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| Perry family (United States) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Perry family |
| Caption | Portraits of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry |
| Region | United States, New England |
| Origin | Rhode Island |
| Founded | 18th century |
Perry family (United States) The Perry family is an American lineage notable for its roles in 18th–19th century naval warfare, politics, exploration, and commerce centered in New England, especially Rhode Island and Connecticut. Members served in conflicts such as the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican–American War, engaged with institutions including the United States Navy, the United States Congress, and the Yale University sphere, and connected by marriage and descent to families like the Greene family, the Avery family, and the Sampson family.
The Perry family's roots trace to colonial Rhode Island and Newport, Rhode Island, where 17th- and 18th-century merchants and mariners established households linked to transatlantic trade, the British Empire mercantile network, and regional elites in Providence, Rhode Island and New London, Connecticut. Early figures interacted with contemporaries such as Esek Hopkins, John Brown (Rhode Island politician), and William Greene (governor), and participated in local affairs alongside families like the Whipple family and the Hazard family. Genealogical records show ties to Plymouth Colony descendants and to seafaring traditions that produced later naval leaders who served under commanders at engagements near Lake Erie, Sackett's Harbor, and the Atlantic theater.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819) gained fame for his command in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, where his victory over British Commodores Robert Heriot Barclay and Sir Isaac Brock solidified his national reputation; his brother Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858) later forced the opening of Japan in 1853–54 through negotiations culminating in the Convention of Kanagawa and interactions with officials in Edo and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate. Senator Christopher Grant Champlin and Congressman William Butler Remey intersected with Perry relatives through political and legal networks that included John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay. Other notable Perrys include naval officers who served under admirals such as Stephen Decatur, diplomats who worked with Gideon Welles, and physicians and scholars educated at institutions like Harvard University and Brown University.
Perry family members held commissions in the Continental Navy, the United States Navy, and state militias during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, collaborating with figures like George Washington, Oliver Wolcott Jr., and Winfield Scott; they influenced congressional debates in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate alongside legislators such as John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster. Through naval operations, they engaged in operations in theaters relevant to the Barbary Wars and the Pacific Squadron, affecting American foreign policy during the administrations of presidents including James Madison, Andrew Jackson, and Franklin Pierce. The family's military service connected them to honors bestowed by institutions like the Society of the Cincinnati and interactions with commanders who later appeared at commemorations such as the Centennial of the United States.
Beyond warfare, Perrys were merchants and shipowners involved in Atlantic trade, packet shipping, and whaling industries that linked them to ports such as New Bedford, Massachusetts, Newport, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut; they transacted with firms connected to the East India Company and shipbuilders employed in yards like those in Bristol County, Rhode Island. Family members contributed to hydrographic surveys, cartography, and early oceanography alongside explorers such as Charles Wilkes and Matthew Fontaine Maury, and participated in technological exchanges with inventors like Samuel F. B. Morse and industrialists in the Industrial Revolution. Scholars among the Perrys published in scientific societies and collaborated with academics at Yale University, Princeton University, and the Smithsonian Institution.
The Perry family maintained residences and estates in New England, including houses in Newport, Rhode Island and properties near Narragansett Bay; some homes are preserved as historic sites listed in state registers and associated with cultural tourism tied to figures like Henry Clay. Portraiture of the Perrys by artists such as Gilbert Stuart and Ralph Earl entered museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery (United States), while monuments commemorating naval victories appear at sites like Put-in-Bay and in memorials honoring the War of 1812. Heraldic arms and family seals circulated among descendants and were recorded in genealogical compendia alongside entries for families such as the Baldwin family and the Adams family (United States).
Genealogical charts show the Perrys connecting by marriage to the Biddle family, the Stuart family, and the Mason family (Virginia), producing descendants who served as diplomats, judges, and academics; records intersect with legal documents filed in New London County, Connecticut and Providence County, Rhode Island. Family papers, correspondence, and logs are held in archives including the Library of Congress, the Rhode Island Historical Society, and university special collections at Yale University and Brown University, enabling research that links Perrys to maritime networks, congressional records, and probate files in county courthouses. Contemporary descendants participate in heritage organizations and maintain genealogies that reference colonial registries, service records from the Naval History and Heritage Command, and compilations by historians of New England notable families.
Category:American families Category:People from Rhode Island Category:Military families of the United States