Person:John Perry (78)

John Perry's was baptised on 15th January 1758 at Eversholt in Bedfordshire, son of Ann Perry, formerly Warren, and her husband Thomas Perry.

As a young man, John moved to Harpenden, some seventeen miles south of Eversholt. He was married there aged eighteen, on 19th October 1776, to Ann Alce, who was originally from Wheathampstead, but had moved to neighbouring Harpenden with her family five years earlier. John and Ann had a son, Thomas, baptised at Harpenden the following year. They also appear to have had a son called Jonathan around 1780, who later claimed to have been born in Harpenden, although no baptism for him has been found.

John and Ann then returned to Eversholt some time before 1783, when their next son, James, was baptised there. Between 1783 and 1800 they had seven children baptised at Eversholt and one baptised at neighbouring Woburn, giving ten children in total.

John died in 1820, being buried at Eversholt on 28th September 1820. He was said to be 62 years old when he died. Ann survived him by over 23 years, and appears in the 1841 census working as a lacemaker and living at Hills End in Eversholt. When John's son Edward married in 1837 he reported that John had been a labourer.

1. ↑ Bedfordshire Family History Society. Eversholt Parish Register Transcript. (Bedford).

   1758 / Jan 15 Jn s Thos & Ann Perrey

   This baptism has been linked to the John Perry who married Ann Alce on the basis that, whilst they did not marry in Eversholt they did settle there after their marriage and live there for the rest of their lives. The age given when John died suggests he was born around 1758. There does not appear to be any other marriage or burial for the John baptised in 1758 in Eversholt.

2. ↑ England. National Burial Index.

   bur. 28 Sep 1820, Eversholt, Bedfordshire: John Perry, aged 62 [1757/8]

   Needs to be confirmed at Bedfordshire Archives.