Perry | |
---|---|
Current region | South Kingstown, Rhode Island, and New England |
Place of origin | England Ireland Scotland |
Connected families | Rodgers family Belmont family Whitney family Vanderbilt family Randolph family De Peyster family |
Estate(s) | Commodore Oliver Perry Farm, Sion Hill (Havre De Grace, Maryland), Belcourt |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Years of service | 1799– |
The Perry family is an American naval and political dynasty from Rhode Island whose members have included several United States naval commanders, naval aviators, politicians, artists, clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and socialites. Progeny of a mid-17th-century English immigrant to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the Perry family patriarch, Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and his two sons Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew C. Perry, were seminal figures in the legitimization of the United States Navy and establishment of the United States Naval Academy.
Christopher Raymond Perry was born on December 4, 1761, in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of the Hon. Judge (James) Freeman Perry (1732–1813) and his wife, Mercy Hazard (1739–1810). [1]
Judge Freeman Perry was a physician and surgeon in the Revolutionary War, as well as a local magistrate who served as Judge of the Court of Washington County and President of the Town Council of South Kingstown. [2] Christopher Raymond Perry's paternal great-grandfather, Edward Perry, came from Devon, England in 1637 and settled in Sandwich, Massachusetts, where he married his wife, Mary Freeman, in 1653.
Mercy Hazard was a seventh-generation descendant of Captain Richard Raymond (1602–1692), and his wife, Julia, [3] who was likely born in Essex County, England, in 1602 and arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, about 1629, possibly with a contingent led by the Rev. Francis Higginson. [4] He was about 27 years old and later was a founder of Norwich, Connecticut, and an "honored fore-father of Saybrook". [5] Mercy Hazard was also a descendant of Governor Thomas Prence (1599–1673), a co-founder of Eastham, Massachusetts, who was a political leader in both the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, and governor of Plymouth; and a descendant of two Mayflower passengers, both of whom were signers of the Mayflower Compact, Elder William Brewster (c. 1567 – 1644), the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, and George Soule (1593–1679). Christopher Perry was also descended from Soule through his grandmother Susannah Barber Perry (1697–1755).
Christopher Perry enlisted, at the age of 14, in a local militia company named the Kingston Reds early in the American Revolution. He then served on a privateer commanded by a Captain Reed. After one cruise with Reed, Perry signed on to the privateer Mifflin commanded by George Wait Babcock. The Mifflin was captured by the British and Perry was confined to the infamous prison ship Jersey in New York harbor for three months before he managed to escape. [6]
In 1779, Perry joined the Continental Navy as a seaman aboard the frigate USS Trumbull commanded by Captain James Nicholson. On June 1, 1780, the Trumbull engaged the British letter of marque Watt in a hard-fought, but indecisive, action in which the Trumbull suffered 8 killed and 31 wounded compared to the Watt's 13 killed and 79 wounded. [7]
Perry then enlisted on another privateer which was captured off the coast of Great Britain. He then was taken as a prisoner to Newry Barracks in Ireland where he met his future wife, Sarah Wallace Alexander (1768–1830). Perry managed another escape by masquerading as a British seaman and taking passage to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. From St. Thomas he took passage to Charleston, South Carolina, shortly before the war's conclusion in 1783. [8]
After the war, Perry served as a mate on a merchantman which sailed to Ireland where Perry was able to bring his beloved Sarah to the United States. They were married in Philadelphia on August 2, 1784. The young couple then moved to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, where they lived with Perry's parents on their 200-acre estate. Their first child, Oliver Hazard Perry, was born in August 1785. [9]
Sarah Wallace (née Alexander) was born in County Down, Ireland and was a descendant of an uncle of William Wallace, [10] : 54 the Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered as a patriot and national hero. [11] [12]
Christopher Raymond Perry died June 1, 1818, in Newport, Rhode Island. [13] [ circular reference ]
Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819) was an American naval commander, born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. As the most well-known and prominent member of the naval dynasty, he was the son of Sarah Wallace Alexander and United States Navy Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and older brother of Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
Perry served in the West Indies during the Quasi-War of 1798–1800 against France, in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Wars of 1801–1815, and in the Caribbean fighting piracy and the slave trade, but is most noted for his heroic role in the War of 1812 during the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie. [14] During the war against Britain, Perry supervised the building of a fleet at Erie, Pennsylvania. He earned the title "Hero of Lake Erie" for leading American forces in a decisive naval victory at the Battle of Lake Erie, receiving a Congressional Gold Medal and the Thanks of Congress. [15] [16] His leadership materially aided the successful outcomes of all nine Lake Erie military campaign victories, and the victory was a turning point in the battle for the west in the war. [16] He is remembered for the words on his battle flag, "Don't Give Up the Ship", which was a tribute to the dying command of his colleague Captain James Lawrence of USS Chesapeake. He is also known for his message to General William Henry Harrison which reads in part, "We have met the enemy and they are ours; ..."
