Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/26

 of Hull. From the marriage of Elizabeth Perronet to William Briggs was descended Henry Perronet Briggs [q. v.], subject and portrait painter.

Perronet published: 1. ‘A Vindication of Mr. Locke,’ 8vo, 1736. 2. ‘A Second Vindication of Mr. Locke,’ 8vo, 1738 [see under ]. 3. ‘Some Enquiries chiefly relating to Spiritual Beings, in which the opinions of Mr. Hobbes … are taken notice of,’ 8vo, 1740. 4. ‘An Affectionate Address to the People called Quakers,’ 8vo, 1747. 5. ‘A Defence of Infant Baptism,’ 12mo, 1749. 6. ‘Some Remarks on the Enthusiasm of Methodists and Quakers compared’ (see under, and London Magazine, 1749, p. 436). 7. ‘An Earnest Exhortation to the strict Practice of Christianity,’ 8vo, 1750. 8. ‘Third Letter to the author of the Enthusiasm of Methodists’ (London Mag. 1752, p. 48). 9. ‘Some Short Instructions and Prayers,’ 8vo, 4th edit. 1755. 10. ‘Some Reflections on Original Sin,’ &c., 12mo, 1776. 11. ‘Essay on Recreations,’ 8vo, 1785.

Perronet's portrait was engraved by J. Spilsbury in 1787, and is given in the ‘Methodist Magazine,’ November 1799.

(1721–1792), hymn-writer, son of Vincent and Charity Perronet, was born in 1721. He was John Wesley's companion on his visit to the north in 1749, and met with rough treatment from the mob at Bolton. He became one of Wesley's itinerant preachers, was on most friendly terms with both John and Charles Wesley, who spoke of him as ‘trusty Ned Perronet,’ and seems to have made an unfortunate suggestion that led John Wesley to marry Mrs. Vazeille (, ii. 104). Yet even by that time his impatience of control had caused some trouble to John Wesley, who, in 1750, wrote to him that, though he and his brother Charles Perronet behaved as he liked, they either could not or would not preach where he desired (ib. p. 85). In 1754–5 Perronet, in common with his brother Charles, urged separation from the church and the grant of license to the itinerants to administer the sacraments. He was at that date living at Canterbury (see above) in a house formed out of part of the old archiepiscopal palace. His attack on the church in the ‘Mitre’ in 1756 caused the Wesleys deep annoyance; they prevailed on him to suppress the book, but he appears to have given some copies away to his fellow-itinerants, after promising to suppress it. Charles Wesley wrote a violent letter to his brother John on the subject on 16 Nov. of that year, speaking of the ‘levelling, devilish, root-and-branch spirit which breathes in every line of the “Mitre,”’ declaring that Perronet had from the first set himself against them, and had poisoned the minds of the other preachers; that he wandered about from house to house ‘in a lounging way of life,’ and that he had better ‘go home to his wife’ at Canterbury. Among Perronet's offences noted in this letter, the writer says that on a late visit to Canterbury he had seen his own and his brother's ‘sacrament hymns’ so scratched out and blotted by him that scarcely twenty lines were left entire (ib. p. 254). By 1771, and probably earlier, he had ceased to be connected with Wesley; he joined the Countess of Huntingdon's connexion, and preached under her directions at Canterbury, Norwich, and elsewhere, with some success. The countess, however, remonstrated with him for his violent language about the church of England, and he therefore ceased to work under her (Life of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, ii. 134–5), and became minister of a small chapel at Canterbury with an independent congregation. He died on 8 Jan. 1792, and was buried in the south cloister of the cathedral of Canterbury, near the transept door. Unlike his father, he seems to have been hot-headed, uplifted, bitter in temper, and impatient of all control. In old age he was crusty and eccentric. In 1892 nonconformists at Canterbury held a centenary festival to commemorate his work in that city. From the letter of C. Wesley referred to above, it would seem that he had a wife in 1756. There is, however, a strong belief among some of the descendants of Vincent Perronet that Edward never married. It is possible that the wife spoken of by C. Wesley was one in expectancy, and that the marriage never took place; he certainly left no children.

His published works are: 1. ‘Select Passages of the Old and New Testament versified,’ 12mo, 1756. 2. ‘The Mitre, a sacred poem,’ 8vo, printed 1757 (a slip from a bookseller's catalogue gives the date 1756, with note ‘suppressed by private authority;’ it was certainly printed in 1756, but a new title-page may have been supplied in 1757; see copy in the British Museum, with manuscript notes and corrections, and presentation inscription from the author, signed E. P. in monogram); it contains a dull and virulent attack on the Church of England. It was published without the author's name. In one of the notes the author says, ‘I was born and am like to die a member of the Church of England, but I despise her nonsense.’ 3. ‘A Small Collection of Hymns,’ 12mo, 1782. 4. ‘Occasional Verses, moral and