Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/34

 and testament, dated 3 May 1592, is really a vindication of his conduct and an appeal for mercy. He was brought up for judgment on 26 June, but his death in the Tower in September spared him the last indignities of the law. A rumour that the queen intended to pardon him derives some colour from the fact that his son, Sir Thomas, was restored to his estates. Two engraved portraits of Perrot are in existence, one in the ‘History of Worcestershire,’ i. 350, the other prefixed to the ‘Government of Ireland’ by E. C. S. (cf. ).

Perrot married, first, Ann, daughter of Sir Thomas Cheyney of Shurland in Kent, by whom he had a son, Sir Thomas Perrot, who succeeded him, and married, under mysterious circumstances (, Life of Bishop Aylmer, and Lansdowne MS. xxxix. f. 172), Dorothy, daughter of Walter Devereux, earl of Essex. Perrot's second wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Lewis Pollard, by whom he had William, who died unmarried at St. Thomas Court, near Dublin, on 8 July 1597; Lettice, who married, first, Roland Lacharn of St. Bride's, secondly, Walter Vaughan of St. Bride's, and, thirdly, Arthur Chichester [q. v.], baron Chichester of Belfast, and lord deputy of Ireland; and Ann, who married John Philips. Among his illegitimate children he had by Sybil Jones of Radnorshire a son, Sir James Perrot, separately mentioned, and a daughter, who became the wife of David Morgan, described as a gentleman. By Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Christopher Hatton, he had a daughter, also called Elizabeth, who married Hugh Butler of Johnston.

[Barnwell's Notes on the Perrot Family in Archæol. Cambrensis, 3rd ser. vols. xi. xii.; Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation of Wales, i. 89; Naunton's Frag. Regal.; Lloyd's State Worthies; Fenton's Hist. of Tour through Pembrokeshire; Rawlinson's Life of Sir John Perrot; The Government of Ireland under Sir John Perrot by E.C.S.; Cal. State Papers, Eliz., Ireland and Dom.; Camden's Annals; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors; Annals of the Four Masters; Hardiman's Chorographical Description of West Connaught; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 254; MSS. Brit. Mus. Lansdowne 68, 72, 156; Harl. 35, 3292; Sloane, 2200, 4819; Addit. 32091, ff. 240, 257; Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. pp. 45, 51, 367, 8th Rep. p. 36.]  PERROT, JOHN (d. 1671?), quaker sectary, born in Ireland, was possibly descended, though not legitimately, from Sir John Perrot [q. v.], lord-deputy of Ireland. It is hardly likely that he was the John Perrot fined 2,000l. in the Star-chamber on 27 Jan. 1637, and arraigned before the court of high commission on 14 and 21 Nov. 1639 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1636–7 p. 398, 1639–40 pp. 271, 277).

Before 1656 Perrot joined the quakers, and was preaching in Limerick. The next year he started, with the full authority of the quaker body and at its expense, with one John Love, also an Irishman, on a mission to Italy, avowedly to convert the pope. Perrot passed through Lyons, and on 12 Aug. 1657 he was at Leghorn. There he wrote a treatise concerning the Jews, and both travellers were examined by the inquisition and dismissed. In September, diverging from their original route, they reached Athens, whence Perrot wrote an ‘Address to the People called Baptists in Ireland.’ A manuscript copy is in the library of Devonshire House. He also wrote an epistle to the Greeks from ‘Egripos,’ that is the island of Negroponte (now called Eubœa). Returning to Venice, he interviewed the doge in his palace, and presented him with books and an address, afterwards printed. A work dated from the Lazaretto in Venice indicates either that he had fallen ill or was in prison.

On arriving in Rome, probably in 1658, Perrot and Love commenced preaching against the Romish church, and were arrested. Love suffered the tortures of the inquisition and died under them. Perrot, whose zeal knew no bounds, was more appropriately sent to a madhouse, where he was allowed some liberty and wrote numerous books, addresses, and epistles. These he was suffered to send to England to be printed, and many of them appeared before his release. His detention excited much sympathy in England. Samuel Fisher (1605–1655) [q. v.], John Stubbs, and other Friends went to Rome in 1660 to procure his freedom. Two other Friends, Charles Bayley and Jane Stokes, also unsuccessfully attempted it, Bayley being imprisoned at Bordeaux on the way out. Some account of his experiences he contributed to Perrot's ‘Narrative,’ 1661.

In May 1661 Perrot was released; but on his return to London he was received with some coldness. He was accused of extravagant behaviour while abroad. Fox and others condemned the papers issued by him from Rome, one of which propounded that the removal of the hat during prayer in public was a formal superstition, incompatible with the spiritual religion professed by quakers. This notion gained ground rapidly, and was adopted for a time by Thomas Ellwood [q. v.] and Benjamin Furly [q. v.]; but Fox at once attacked it in a tract issued in 1661 (Journal, ed. 1765, p. 332). Perrot was unconvinced, although many of his friends soon forsook him. He was indefatigable in preaching his opinions