Perry became embroiled in a long-standing and bitter controversy with the commander of USS Niagara, Captain Jesse Elliott, over their conduct in the Battle of Lake Erie, and both were the subject of official charges. In 1815, Perry successfully commanded Java in the Mediterranean during the Second Barbary War. So seminal was his career that he was lionized in the press (being the subject of scores of books and articles). [17] He has been frequently memorialized, and many places, ships and persons have been named in his honor.
Matthew Calbraith Perry [Note 1] (1794–1858) was a Commodore of the United States Navy who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). He played a leading role in the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
Perry was interested in the education of naval officers, and assisted in the development of an apprentice system that helped establish the curriculum at the United States Naval Academy. With the advent of the steam engine, he became a leading advocate of modernizing the U.S. Navy and came to be considered "The Father of the Steam Navy" in the United States.
Rear Admiral Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers (1819–1892) was born on November 4, 1819, in Brooklyn, New York to George Washington Rodgers and Anna Maria Perry. [18] [19] [20] He served as an officer in the United States Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, as well as Superintendent of the Naval Academy and President of the United States Naval Institute.
Matthew Calbraith Butler , who was born on March 8, 1836, at Eagle's Crag near Greenville, South Carolina, was the son of U.S. Congressman William Butler and Jane Tweedy Perry. [21] Butler served as a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, postbellum three-term United States Democratic Senator from South Carolina, and a major general in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War.
On November 7, 1849, August Belmont Sr. married Caroline Slidell Perry (1829–1892), [22] the daughter of Matthew Calbraith Perry. [22] According to Jewish newspaper sources, Belmont converted to Christianity at that time, taking his wife's Episcopalian/Anglican faith. [23] [24] Together, they were the parents of six children, with all of his surviving sons becoming involved in politics: [25]
Perry Belmont (1851–1947), [26] served as a Democrat to the 47th Congress, followed by a career in the U.S. representative for the first district of New York from March 4, 1881, until his resignation on December 1, 1888. [27] During his first term, he was a member of the committee on foreign affairs; noted for his cross-examination of James G. Blaine, the former secretary of state. Belmont also served from 1885 to 1887 as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, and on October 6, 1890, was invested as a Commander of the French Legion of Honor. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, Perry served for six weeks in the Army as an Inspector General of the First Division, Second Army Corps, United States Volunteers, with the rank of major. He was appointed United States Minister to Spain that same year. [28] During the First World War, despite being 65 years old, Belmont was commissioned as a captain in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps on May 5, 1917. He was assigned to the Remount Division in Washington, D.C., and was discharged on May 21, 1920. [29]
August Belmont Jr. (1853–1924), [30] was an American financier who levied the construction of the original New York subway (1900–1904) and for many years headed the Interborough Rapid Transit Co., which ran the transit system. [31] He also financed and led the construction of the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts, which opened in 1914. Belmont bought the land for and built New York's Belmont Park racetrack—named for his father—and was a major owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. [32] He served as chairman of the board of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. [33] He also served as a director of the Southern Pacific Co., parent of the railroad, and National Park Bank. [33] He and his brother, Perry Belmont, were also founding members of The Jockey Club.
Fredericka Belmont (1856–1902), who married Samuel Shaw Howland (1849–1925), son of Gardiner Greene Howland of Howland & Aspinwall. [34]
Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858–1908), [35] was a member of the banking firm of August Belmont and Co., New York City, and a publisher of the Verdict, a weekly paper, [36] who additionally served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1900, and was elected as a Democrat from New York's 13th District to the Fifty-seventh Congress serving from March 4, 1901, until March 3, 1903. [36]
Raymond Rodgers Belmont (1863–1887), was a champion polo player who participated in the 1886 International Polo Cup with teammates William Knapp Thorn, Foxhall Parker Keene and Thomas Hitchcock Sr., and later died on January 31, 1887, in New York City, by shooting himself in the side of the head with a pistol. [37] [38] He was buried in the Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island. [39]
Rear Admiral Raymond Perry Rodgers (1849–1925) was an officer in the United States Navy. He served as the second head of the Office of Naval Intelligence and as the 12th President of the Naval War College and fought in the Spanish–American War. He spent the four years from 1894 to 1898 as Naval Attaché in France and Russia. Throughout the war with Spain he was Executive Officer of the battleship Iowa, and for most of the war was stationed off Santiago de Cuba. He was advanced five numbers for eminent and conspicuous conduct in the battle which destroyed Cervera's squadron.
