John Perkins Sr. (bef. 1583 - bef. 1654)

Born before 23 Dec 1583 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Judith (Gater) Perkins — married 9 Oct 1608 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England

Descendants

Died before 26 Sep 1654 at about age 70 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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John Perkins Sr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 1431) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

This profile is part of the Chebacco Parish, Massachusetts One Place Study.

Birth and Parents

John Perkins Sr., son of Henry Perkins and Elizabeth Sawbridge, was christened on December 23, 1583 at St. John the Baptist Church in Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England.^[1][2][3]

Hillmorton, Warwickshire is a few miles from the parish of Cotesbach, Leicestershire, from where the two sons of the parson, Henry Dillingham, emigrated to New England. Hillmorton is also close to Claybrooke, where parson John Higginson preached before leaving England in 1629 to become Salem’s first minister. It is possible that John Perkins and his family may have come under the influence of one of these two nonconformist parsons and their Puritan views, leading to their emigration from England.^[4]

Marriage and Children

John Perkins married Judith Gater on October [8 or] 9, 1608 in Hillmorton, Warwickshire,^[1] at St. John the Baptist Church.^[5] John and Judith had the following children:^[1]

• John, bpt. Hillmorton 14 September 1609,^[6] m.Elizabeth ___;
• Elizabeth, bpt. [25 or] 31 March 1611,^[7] m.William Sargent;
• Mary, bpt. Hillmorton 3 [Sep] October 1615,^[8] m. Thomas Bradbury;
• Ann, bpt. Hillmorton 5 September 1617;^[9] no further record;
• Thomas, bpt. Hillmorton 28 April 1622,^[10] m. Phebe Gould;
• Jacob, bpt. Hillmorton 12 September 1624,^[11] m1. Elizabeth ____, m2. Damaris (---) Robinson;
• Lydia, bap. at First Church, Boston MA on 3 day of 4th mo. 1631/32 (3 June 1632).^[12]

Immigration and Residence

John Perkins of Hillmorton, Warwickshire is listed as a passenger of the "Lyon", along with: Mrs. Judith Perkins, John Perkins, Elizabeth Perkins, Mary Perkins, Thomas Perkins and Jacob Perkins. The Lyon, William Pierce, Master, departed from Bristol, England December 1, 1630 with 'about twenty passengers and two hundred tons of goods.' This was the same ship that brought the Rev. Roger and Mrs. Mary Williams to America, along with the John Throckmorton and Edmond Once families and William Parke.^[13] The passage was stormy and lasted 67 days. They arrived at Nantasket on February 5, 1631 and on the 6th anchored in Boston.^[14] Provisions were scarce in the Bay Colony that winter, and the arrival of the Lyon, with its store of provisions was met with great joy. A day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed for the 22nd.^[15]

"John Perkins and Judith, his wife" were admitted to the Boston church in early 1631 as members #107 and #108. The Perkins family lived in Boston the first two years in America, and their daughter Lydia was baptized there on 3 June 1632. John Sr. was admitted freeman on 18 May 1631.^[1] In 1633, the family removed to Ipswich, the colony newly founded by John Winthrop.^[16] His house was located near the river, at the entrance to Jeffries Neck on what is now East Street, where he had considerable land granted him.^[14]

Property

John Perkins had several grants of land at Ipswich, Massachusetts: "forty acres in 1634, three acres of upland, ten acres of meadow; an island at More's Point (about 30 acres); ten acres where "he hath built a house"; six acres of meadow; six acres of upland in 1635, and forty acres at Chebacco in 1636, and six acres of plowland in 1639."^[1][14] The island he owned was then known as "Perkins Island".^[17]

Offices, Military and Occupation

John Perkins Sr. was a Deputy of the General Court for Ipswich in 1636^[16] and was on the Essex Grand Jury in 1641, 1648 and 1652; he was also on the committee to set the bounds of Roxbury and Dorchester in 1632.^[1]

