The founder of the Perley family in New England was Allan Perley, who came from London in 1635 in the ship “Planter.” A good deal of information regarding the family may be found in the historical collections of the Essex County Institute of Massachusetts. Israel Perley was a native of Boxford, in the vicinity of Rowley, and the house in which he was born was standing not many years ago and may be still in existence. He was born in 1740, was educated as a land surveyor, and came to the River St. John in 1761 at the head of an exploring party said to have been sent by the governor of Massachusetts to report upon the condition and resources of the country with the view of effecting the settlement of a township in that region. The story of the establishment of this township and the important services of Israel Perley in that connection have been already referred to in these chapters. At the time of his arrival in the country he was a young man of twenty-one years of age but in the course of time his education and natural abilities made him one of the most prominent citizens of Maugerville. He was elected a representative for Sunbury county in the Nova Scotia legislature in 1768, and his name occurs a few years later as a justice of the Peace for the county. Several of Justice Perley’s court documents are to be found among the old records of the county of Sunbury, one of which reads as follows:
“County of Sunbury:—Be it Remembered that on the Seventh Day of July, 1774, Nathaniel Barker of Maugerville in the County of Sunbury and Province of Nova Scotia, yeoman, cometh before Me, Israel Perley, one of his Majesty’s Justices assigned to keep the Peace in the sd County, and Informeth against himself that he had been this day guilty of a breach of the King’s Peace, viz., by Striking with his fist the body of Rich’d Estey Jun’r of the town, County and Province aforesaid, yeoman, for which offence he is willing to submit to such a fine as the Law Requires.
“The sd Richard Estey Jun’r personally appeareth at the same time and Declareth before me that he forgives the sd. Nathaniel Barker the Injury he had Done him, being Convinced that it was not of malice aforethought but the Effect of sudden passion: for which Breach of peace I have fined the sd Nath’l Barker to the king one Shilling.
“ISRAEL PERLEY.”
However all the cases that came before Esquire Perley were not settled in a manner so creditable to the offending party. The following case will serve for illustration:
On the 22 June, 1775, a resident of Morrisania,[125] who shall be nameless, was arrested on information laid by Richard Barlow for using seditious and profane language. Abigail Barlow, wife of the complainant, testified that the offender had in her presence uttered the following words “The king I believe is a d—d Roman, and if he was standing now in that corner by G— I would shoot him, or stab him,” with many other words to the same purpose. The prisoner was convicted of profane swearing, and the magistrate decreed that he should forfeit for that offence the sum of two shillings currency to the use of the poor of the town of Maugerville, and it was further ordered that the prisoner “stands charged with the Treasonable words spoken against the King till he shall be further called upon to answer the 321 same—there being at present no gaol in the sd. county wherein to confine said prisoner nor Courts held to determine such matters.”
Israel Perley was a leading member of the Congregational Church and frequently occupied the chair as moderator at important public meetings. He was one of the committee who, in 1774, arranged with the Rev. Seth Noble to become the pastor of the church at Maugerville. The friendship that existed between Mr. Perley and the Rev. Seth Noble very nearly involved the former in serious difficulty a few years later, as will be seen in the following letter addressed by Major Studholme to James White, Esquire.
“Fort Howe, 4 November, 1780.
“Sir,—The Inclosed letter from Mr. Perley to Seth Noble of Newbury having fallen into my hands in the course of inspecting the letters to be sent by the cartel, I have thought it necessary instantly to secure the person of Mr. Perley and shall send him to your house about 9 this morning, when I must request you will closely examine him on the subject of the Inclosed letter. I cannot but think it will be very difficult for him to reconcile his styling himself the ‘sincere friend’ of a notorious rebel with his own situation as one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace. * * * “I am sir, etc., etc.
“G. STUDHOLME.”
In the examination that followed Lieut. Samuel Denny Street, a lawyer by profession and at this time a lieutenant of the garrison, appeared for Major Studholme, and Mr. Perley was required to explain certain paragraphs and expressions in his letter, also to explain why he attempted a correspondence with “a declared and notorious rebel to whom in his letter he subscribes himself a sincere friend.” Mr. Perley replied, “I meant not to maintain any correspondence with him, but as his wife was going to him in the cartel I wrote the letter now produced to acquaint him of the broken situation of the church here, and that there would be no encouragement to him to think of returning.”
In regard to the expression, “your sincere friend,” Israel Perley stated that the Rev. Mr. Noble was “an old acquaintance before the present disturbances arose and I had no reference, in styling myself his friend, to anything but his person. I did not mean that I was a friend to his principles.”
Evidently there was a vein of humor in Mr. Perley’s character. He is said to have declined a second election to the House of Assembly of N. S., after having served one term. The chaplain’s prayer, “Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings,” etc., he construed to mean, “We should be prevented from doing the half we do there.” Israel Perley died at Maugerville in 1813 in the 73rd year of his age.
Oliver Perley, who was his brother, came to the River St. John in January, 1765, in company with Jacob Barker, jr., Zebulun Esty, Humphrey Pickard and David Burbank, as passengers in a schooner belonging to Hazen, Simonds & White. His wife was a Palmer, whom he married at Newburyport. In common with the majority of their neighbors they were inclined to sympathize with the New England “rebels” at the outbreak of the American Revolution, and the name of Oliver Perley appears as one of the “rebel” committee appointed at the meeting held at Maugerville in May, 1776. Soon after the peace, in 1783, he is said to have removed to Newburyport, 322 at the solicitation of his wife, but they found so little to admire in the squabbles that prevailed between the followers of Adams and Jefferson that they soon returned to the River St. John declaring that the Americans were “cursed with liberty.” One of Oliver Perley’s sons, Solomon, was married by Rev. John Beardsley, March 8, 1798, to Elizabeth Pickard; another son, Moses, was married by the same clergyman, March 10, 1802, to his cousin Mary, daughter of Israel Perley. This Moses Perley and his wife were members of the church of England and their son Moses H. Perley was eminent in the history of his native province. Amos Perley, another son of Oliver Perley seems to have inherited some poetical taste from the Palmers, and is credited with the following amongst other rhymes:—