) and John Farrar, who was the son of Trephenah La Force and Peter Farrar, who was the son of John Farrar (wife's name unknown), who was the son of Thomas Farrar and Katherine Perrin, who was the daughter of Katherine Royall and Richard Perrin, an English immigrant and early day resident of Henrico County, Virginia. RICHARD PERRIN of Henrico County, Virginia It is generally held that Richard Perrin was born about 1635 in England, the son of Thomas Perrin and his wife, Elizabeth, whose maiden name is said to have been Chalfont. It should be noted, however, that not all researchers agree with this information. Another area of disagreement is: When did Perrin leave England for Virginia? As some researchers have pointed out, there are Virginia land patent records that bear the name of Richard Perrin as a transported indentured servant, twice in 1637, and again in 1653, 1654, and 1657, but the first two could not possibly be "our" Richard Perrin since, if he was born about 1635, he was just a child of two or three in 1637. It's more likely that he is the one named in one of the later patents because he would have been about nineteen years old in 1653 and of course, a little older in 1654 and 1657. (See Virginia Land Patent Book 1, pp. 512 and 517 and Book 3, pp. 63 and 376.) Even so, there is no proof positive that the Richard Perrin mentioned in any of these land patent records is "ours." (And what became of the others is unknown.) Regardless, somehow or another, Richard Perrin almost certainly left England sometime after he reached adulthood and went to America, where numerous colonial-era records show that he settled in Henrico County. A man named Thomas Perrin is also found in the late seventeenth century records of Henrico County, living in close proximity to "our" Richard Perrin. This prompts he question: Was this Thomas and "our" Richard related? Some researchers suspect that Thomas was Richard's father. However, in light of their ages (according to a deposition, Thomas was born about 1639), I think it is far more likely that Thomas was Richard's brother. Unfortunately, none of the records specifically indicate what relationship, if any, that these two men had to one another. At the age of about twenty-nine (if we accept the assumption that he was born about 1635), "our" Richard Perrin married Katherine Royall, daughter of another English immigrant, Joseph Royall, about 1664. Together, they had three daughters:
On March 15, 1672, Richard Perrin received a land grant in Henrico County, Virginia, for a total of 740 acres, consisting of 474 acres, "Commonly called the Worlds end, on the north side of James River; bounded &c. from the river above John Burton's house..12 feet below Cornelius' Creek," and also 266 acres, 1 rod, and 24 perches for the transportation of five persons (almost certainly indentured servants), whose names were Steven Lewin (or Lewis), Thomas Stanbrig, Nan "the maide," Jonathan Fish, and Thomas Mason. (See Virginia Land Office Patent Book 6, p. 445.) The record of a land patent granted to a neighbor-Charles Evans-which grants "40 acres on the north side of James River in the parish of Varina. Adjoining. the land of Richard Perrin, Abraham Bayly &c. Formerly granted to Thos. Perrin by patt. dated Octr. 20, 1688, provides valuable clues to the location of Perrin's property. (See Virginia Land Patent Book 9, p.665.) Deeds of gift to his children also tell us that his property was partly fronted on the north side of the James River, where it begins to bend at Cornelius' Creek. This is an area that is heavily forested today, but in Richard Perrin's time, was almost certainly a huge open tobacco field. On October 20, 1688, Thomas Perrin (misspelled Peren in the record), received a grant, in Henrico County, of "140 acres in the Parish of Verina, and on the north side of James River; Begg. &c. belonging to the land of Richard Peren." (See Virginia Land Office Patent Book 7, p. 666.) The fact that Thomas Perrin's land grant was immediately adjacent to Richard Perrin's property lends weight to the supposition that he and Richard were brothers, as well as the fact that they often served on juries together or witnessed legal documents together. It is safe to say that like almost all the other men in the area, both Richard and Thomas Perrin were planters who cultivated tobacco, the principal cash crop of Tidewater Virginia.
From Wikipedia: "Tobacco seeds are scattered onto the surface of the soil, as their germination is activated by light. In colonial Virginia, seedbeds were fertilized with wood ash or animal manure (frequently powdered horse manure). Seedbeds were then covered with branches to protect the young plants from frost damage, and the plants were left alone until around April." "Tobacco can be harvested in several ways. In the oldest method, the entire plant is harvested at once by cutting off the stalk at the ground with a sickle. In the nineteenth century, bright tobacco began to be harvested by pulling individual leaves off the stalk as they ripened. As the plants grow, they usually require topping and suckering. "Topping" is the removal of the tobacco flowers while "suckering" is the pruning out of leaves that are otherwise unproductive. Both procedures ensure that as much of the plant's energy as possible focuses on producing the large leaves that are harvested and sold. "Cropping", "Pulling", and "Priming" are terms for removing mature leaves from tobacco plants. Leaves are cropped as they ripen, from the bottom to the top of the stalk." Richard Perrin is mentioned several times in Henrico County court records, as is Thomas Perrin, and also Richard's wife, Katherine.
Richard Perrin died in Henrico County, Virginia in March or April 1695, at the age of about sixty. Before he died, he made a will, which reads as follows:
EPILOGUE On December 1, 1691, about four years before he died, Richard Perrin gifted 265 acres of his "World's End" plantation to his daughter, Katherine, and her husband, Thomas Farrar, and in his will, he bequeathed his house and 400 acres "more or less" to his wife, Katherine (it was actually "more"). When Katherine Royall Perrin died in 1695, not long after her husband, the 400 acres "more or less" that he bequeathed to her, went to their daughter Sarah, as provided for in her father's will. Three years later, on April 25, 1698, shortly before Virginia Governor Sir Edmund Andros was recalled to England, he granted Richard Perrin's son-in-law, William Cocke (husband of daughter, Sarah Perrin) the very same 256-acre tract that Perrin was granted in 1672, which was due for transporting five persons into the colony. (See Virginia Land Patent Book 9, pp.160-1.) This suggests that William and Sarah now possessed all of her father's original 1672 patent, but what about the 265 acres deeded to Sarah's sister, Katherine, and her husband, Thomas Farrar? Where does that figure in the picture? Eventually, in 1747, the land on which Richard Perrin and his family lived was acquired by the Randolph family. Today, amazingly, all or most of the land that once made up Richard Perrin's "World's End" plantation is vacant county property today, a mixture of woods and meadows, with a large pond (or small lake) at the end near the river. Apparently, and after more than three centuries, it is still zoned "agricultural." Here is a map showing the location of the "World's End" Plantation as it looks today (almost all the green and yellowish-shaded area on the north side of the James River, south of VA895).
The Perrin Family
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