“Sergt. of the Allied English and the Friendly Indians under Masconoma at Agawam in the War with the Tarratines, 1631”^[18]

John was excused from ordinary training at the 26 March 1650 court as he was “above 60 years of age”.^[19]

Signed Petition

John Perkins Sr., along with more than fifty other Ipswich citizens, signed a petition of remonstrance against the departure of John Winthrop Jr. from Ipswich on 21 June 1637 (page 2 of petition):^[20]

Petition of the Inhabitants of Ipswich

To our much honored Govr & Counsellors att Boston, these. Our humble duties and respects premised: understanding there is an Intention to call Mr. Winthrop Jun from us & to remitt the Custody of the Castle to him, we could not, out of the entire affection we beare to him & his welfare, but become earnest petitioners to your worships that you would not deprive our Church & Towne of one whose presence is so gratefull & usefull to us. It was for his sake that many of us came to this place & without him we should not have come. His abode with us hath made our abode here much more comfortable then otherwise it would have bene. Mr. Dudley's leaving us hath made us much more desolate & weake than we were, & if we should lose another magistrate it would be too great a grief to us & breach upon us, & not a magistrate only but our Lieutenant Colonell so beloved of our Soldiours & military men that this remote Corner would be left destitute & desolate.…Thus hoping you will please to consider & tender our condition… June 21, 1637… John Perkins…"

Death

There is no known record of John's death.^[21] He died between the date of his will, 28 March 1654, and when it was probated on 26 September 1654 (see below).

Probate

John's will and estate inventory:^[22]

"28th of ye first mo called March 1654.

I John Perkines the elder of Ipswich being at this tyme sick and weake in body yet through the mercy and goodness of the Lord retaining my understanding and memory: doe thus dispose of and bequeath my temporall estate as Followeth.

First. I do give and bequeath unto my eldest sonn John Perkines a foale of my young mare being now with foale if it please the Lord shee foale it well also I give and bequeath to my sonn John's two sonnes John and Abraham to each of them one of my yeareling heyfers:

also I give and bequeath to my son Thomas Perkines one cow and one heyfer also I give & bequeath to his sonn John Perkins one ewe & to be delivered for his use at the next shearing time

also I doe give and bequeath to my daughter Elizabeth Sarieant one cow and an heyfer to be to her and her children after her decease as it may please ye Lord they may increase the proffits or increase to be equally devided amongst the sayde children:

also I doe give to my daughter Mary Bradbery one cow and an heyfer or a young steere to remain to her and to her children in theyr increase or proffits as it shall please the Lord to bless them and to be equaly devided to ye children:

also I doe give and bequeath to my daughter Lidia Bennitt one cow and one heyfer or steere to be equaly devided to her children in theyr increase or proffits after her decease:

I doe also give unto my grandchilde Thomas Bradbery one ewe to be sett apart for his use at ye next shearing tyme:

also I doe give and bequeath unto my sonn Jacob Perkines my dwelling house together with all the outhowseing and all my landes of one kinde and other together with all improvements thereupon to be his in full possession according to a former covenant after the decease of my wyfe and nott before and so to remaine to him and to his heires forever:

all the rest of my estate of one kinde and other I do wholy leave my deare wife Judeth Perkines apointing and ordaining my sade wyfe the sole Executrix of this my last will and Testament Desireing my sayde wife to dispose of the cattell above mentioned according to her discresion as they shall prove steeres or heyfers as also to dispose of some of the increase of the sheep to ye children of my sonn Thomas and of my three daughters at the Discresion of my sayde wife and this I doe ordaine as my Last will and Testament subscribed with my owne hand this twenty eighth day of ye first month 1654.

John Perkines
his mark

Signed in presence of
William Bartholmew
Thomas Harris

Proved in court held at Ipswich 27 (7) 1654 by the oath of William Bartholmew and Thomas Harris p [by] me Robert Lord, cleric.

