PERRY, Samuel (d. 1680), of Taunton, Som.

Several moments in Samuel Perry’s career are well documented, but there is much about his life that remains obscure. What is clear is his connection with Robert Blake*. If Perry was the lieutenant of that name, the pair may first have served together in the foot regiment of Alexander Popham*.11BHO, Cromwell Assoc. database. Much more certain is that two are undoubtedly linked in the earliest confirmed reference to Perry. On 16 July 1644 the parliamentarian lord general, Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, authorised the payment of £40 to Blake for the expenses of the garrison at Taunton. That money was received by Perry, acting as Blake’s agent.12SP28/17, f. 80. It is entirely possible that Perry had already served with Blake at Bristol and Lyme Regis. The following October Edmund Wyndham* attempted to retake Taunton for the king. Perry was then one of the four officers who joined Blake in signing his defiant letter to Wyndham refusing to surrender.13Perfect Diurnall no. 74 (23-30 Dec. 1644), 587 (E.258.7); Lttrs. of Robert Blake, 1-2. Blake – presumably with Perry’s assistance – was able to repel two further royalist sieges between then and the summer of 1645.

Blake subsequently described Perry as having been ‘once my lieutenant colonel’.14Lttrs. of Robert Blake, 343. Perry certainly held that rank by the spring of 1647 when he was proposed as the new governor of Taunton, in succession to Blake. The Commons approved that appointment on 17 March. The Lords concurred three months later.15CJ v. 115b; LJ ix. 238b; CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 563. Perry may therefore have been the ‘Mr Samuel Perry’ who married Amy Syms at St James’s parish church, Taunton, in July of that year.16Taunton St James par. reg. The bride’s father can be identified as John Syms of Poundisford, as her sister Susannah later married the vicar of St Mary Magdalen, Taunton, George Newton.17Humphreys, Wellington, pt. i. 74; ‘George Newton’, Oxford DNB.

Perry’s election to the 1654 Parliament may have owed something to Blake’s influence, although his time as governor must have allowed him to build up some sort of local power base of his own. His single committee appointment in that Parliament was to be named to the committee to consider the results of the Irish elections.18CJ vii. 373b. He did not stand again in 1656.

Blake’s death in August 1657 was the occasion for one final mention of his old friendship with Perry. Under the terms of his will, which he had drawn up in March 1656, Blake left £100 to be distributed among the poor of Taunton by three men, of whom Perry was one.19Lttrs. of Robert Blake, 343. It was only in 1659-60 that Perry was briefly included on any of the local commissions: in January 1659 he was added to the Somerset commission for ejecting scandalous ministers; in January 1660 the recalled Rump named him as one of the assessment commissioners for Somerset; and two months later the Long Parliament, by then replenished by the re-admission of the secluded Members, appointed him to the Somerset militia commission.20A. and O.; PRO31/17/33, p. 415. That new militia commission then reinstated him as the governor of Taunton.21Parliamentary Intelligencer no. 15 (2-9 Apr. 1660), 228 (E.183.2). Perry was thus never much of a figure at a county level in Somerset. Later that year he petitioned the Convention for payment of £483 which he had personally paid to the Taunton garrison for the wage arrears, seemingly at the time of the royalist uprisings the previous summer. On 18 July the Commons approved this payment (subject to checks by the local militia commissioners), but also ordered that the Taunton garrison was to be disbanded.22CJ viii. 92a; Bodl. Dep. F.9, f. 86. This ended Perry’s military career.

Only a few possible traces of his later life emerge. He was quite possibly the Samuel Perry whose house was licensed for Presbyterian meetings in July 1672 under the terms of Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence. If so, he was then living at Thorne Falcon, a village only a few miles outside Taunton.23CSP Dom. 1672, p. 402. This was probably the same person, a gentleman of the parish of St Mary Magdalen, Taunton, who drew up a will in May 1675 and who can be identified as the man who had married there in 1647. That couple had evidently had no children, so he named his wife, Amy, as the main beneficiary. However, he also left various lands at Thorne Falcon, West Hatch, Laverton and Wellington to various nephews, sons of his brothers, Joseph and Obadiah. That will also mentioned two other brothers, Robert and Benjamin, and a sister, Hester. In the event, his wife predeceased him and so Perry added a codicil in April 1680 specifying that his nephew Joseph Perry of Taunton should inherit her share of his inheritance.24Humphreys, Wellington, pt. i. 73-4. He died six months later and was buried at St Mary’s Taunton on 8 October.25Taunton St Mary par. reg. The will was proved at Taunton on 24 March 1681, when his possessions were valued at £461 13s 6d.26Humphreys, Wellington, pt. i. 74.