While in command of the Nashville from 1899 to 1901, Admiral Rodgers, then ranking as a Commander, served in the West Indies and the Philippines, and in China during the Boxer troubles. For the next two years he was captain of the battleship Kearsarge of the Atlantic Fleet and then for three years was Chief Intelligence Officer with the Navy Department. In October 1909, he became president of the Naval War College and commandant of the Naval Station at Narragansett Bay.
Rear Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers (1858–1931) was an officer in the United States Navy who served during the Spanish–American War and World War I.
William Ledyard Rodgers (1860–1944) was a vice admiral of the United States Navy. His career included service in the Spanish–American War and World War I, and a tour as President of the Naval War College. Rodgers was also a noted historian on military and naval topics, particularly relating to ancient naval warfare.
John Rodgers (1881–1926) was an officer in the United States Navy and a pioneering aviator who led the first attempt at a non-stop flight from California to Hawaii. Given the technology of the time, this tested the limits of both aircraft range [40] and the accuracy of aerial navigation. [41] The expedition was to include three planes. Rodgers commanded the flying boat PN-9 No. 1. The PN-9 No. 3 was commanded by Lt. Allen P. Snody. The third plane was to have been a new design, which was not completed in time to join the expedition. Due to the risks, the Navy positioned 10 guard ships spaced 200 miles apart between California and Hawaii to refuel or recover the aircraft if necessary. [40] The two PN-9s departed San Pablo Bay, California (near San Francisco) on August 31. Lt. Snody's plane had an engine failure about five hours into its flight, was forced to land in the ocean, and was safely recovered.
Calbraith Perry Rodgers (1879–1912) was an American aviation pioneer, the cousin of the aforementioned, who made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17, 1911, to November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops, both intentional and accidental. On October 10, 1910, publisher William Randolph Hearst offered the Hearst prize, US$50,000 to the first aviator to fly coast to coast, in either direction, in less than 30 days from start to finish. Rodgers persuaded J. Ogden Armour, of Armour and Company, to sponsor the flight, and in return he named the plane, a Wright Model EX, after Armour's grape soft drink Vin Fiz. [42] A special train of three cars, including sleeper, diner, and shop-on-wheels full of spare parts, was assembled to follow Rodgers, who planned to fly above the railroad tracks. [43] The feat made him a national celebrity, but he was killed in a crash a few months later at an exhibition in California.
The Right Reverend James DeWolf Perry (1871–1947) was an American Episcopal clergyman and prelate who served as the 7th Bishop of Rhode Island (1911–1946) and the 18th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (1930–1937).
John LaFarge Jr. SJ (1880–1963) was an American Jesuit Catholic priest known for his activism against racism and anti-semitism. In the run-up to World War II, he worked on a draft of a papal encyclical against racist and totalitarian ideologies for Pope Pius XI; entitled Humani generis unitas , though it was never promulgated due to the death of Pius XI on February 10, 1939.
Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge (1901–1963) was an American writer and anthropologist of Native American culture, best known for his 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy. Oliver's older brother, Christopher La Farge (1897–1956) was a watercolor artist, poet, short story writer, and novelist whose compositions often chronicled Rhode Island life. His son, Peter La Farge (1931–1965), was an American folk music singer in Greenwich Village, who worked along with Bob Dylan, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk, and Pete Seeger, and is famous for writing the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes". [44]
Perry's grandniece, Ruth Ann Black (1893–1964), married naval architect and Gulf Oil executive Willard F. Jones . [45] [46]
Raymond P. R. Neilson (1881–1964) was an American painter and instructor at the National Academy of Design from 1927 to 1934. Neilson studied under William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League of New York, the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and the Académie Colarossi. [47] : 415
This section needs additional citations for verification .(September 2017) |
Oliver Hazard Perry was a United States Navy officer from South Kingstown, Rhode Island. A prominent member of the Perry family naval dynasty, he was the son of Sarah Wallace Alexander and Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and older brother of Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
Matthew Calbraith Perry was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. He played a leading role in the Perry Expedition that ended Japan's isolationism and the Convention of Kanagawa between Japan and the United States in 1854.
John La Farge was an American artist whose career spanned illustration, murals, interior design, painting, and popular books on his Asian travels and other art-related topics. La Farge made stained glass windows, mainly for churches on the American east coast, beginning with a large commission for Henry Hobson Richardson's Trinity Church in Boston in 1878, and continuing for thirty years. La Farge designed stained glass as an artist, as a specialist in color, and as a technical innovator, holding a patent granted in 1880 for superimposing panes of glass. That patent would be key in his dispute with contemporary and rival Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont was an American banker, socialite, and politician who served one term as a United States Representative from New York from 1901 to 1903.