An Inventory of the Estate of John Perkines Senior deceased

It [symbol for "item'] the Dwelling howse and barne wth out howsing...40-00-00
It Land about the howse about eight acres...12-00-00
It More land unbroake up about fourteen acres...21-00-00
It a p[ar]cell of Marsh about six acres at 40s. p[er] acre...12-00-00
It a pcell of upland and Marsh being much broken about xx acres at 20s. p acre...20-00-00
It 12 acres of improved land at 50s p acre...24-00-00
It one mare with a mare foal at...25-00-00
It six milch cowes at...30-00-00
It four yearling heyfers & a steere at...11-10-00
It six ewes at 35s...10-10-00
It 5 ewe lambes at...05-00-00
It one yearling weather [wether: a castrated juvenile male sheep] and two weather lambs...02-00-00
It one young calfe....00-15-00
It one cow at the pasture a sow & 3 piggs all...08-00-00
It one feather bed with besteed [bedstead] & furniture...04-00-00
It one coverlid with other small thinges being linen most...02-10-00
It left in mony at his decease...10-00-00
It a cart plowes a harow with severall goodes of lumber as casks tubes cheares axes hoes etc valuable...05-00-00
It severall ketles pottes & dishes in the kitchin...02-00-00
It his wearing aparell...05-00-00

250-05-00

Witnesses & Aprisers

William Bartholmew
John Anabl

rcd in the Court held at Ipswich the 26 of the (7) 1654
p [by] me Robert Lord cleric."

Miscellaneous

There is a collection of the Perkins family wills that were registered in England. This has an appendix with pedigrees, including that of the parentage of John's father, Henry Perkins.

The Perkins homestead on 75 Arbor St. in Wenham was sold by the Perkins family to a developer and was unfortunately demolished in May 2011. It was one of the first homes in the town having been originally built in the 17th century and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. To see this sad event go to YouTube.

A beautifully designed Blog has been done about John on Miner Descent which includes his family crest, his signature, images from some of the books that are listed in some of the sources below, and stories about the lives of his children.

For YDNA Haplogroup and related info see Perkins DNA Project Haplogroup 2.

Research Notes

Disputed Children

Two additional children are not shown in the Hillmorton Parish baptismal records or the burial records, and are not shown as children of John and Judith by Robert Charles Anderson in The Great Migration Begins, page 1432, so they have been detached as children of John Perkins and Judith Gater. Please DO NOT reconnect them:

