John Perrin was the first Perrin of the Virginia & Kentucky Perrin Family to set foot on colonial shores.  John was a English Loyalist and held at least two political offices in the colony of Massachusetts.  The pilgrim Ship "Safety" brought 21 year old John Perrin to the Virginia Colony according the "Safety's" ship log. John's name is spelled John Perryn on the passanger list and the captain or master of the ship was John Gaunt.

 

Search for John Perryn on the passanger list: http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/safety.htm

 

Search for the "Safety's" port of call in the colonies - it is located between the Ship named "Globe" and a ship named "George" toward the bottom of the list: http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/shiplist.htm

 

 John Perrin was a bigamist without question.  His children in the Colony of Massachusetts John, Mary, Abraham and Hannah obviously never got to meet his other wife Sarah Nash who gave him another 5 children in the Virginia Colony.  Puritans sure had a lot to hide.  While historians may give John Perrin a pass the fact remains that he was an elected official who's duties and responsiblities were to supervise the construction of colonial highways as well as it was his duty to enforce colonial law.  It isn't that hard to put two and two together about Sarah Nash of Virginia and Anna Hulbert of Massachusetts when you realize that John would have taken extended leaves of absence from one family or the other while executing his duties under both the elected offices he held.  It was easy for him to live a double life, in fact, his career called him to be Puritan on one hand and sinner on the other.  He would have been damning sinners who dared operate outside of colonial law while living "above the law" and research has proven this to be the fact.

 

The Virginia Company had established Jamestown, Va. in 1601 giving John little room to carve a place for himself in the already founded city.  He may have stayed in Jamestown or Williamsburg (known as Middle Plantation when John arrived) long enough to marry and impregnate Sarah Nash with her first child, but somewhere along the way he decided to hop aboard another vessle headed for Plymouth, Ma. that same year. He may have met his other wife Anna Hulbert aboard that vessle bound for Plymouth, Ma. impregnating her in that exact same year.  John Perryn then joined up with other separatists and headed some 20 miles west of Plymouth to become the 19th founder of the 30 founders Rehoboth, Ma. and he finally carved out his place in history along with other separatists.  There is no questioning that the pilgram ship "The Safety" carried him to Virginia before he ever got to Massachusetts.

 

 

Note: Records show that John had been exposed to the French laguage, possibly during his childhood. Some records have John born in France to English parents while other records show his birth place as Chelmsford, England.  We do know that John did stay in France at some point in his life, but the duration of his stay is unknown.  The various signings of his name may have come from his exposure to the French language and him signing various documents using different spellings such as Peryn, Perryn, Perrin, Perins. Not to mention the Norman-Anglo bloodline of Shropshire County England that John came from which is French and was established in England during the time of King William the Conqueror 1066 A.D. To this very day Shropshire County England's crest and the Perrin family crest bare the same identical Anglo-Norman markings (the three norman-anglo lions)  If you look closely at John's family members you'll see that they all moved around alot throughout England to and from places like Somerset and Lichfield and the towns of Shropshire County so John's birth taking place in Chelmsford, England is probably far more accurate than him being born in France.  Family tradition during John's lifetime may have dictated that he learn the French language and his parents may have even visited distant relatives in Franch frequently exposing him to the language.  As the Perrin family began their exodus from Shropshire County to places like Somersetshire County it isn't hard to conclude that John's birth would have stood far more of a chance happening in Chelmsford, England than in France. Or another possibility is that John may have been born in France while his parents were vactioning or visiting distant relatives and that his family quickly returned to England obtaining a birth certificate through Chelmsford's clergy at the time (the practice of the times then when churches kept exclusive record of marriages and births)