PERROT, Charles (1642-86), of St. John's College, Oxford and Fyfield, Berks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1685 - 10 June 1686

Family and Education

bap. 29 Nov. 1642, 3rd s. of James Perrot (d.1687) of Amersham, Bucks. and Fawley, Berks. by Anne, da. and coh. of George Dale, DCL, principal of St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford. educ. St. John’s, Oxf. 1657, BA 1661, BCL 1664, DCL 1669; advocate, Doctors’ Commons 1671. unm.1

Offices Held

Fellow of St. John’s Of. 1664; commr. for assessment, Berks. 1673-80, Oxon. 1679-80; j.p. Berks. and Oxford 1682-d.; steward of duchy of Lancaster lands, Berks. and Oxon. 1685-d.; alderman, Abingdon 1686-d.2

Biography

Perrot came from a cadet branch of an Oxfordshire family which acquired much property at the dissolution of the monasteries. The relationship was not acknowledged, however, and at the time of Perrot’s birth his father was in the service of Sir William Drake, 1st Bt. Presumably a moderate Parliamentarian like his employer, he acquired sufficient property in Berkshire to be appointed to the assessment commission in 1657, and had a confirmation of arms in 1664.3

Perrot has to be distinguished from his cousin, the linguist and fellow of Oriel, who took service under Joseph Williamson, and died in 1677. Perrot became a civilian, and built himself a house on the property at Fyfield which he leased from his college. ‘A thorough-paced soaker’ and a Tory, he was returned for the university at the head of the poll at the second election of 1679. When it was mentioned in the Commons on 11 Nov. 1680 that ‘a notorious Popish sermon’ had been preached in the university church, Perrot deprecated any reflection on the university authorities, who had obliged the preacher to recant his views on purgatory, but refrained from expelling him because of his position in the household of Edward Hales I. His only committee in the second Exclusion Parliament was for the comprehension bill. He was re-elected unopposed in 1681, when he was totally inactive, and in 1685, when he was appointed to four committees, including that for the better recovery of tithe. On 18 June he was added to the committee for expiring laws, whose instructions included the drafting of a bill to regulate printing, and he also served on the committees for rebuilding St. Paul’s and repairing Bangor Cathedral. He died in his rooms in college on 10 June 1686 and was buried at Fyfield. His nephew Henry sat for Oxfordshire as a Tory from 1721 to 1740.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Leonard Naylor

Notes

  • 1. Amersham par. reg.; Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii) 194.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1682, pp. 88, 548; 1686-7, p. 34; Sir Robert Somerville, Duchy of Lancaster Official Lists, 220.
  • 3. E. L. Barnwell, Perrot Notes, 82, 95-96, 103-4.
  • 4. Wood’s Life and Times (Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxi) 460-1, 515-16, 522; (xxvi) 188-9; VCH Berks, iv. 345; HMC Portland, ii. 297; Grey, viii. 18; Barnwell, 104-5.