James Perrot (abt. 1571 - 1637)

Born about 1571 in Westmead, Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Mary (Ashfield) Perrot — married 21 May 1602 (to 4 Feb 1637) in St Andrew by the Wardrobe, City of London, England

Died 4 Feb 1637 at about age 66 in Haroldston, Pembrokeshire, Wales

Biography

James Perrot is Notable.

James is now thought to have probably been born in Wales, not Munster, at Westmead, in the parish of Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, between late 1571 and early 1572. ^[1] He was an illegitimate son of Sir John Perrot and his mistress Sybil of Radnorshire. His father made the settlement of his estate in 1574 and placed James third in the succession after his two legitimate sons, Thomas, son of John's first wife, Anne Cheyne, and William, son of his second wife, Jane Prust. ^[2] James was educated at Jesus College, Oxford and at Inner Temple in 1591. ^[3]

His father, Sir John, died attainted in the Tower on the 17th of April 1592. ^[4] James's half-brother, Thomas, was restored in blood within six months and inherited Haroldston but died in 1594 and after lengthy court battle ^[5] the matter of his inheritance was largely resolved in 1608 when he obtained a royal licence to hold those lands which had formerly belonged to his brother, his other legitmate brother William, having died childless in 1587. He took his new bride to Haroldston in 1602 and lived there for the rest of his life. ^[3]

In 1597 he was returned to Parliament as member for Haverfordwest at first leaving little mark.^[3]

On the 21st of May 1602 at St Andrew by the Wardrobe in London James married Mary Ashfield. ^[6] There were no children from the marriage. Mary was a recusant but that had no effect on James' ruthless pursuit of such. ^[3]

James was knighted in June or July 1603 at Sir William Fleetwood's house as the new King, James I, travelled to England to take up his inheritance ^[7]and in 1605 served as Mayor of Haverfordwest.

Sir James died childless on the 4th of February 1637 bequeathing Haroldston and his Haverfordwest lands to a distant connection, Herbert Perrot of Moretown-on-Lugg in Herefordshire. ^[8] He was buried at St Mary, Haverfordwest. ^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ Admiration or Revulsion: The Life, Career and Character of Sir James Perrot by R K Turvey
2. ↑ NOTE: No mention is made of James' older full brother John, in the Parliamentary History article by Andrew Thrush below.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} History of Parliament online: PERROT, James (c.1571-1637), of Westmede, Carm. and Haroldston, Pemb
4. ↑ Oxford dictionary of National Biography: Perrot, Sir John (1528–1592) Roger Turvey
5. ↑ "Within months of his half-brother's death in February 1594, Perrot sought to invoke the settlement of 1584 in which he was named heir to his father's estates. However, he immediately encountered problems not least in the fact of his father's attainder, so that the properties to which he could now lay claim had dwindled to include only those which had been inherited by the family, restored to Sir Thomas Perrot within four months of his father's death in the Tower under sentence of death, as opposed to those granted by the Crown in lease or life-grant. Further impediments presented themselves, his illegitimacy and the counter claims of his half-brother's widow, Dorothy (d.1619), of her daughter and heiress Penelope (d. 1647) and of a cousin Thomas Perrot of London (formerly of the Brook near Westmead). When Dorothy Perrot married Henry Percy (d.1632), 9th earl of Northumberland, in late 1594 or early 1595, Perrot was faced by a powerful enemy aided and abetted by the persuasive legal advocacy of Canon. It took over ten years before Perrot was able to secure, piecemeal, a sizeable share of the Perrot patrimony." Admiration or Revulsion: The Life, Career and Character of Sir James Perrot by R K Turvey
6. ↑ Marriage record St Andrew by the Wardrobe (21 May 1602 James Parrott married Mary Ashefeld)
7. ↑ Knights of England
8. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Perrot, Sir James (1571/2–1637) Andrew Thrush
9. ↑ Dictionary of Welsh Biography 1959 PERROT family, of Haroldston, Pembs