Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/43

 before and after his marriage, and it was at his house in Merton that the Greek professor lost through fire his transcript of about half of the Greek lexicon of Photius and his notes on Aristophanes (‘Porsoniana’ in Table Talk, p. 322).

Perry had remarkably small quick eyes and stooped in the shoulders. Leigh Hunt adds that he ‘not unwillingly turned his eyes upon the ladies.’ His fund of anecdote was abundant, his acquaintance with secret history ‘authentic and valuable.’ J. P. Collier complains that he was ‘always disposed to treat the leaders of the whigs with subservient respect. He never quite lost his retail manner acquired in the draper's shop at Aberdeen.’ He is said to have died worth 130,000l., the sale of his paper realising no less than 42,000l. He reprinted, with a preface of thirty-one pages, the account of his trial in 1810, and he drew up a preface for the reprint from the ‘Morning Chronicle’ of November and December 1807 of ‘The Six Letters of A. B. on the Differences between Great Britain and the United States of America.’

A portrait was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Of this Wivell's drawing was engraved by Thomson in the ‘European Magazine’ for 1818. An original drawing in water-colours by John Jackson, R.A., is at the print room of the British Museum.

[Gent. Mag. 1797 pt. i. p. 438, 1798 pt. ii. p. 722, 1815 pt. i. p. 282, 1821 pt. ii. pp. 565–6; Ann. Biogr. and Obituary, vii. 380–91; European Mag. 1818 pt. ii. pp. 187–90; Grant's Newspaper Press, i. 259–80; Fox-Bourne's Newspapers, i. 248–68, 279, 363–7; F. K. Hunt's Fourth Estate, ii. 103–13; Andrews's Journalism, i. 229–33, 248, 265–6, ii. 40, 48; Cunningham's London (ed. Wheatley), ii. 365, iii. 349; Watson's Life of Porson, pp. 125–9; Collier's Old Man's Diary, pt. ii. pp. 42–5, 86; Jerdan's Men I have known, pp. 329–35; Miller's Biogr. Sketches, i. 147–9; P. L. Gordon's Personal Memoirs, i. 235–63, 280–285; Bartlett's Wimbledon, pp. 83, 89, 170–1.] 

PERRY, JOHN (1670–1732), civil engineer and traveller, second son of Samuel Perry of Rodborough, Gloucestershire, and Sarah, his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Nott, was born at Rodborough in 1670. He entered the navy, and at the beginning of 1690 is described as lieutenant of the ship Montague, commanded by Captain John Layton. In January 1690 he lost the use of his right arm, from a wound received during an engagement with a French privateer. In 1693 he superintended the repair of the Montague in Portsmouth harbour, on which occasion he devised an engine for throwing out water from deep sluices. In the same year he appears as commander of the fireship Cygnet, attached to the man-of-war Diamond, the commander of the latter being Captain Wickham. While the two vessels were cruising about twenty leagues off Cape Clear, on 20 Sept. 1693, they were attacked by two large French privateers, and compelled to surrender. Perry declares that his superior, Wickham, gave him no orders, and struck his flag after a slight resistance, thus leaving the Cygnet a helpless prey to her stronger assailant. Wickham, however, maintained that Perry refused to co-operate with him, and was also guilty of a dereliction of duty in not setting fire to his ship before the Frenchmen boarded her. Perry being put on his trial before a court-martial, Captain Wickham's charges were held proved, and Perry was sentenced to a fine of 1,000l. and ten years' imprisonment in the Marshalsea. While in prison he wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Regulations for Seamen,’ in the appendix of which he gave a long statement of his case. The pamphlet is dated 18 Dec. 1694. Perry eventually obtained his release, for in April 1698 he was introduced by Lord Carmarthen to the czar Peter, then on a visit to England. Peter, struck with Perry's knowledge of engineering, engaged him to go out to Russia immediately, to superintend naval and engineering works. Perry was promised his expenses, an annual salary of 300l., and liberal rewards in case his work proved of exceptional value.

Perry arrived in Russia in the early summer of 1698. He was first employed to report on the possibility of establishing a canal between the rivers Volga and Don. The work was begun in 1700, but the progress made was slow, owing to the incapacity of the workmen, the delay in supplying materials, and the opposition of the nobility. Perry was also much annoyed at the the czar's neglect to pay him any salary. In September 1701 Perry, who now received the title of ‘Comptroller of Russian Maritime Works,’ was summoned to Moscow, and early in 1702 ordered to Voronej, on the right bank of the river of that name, to establish a dock. This was completed in 1703, after which Perry was employed in making the Voronej river