August Belmont Sr. was a German-American financier, diplomat, and politician. He served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872. He was also a thoroughbred racehorse owner and the founder and namesake of the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown of American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Perry Belmont was an American politician and diplomat. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1881 to 1888.
Christopher Raymond Perry was an officer in the United States Navy who was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Washington County, Rhode Island, in 1780 and served until 1791. He was the father of Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry.
Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, born Alexander Slidell, was a United States Navy officer, famous for his 1842 decision to execute three suspected mutineers aboard a ship under his command USS Somers in the Somers Mutiny. Mackenzie was also an accomplished man of letters, producing several volumes of travel writing and biographies of early important US naval figures, some of whom he knew personally.
Rear Admiral Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers was an officer in the United States Navy. He served in the Mexican–American War, the American Civil War, as superintendent of the Naval Academy, president of the United States Naval Institute, and commander-in-chief of the Pacific Squadron.
USS Java was a wooden-hulled, sailing frigate in the United States Navy, bearing 44 guns. She was named for the American victory over HMS Java off the coast of Brazil on 29 December 1812, captured by the Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge. HMS Java had suffered severe damage during the engagement and being far from home port was ordered burned.
Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge II was an American writer and anthropologist. In 1925 he explored early Olmec sites in Mexico, and later studied additional sites in Central America and the American Southwest. In addition to more than 15 scholarly works, mostly about Native Americans, he wrote several novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Laughing Boy (1929). La Farge also wrote and published short stories, in magazines such as The New Yorker and Esquire.
Rear Admiral Raymond Perry Rodgers was an officer in the United States Navy. He served as the second head of the Office of Naval Intelligence and as the 12th President of the Naval War College and fought in the Spanish–American War.
Calbraith Perry Rodgers was an American aviation pioneer. He made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17, 1911, to November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops, both intentional and accidental. The feat made him a national celebrity, but he was killed in a crash a few months later at an exhibition in California.
William Butler Jr. was an American physician, slaveholder, and United States representative from South Carolina. He was a son of William Butler (1759–1821), brother of Andrew Butler, and father of Matthew Calbraith Butler, all of whom served in the United States Congress.
The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair of cemeteries was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a single listing in 1974.
Rear Admiral Thomas Slidell Rodgers was an officer in the United States Navy who served during the Spanish–American War and World War I.
Members of the Hazard family were among the first settlers of the State of Rhode Island. Descendants have been known for military achievement, business and political success, philanthropy, and broad social activism spanning such causes as abolition of slavery, treatment of the insane and alcoholics, family planning, and innovative employee programs.
Thomas Breese was an American naval officer. Best known for his service under Oliver Hazard Perry during the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie, he served in the United States Navy for another 33 years, including as a paymaster for over two decades.
Raymond Rodgers Belmont was a champion polo player who killed himself in 1887 with a gunshot.
Perry Belmont, former representative and diplomat, who was a grandson of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, died this morning in the Newport Hospital, where he had been a patient since August. He was in his ninety-seventh year. ...
August Belmont, financier and sportsman, died at 6:30 o'clock last evening in his apartment at 550 Park Avenue, less than thirty-six hours after he had been taken ill in his office. ...
August Belmont, the famous banker and turfman, died yesterday morning at 3 o'clock at his residence, 109 Fifth Avenue. The cause of Mr. Belmont's death was pneumonia, from which he had been suffering only three days. The beginning of the malady was a cold contracted at the recent horse show in Madison Square Garden. ...
He is a son of the late banker of the same name and was graduated from Harvard in 1875, immediately entering his father's banking-house, of which he is now the head—August Belmont & Co., American representatives of the Rothschilds. He is chairman of the board of directors of the Louisville and Nashville railway, and connected with various financial enterprises
The death of Oliver H.P. Belmont occurred soon after 6:30 o'clock this morning at Brookholt, his Long Island country seat. ...[ permanent dead link ]
August Belmont and Miss Eleanor Robson, the actress who crosed her stage career with the fall of the curtain on "The Dawn of a To-Morrow" at the Majestic Theatre, Brooklyn, on Feb. 12, were married yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock at, the home of the bride, 302 West Seventy-seventh Street, Mgr. Lavelle. assisted by Father Byrnes of St. Patrick's Cathedral, officiating.
The marriage of Miss Margaret Frances Andrews, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Andrews, and Morgan Belmont, youngest son of August Belmont, will be celebrated a week from today at the residence of the bride's parents. Rockry Hall.
Shock Suffered Last Spring. Complicated by Bronchial and Heart Ailments. Society Leader was 80. Former Wife of W. K. Vanderbilt. Long Held Sway in New York and in Newport Colony
Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, leader of New York's '400' for a period of many years before and after the turn of the century, died today at her residence here. She was 80 years old. ...