Chasing the Perrine Family Across America
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Chasing the Perrine 1669-1992 Family Guernsey and Jersey in Channel Across America Islands, La Rochelle, Shooting Star, Staten Island, Perrineville, NJ, Perrine Corners, PA, Hartford, OH, Sharon, PA. (left) When the Vikings became Normans… Chasing down details of family history leads to interesting encounters with geography. Most of our ancestors were born on farms or small towns in the hinder lands of America or Europe or Asia or wherever. Although the internet is helpful, most of the time you really need to visit these ancestral places. Often the search for these home places and cemeteries encompasses several years, much unexplainable interest, and substantial gas and cash. Oh, yes and a goodly supply of old maps. My Dad’s ancestors were Norman Huguenots. They originated at least since 1335 from the Channel Islands -- specifically Guernsey and Jersey -- just off the coast between Normandy and England. But our branch of the family went into The Marches in Brittany, south of Basse- Normandie, and built a chateau, a manor house, called Courbe Joilliere. For several centuries the Perrins of the Channel Island and the Perrins of Brittany developed their lands. The Normans descended from Vikings in the period 900-933 A.D. when Viking leader, Rollo, won so much land that he However during the Protestant was named the first Duke of Normandy and granted large Revolution, leading Perrins in both territories in northern France including Rouen. The treaty Guernsey and Brittany became with France was signed by King Charles the Simple. The Protestant, following Jean Calvin, and th th Perrin/Perryn/Perine name dates back in church records to in the 16 and 17 centuries were 1335 in the Channel Island of Jersey and Guernsey and to Huguenots persecuted by the French 1440s in Normandy geneologies. crown. Pierre Perrin, born during the expulsion of Huguenots from La Rochelle, in Lyons, found safety in the Channel Islands; his son Daniel, came with Cartaret, the Siegneur of Jersey, Channel Island, to America, and settled in Staten Islands. His elderly father, Pierre, followed Daniel to America in the ship Caladonia and died in Staten Island. Finally, investigating the Perrin/Perrine family history meant chasing them across America for three and a half centuries. There were many Perrines with all kinds of interesting spellings, but they seemed to cluster in certain recognizable geographic areas and they seemed to like tiny towns, villages, hamlets. A major genealogical study of the Perrines by H. Delano Perrine had been completed in the early 20th century. My Perrine side of the larger family was delineated to my grandfather, Lewis Bierce Perrine, at least as names on a page. In spite of some family genealogists claiming that the Perrin/Perrines were French, they were not part of the Bourbon French history, but rather the Norman/Viking history culminating in 1066 when William Duke of Normandy won at the Battle of Hastings and granted lands in Yorkshire, England, to a well-placed Perryn who rendered military service during that war. This oldest Perrin coat of arms has symbols: the shells of St. James, the Maltese cross “pattee” of the Crusades, and ivy (strong, lasting friendship) with a phrase “Chasse pour Roi” On top of the helmet is a crown (seigneurial) and a goose head (resourcefulness). Chasse pour Roi, attributed to the Loire valley region major hunts. The bolted hunting bow and those that wielded it were La Chasse. Suspect this is the Norman version and looks more ancient than the other two. There is a Perrin English version for those that stayed in England after 1066, and it features three fir tree cones where these shells are located and simplified vegetation. The Latin motto is quite different: “ The French version had three skulls (mortality), three cones (life) on the shield, a more stylized helmet with two feathers (obedience or serenity) rather than a crown, and broader leafed (remembrance) side panels with tassels. Channel Islands, Aquitaine, Normandie Records of the Perrin family go back to 1335 in church registers in the Isle of Jersey and Guernsey, Channel Islands. Perrins were landed Normans. Perrins intermarried with the Carterets and apparently also served as clerks, i.e. educated ambassadors and correspondents for the Carteret seigneurs. They were particularly prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries when Comte Edmund du Perrin served as head of Isle Jersey. Like most Norman families, the younger sons of the Perrins would have served in continental military, either land forces for Normandy or naval forces for England. This was not Bourbon France. The Channel Islands would have been controlled primarily by Normandy and thus aligned strongly with England. Although the first Christians in the Channel Islands were Celtic and monastic, they were followed by Roman Catholic bishops