One of the main families in Tony’s ancestry is Perrin. The family history of Perrin in the 14th to 18th century is confused by multiple use of the same first name through generations, changes in spelling of the surname and the repeated use of alias’s. This part of the story, therefore, can be hard to follow, possibly boring for the reader, and continually confusing. For this reason we have separated our ‘early’ Perryn under his alias Bishoppe. Happy reading.
Arthur Bisshoppe (alias Arthur Perryn) was born in 1470 in Rickling, Essex, which is about 2km South of Saffron Walden. This early history has not been researched in any detail but those interested can read on. The use of ‘alias’s’ in these early centuries is explained below.
Church records show us that Arthur Bisshope had married Alice Cole and they had two children, John who was born in 1494 and Ann. Arthur was a husbandman or small land owning farmer. He died in 1515, is buried at Rickling, and left his estate of land and orchards to his eldest child John. John Bisshoppe alias Perryn, as a husbandman too, married Katherine and they had three children John b1535, Elizabeth and Ann. John Snr. died in 1548 and left his entire estate to his son John, but in the care of mother Katherine until his 25th birthday. John left 5 Marks to each of his daughters!.
Eldest child John Perryn owned and managed the estate from 1560 and in 1570 married Judith and this marriage resulted in four children; Prudence, William and Audry, triplets born in 1570, and John b1575. Father John died in 1588 and the estate past to eldest son William. This is where our family line parts from the landed gentry!
Youngest son John Bisshop (alias John Perryn) married Clemente Holgate around 1618, the year their first child and son William was born, still at Rickling. John Perryn is a farm labourer working in the Rickling district, but not living on the estate and not a land owner.
John and Clemente’s son William b1618 married Elizabeth in 1650 and they had a son, Henry Perryn (alias Bishop), born that year. William died in 1666, the year of the Great Plague.
Son Henry is shown as a ‘labourer’ , like his father, on the baptism documents for his son, also Henry b1696. Henry Snr. died in 1723.
NAME SPELLING AND ALIAS’S
This is probably a good point at which to try and explain name changes and aliases, Bisshoppe to Perryn, and the spelling variations. As previously mentioned the modern Perrin name most likely has Norman origins. There were no spelling rules to language at this time and the written word record was often phonetic and very liberally translated into records by priests and clergymen. Add in the old English, Celtic and French language confusion and the spelling variations become understandable. Interestingly, when our records start in the Tudor and Stuart periods (1480 to 1714AD) this is the period that coincides with the development of surnames in England. Our Perrin name did not stabilise in the modern form until the 1800’s.
Aliases add further to the confusion. Unlike modern aliases, used to hide and confuse connection with past activities, the historic aliases more relate to an attempt to clarify. That is to legally link a person to an important historical document or claim; typically ownership of land or estates. To identify the reasons why our Perrin is linked to Bishop is probably not possible, but it was obviously important at the time. For Arthur Bisshope to have owned land, even a small estate, in the 1400’s was indeed a ‘big deal’. It is quite possible that the land title record had one name and by marriage the name of the owner had changed. Patronymic in such cases became important. There was then a need to effectively retain both names and to reiterate the connection when needed to clarify ownership or inheritance rights.
AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS
Returning to our Perrin narrative. Henry Perryn b1696 was baptised at the All Saints Church, Rickling. His parents were shown on the church baptism documents as Henry Perryn (Alias Bishop), a labourer, and Elizabeth. Henry and Elizabeth’s son Henry grew up in Rickling and in 1722 married Mary Ginn, also from Rickling. Mary b1702 was the daughter of Francis and Mary Ginn. The couple Henry and Mary Perryn had a son John b1722, with Henry continuing employment as an agricultural labourer. It seems that the ‘estates’ of the Bisshoppe’s have fully disappeared from our family line, through the passage of time, although the alias is still in use.
Henry and Mary’s son John Perryn married Mary Wright b1722, and they had a son William b1748. William Perryn, still alias Bishop, was also an agricultural labourer when he married Hannah Pledger, b1752, in 1778 and this couple moved from Rickling to Strethall, still in Essex. Hannah was the daughter of William Pledger and Rose Bray of Littlebury and Hannah had eight siblings.
This is a good point at which to leave the Perryn’s alias Bishoppe. William Perryn b1748, alias Bishop, was the last family member to use the Perryn spelling and the Bishop alias. In addition, our family ancestors left the village of Rickling, moved to Strethall and married into a Littlebury family. This is important because in the early 1800’s the Perrin history moves to this village.
Before we leave; a final look at Rickling through the 1841 census will clarify the status of Perryn and Bishoppe at that time. This enables us to see what this small village can tell us about the Perrin family and in particular if there is any remaining link to Bishop or rural estates. The entire population of Rickling and Rickling Green combined totalled 445 people in that year. In that population were 22 Perren’s and Perrin’s. There were no Perryn’s and there were no Bishop’s, of any spelling. In Rickling Green there were only two families, both Perrin, and headed by Widows Mary b1791 and Ann b1761. In Rickling there was one extended Perrin family, headed by Stephen b1801 with wife Sarah and two children. Living with them is Stephen’s son John, his wife and son. There are also two Perren families, both headed by James’. In one, James b1791 is with wife Ann and five children, in the other James b1816 is with wife Emma and one child. All of these families are shown as agricultural labourers or drovers. There seems to be only one family line, Perrin, and they are from Rickling Green. There is also only one family line Perren, in Rickling. Both or either of these families could be related to our family of William b1748, but there are clearly no remaining land ownership’s and the Bishop alias has ceased to be used.