• Abraham Perkins, b. 1604.
• Henry Perkins, b. 1611.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Boston: NEHGS, 1996-2011. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010). Pages 1431-1433. AmericanAncestors.org (with Subscription)
2. ↑ Hillmorton, Warwickshire Parish Register. Warwickshire County Record Office; Warwick, England; Warwickshire Anglican Registers; Roll: Engl/2/1143; Document Reference: DR 256. Ancestry.com database online: "Warwickshire, England, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812." Provo, UT, USA. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
3. ↑ "England, Warwickshire, Parish Registers, 1535-1963," database with images, FamilySearch: 8 Dec 2017, John Perkyns, 23 Dec 1583; from parish registers of the Church of England, database and images, citing Christening, Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England, Warwick County Record Office, England.
4. ↑ Davis, Walter Goodwin, ‘’The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes, 1759-1820, of Topsfield, Massachusetts’’. Accessed online at Hathitrust. Pages 79-90.
5. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Weddings, 1596-1617.
6. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1608-1611, 15th line, 1609.
7. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1608-1611, 1st entry, 1611.
8. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1611-1616, 15th line, 1615.
9. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1616-1624, 14th line, 1617.
10. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1616-1624, 4th line, 1622.
11. ↑ Hillmorton Parish Register - Baptisms, 1616-1624, 3rd line, 1624.
12. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988." Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, Provo, UT, USA. Boston VR transcripts.
13. ↑ Banks, Charles Edward, "The Planters of the Commonwealth: A Study of the Emigrants and Emigration in Colonial Times, 1620-1640." Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., Copyright 1930, 2006. Page 92-93: Passengers on the Lyon.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Perkins, George Augustus, ‘’The Family of John Perkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts’’. (Salem, MA: G.A. Perkins, 1889), accessed at Archive.org. Pages 1-7.
15. ↑ "Prince's Annals of New England." Vol. 1, page 341.
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Savage, James. ‘’A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those who Came before May, 1962, on the Basis of Farmer's Register’’. Boston MA: Little Brown & Co., 1860. Accessed at Archive.org. Vol.3 p.396.
17. ↑ NEHGR, "Some Notices of the Family Perkins in America." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, NEHGS, 2001-2018). Vol. 10 (Jul 1856) p.213.
18. ↑ General register of the Society of colonial wars, 1899-1902; Society of colonial wars. New York: H. K. Brewer & co. 1902. p. 729.
19. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. Salem, MA, 1911. Vol. I, p. 187.
20. ↑ Waters, Thomas Franklin, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ipswich MA: Ipswich Historical Society, 1905. Accessed online at Archive.org. Vol. I, p. 50; also see The Winthrop Papers: Vol. III, pp. 432-3.
21. ↑ The published Ipswich vital records includes his death taken from a "family record" that says only that he died in 1654, age 64. Vital records of Ipswich, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 vol. 2 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1910), 645. [1]
22. ↑ Essex Co, MA, probate file 21337, images at FamilySearch, will, p.1 [2], p. 2 [3], inventory [4]. See also "Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881," New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014, images at Amercian Ancestors $ [5].

See Also:

• Crapo, Henry Howland, "Certain Comeoverers." New Bedford, MA: E. Anthony & Sons, 1912. Accessed online at Ancestry.com. Page 543-546. Bio of John Perkins Sr. (unsourced).
• Davis, Walter Goodwin, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis. Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1996.
• Ferris, Mary Walton, ‘’Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes’’. Accessed online at HathiTrust. Vol. 1, pp.484-486.
• 'Find A Grave', database and images: accessed 12 Aug 2018, John Perkins (21 Dec 1583–Mar 1654), Memorial #115817316, citing Old Burying Ground, Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by BluMoKitty (contributor 46830270). Unsourced.
• Hart, Craig, "A Genealogy of the Wives of the American Presidents and Their First Two Generations of Descent." McFarland, Oct 29, 2004. Page 71: John Perkins to Grace Coolidge.
• Kirk, Marshall K. "A Probable Royal Descent for Thomas Bradbury of Salisbury, Massachusetts." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 27 (Jan 2007) p.36.
• Little, George Thomas, "Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine." New York, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1909.
• Perkins, Thomas Allen, comp. "Jacob Perkins of Wells, Maine and His Descendants 1583-1936." Haverhill, MA: Record Publishing Company, 1947.
• Pope, Charles Henry, "The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List Drawn from Records of the Colonies, Towns, and Churches and Other Contemporaneous Documents." Originally published 1900. Westminster, MD. Reprint by Heritage Books, 2007.
• Savage, James. ‘’A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those who Came before May, 1962, on the Basis of Farmer's Register’’. Boston MA: Little Brown & Co., 1860. Accessed at Archive.org. Vol.3 p.396.
• Schofield, George. The Ancient Records of The Town of Ipswich (Chronicle Motor Press, Ipswich, Mass., 1899)

• This source frequently mentions: "John Perkins Junior", "John Perkins the younger", "John Perkins the Elder", Thomas Perkins, William Perkins, "Alice Perkins, widow, sometime the wyfe of Isaac Perkins", "Goodman Perkins".

• The Perkins Family in Ye Olden Times : the Contents of a Series of Letters by the Late Mansfield Parkyns. 1916. Internet Archive.