and priests, but by 1570 both the Balliwicks of Jersey (Anglican to Methodist) and Guernsey (Presbyterian) had become strongly Protestant, and served as a refuge for fleeing Huguenots and Calvinists. The Roman Catholic settlements today came chiefly as a result of the French emigres of 1790s fleeing the violence of the French Revolution. Julia Sallabank, associate professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London said that historically the Channel Islands interacted chiefly with Normandy and Britanny and relied upon agriculture and fishing. The famous Guernsey and Jersey cows were developed in their respective balliwicks. The people of the Channel Islands spoke the Norman language; however, each major island developed its own dialect, Jersey (Jèrriais), Guernsey (Guernesiais), and Sark (Serquiais). Over 800 years and particularly since the 20th century, English has become the dominant language and the old Norman tongue is endangered. The documentation on the first Perrin to settle in our family line, Daniel Perrin, who came with Carteret to New Jersey in 1669, is quite substantial, with ship embarkation, marriage certificate, land purchase and observation of a baptism all recorded, There is considerable confusion, however, about the antecedents of Daniel Perrin’s father, Pierre the Huguenot, who came to Staten Island, New York, c. 1686 from Isle Jersey in the Channel Islands and the presumed grandfather, Comte du Perrin, administrative head of Isle Jersey. Comte du Perrin on the other hand the famous London diarist, Samuel Pepys, said came to England from Nouère, a statement that makes little sense. Also confusing are references that the Comte du Perrin and the Pierre Perrin were Huguenot military captains at La Rochelle. One suspects typical genealogical conflation of two or more people. The following discussion of Daniel Perrin, the Huguenot’s, father and grandfather requires a map of France laying out the medieval fiefdoms, because location of the Comte du Perrin(s) goes back at least 400 years prior to the 1615 date when Pierre Perrin was born and then raised a family at Isle Jersey in the Channel Islands before he and Daniel came to America in 1686 and 1669 respectively. 1 Isle Jersey, Isle 1 Guernsey, Channel Islands 2 The Marches of Neustria, Courbe Joillière 3 LaRochelle 2 4 Fouère, Aquitaine 5. Monpellier, 3 Languedoc 4 6. Lyons, Rhone 6 5 In the 1582-1615 period the name Comte de Perrin is associated with at least five different locations, and additionally there was also a Perrin as Seigneur de Isle Jersey (1). It appears that several family geneaologists, especially those listing Perrin/Perrine trees with ancestry.com and heritage.com, have conflated two or more of these people in describing the father of Daniel Perrine, Pierre, and his grandfather, as Comte du Perrin. Recognize that documentation in English is very scarce for this period. And further there is a tendency among Americans jumping the Atlantic to prefer to be linked to royalty or at least to landed aristocracy. And, in a couple of instances the dates don’t align at all; they have an 86-year old Comte du Perrin fathering Pierre with a 24 year old woman. Possible? Not likely. In a process of elimination, we can start with perhaps the best independent documentation of the period, references to Comte du Perrin in Samuel Pepys diary. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist of 16th and 17th century London, married Elizabeth Marchant of St. Michel, a Huguenot, and his diary is laced with several references to Huguenot refugees. Pepys describes two separate Comte du Perrins. Pepys also discusses an opera he saw in London based on a play by Pierre Perrin who founded the Academy of Music in Paris in the 1660s. Elizabeth Pepys father, Alexandre Marchant was a Huguenot and administrative head of Mont St. Michel. The first Comte du Perrin described by Pepys was a naval officer who is quoted briefy describing a ship battle. This person does not seem to match dates or descriptions of the Daniel Perrin line. The second Pepys reference is to a Huguenot that Pepys claimed came from Nouère (4) and arrived in London as a refugee from the religious wars. Since Pepys married into a major Huguenot family, he probably was familiar with Huguenots fleeing France. However, Nouère as a location is extremely confusing. Asnières-sur-Nouère, a hamlet is part of the ancient Aquitaine lands that Eleanor of Aquitaine brought to England with her marriage to Henry II.. Nouère lies south of Brittany and Poitou. What’s confusing is that there is an important Compte du Perrin who was a distinguished Huguenot, a captaine at La Rochelle, and a military officer who served with Henry of Navarre and with Prince Conde, but he was clearly from Bretagne, the Marches, near Poitou (2). His château was called Courbe Joillière and it was located near Clisson. The father-son Huguenots at La Rochelle were Rene and Pierre Perrin II.