General Notes

 Robert Perryman, first of his family in Virginia, left the Port of Bristol, England in 1666 or 1667 "destination Virginia" and landed in York County. There he married Mary, daughter of John Scott, one of the early settlers on Skimino Creek in York County. . . The first record of Robert Perryman in York seems to be his appointment as  Constable for the upper precinct of Bruton Parish by the County Court of York on February 27, 16788/9. This was considered a post of some importance in those days. On May 8 1682 he appraised the estate of James Bullock, and Jan 24 1682-3 was a juror in the case of James Atkinson v. Robert Reade. On Aug 24, 1683 he was security for Robert Martin. On Jan 24, 1683-4 he was ordered to meet at house of Morris Hurd, decd., and appriase his estate. Archives of Virginia, [Boddie states]  Robert Perryman and Mary Scott had four children. Two have been identified and the other two found in a lawsuit records. Their names were Mary and John. Robert sued his Mother and her new husband Edward Young for his share of his fathers estate.
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Sources from:
Lee Perryman Deputy Director, Broadcast Services and Director of Broadcast Technology, Associated Press. 1825 K Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20006-1232 USA Phone: +1 (202) 736-1135 (GMT -05:00) Fax: +1 (309) 410-0394
"Bristol and America, A Record of the First Settlers in the Colonies of North America, 1654-1685 (1929, 1931)", in the section titled Servants to Foreign Plantations, Vol. II, 1663-79, page 105: ; Page 13,  Robert Perreman; destination, Virginia, This is the same reference and page number cited by John Bennett Boddie, which was for some reason published in his book "Virginia Historical Genealogies" as 1666/67;

"The Bristol Register of Servants Sent to Foreign Plantations, 1654-1686", by Peter Wilson Cobham (1988), page 196:  Robert Perreman to James Bisse,  4 yrs Virginia. 22 Aug 1663;

On-the-ground research: The Bristol Registers of Servants sent to Foreign Plantations (1654-1686)  22 Aug 1663 Robert Perreman to James Bisse 4 years; To try and expand on this I did find the original handwritten book  [ref: FC/SFP/1 (b) 2] and found the following entry;  "Robert Perreman bound to James Bisse for four years in  Virginia the same conditions”;  Every entry has “the same conditions” and I [Lee Perryman] assume that it must refer  to the first paragraph in the register which reads:  “The inrolment of apprentices and servants as shipped off the Port of  Bristol to serve in any of the forreigne plantations beginning the 26th  of March anno reign Carl. 2nd yr 15th dom. 1663. Sr. Robert Cann knight  Bart.,  being then Mayor John Wright and Sir Robert Yeamans knight sheriff”.  It is unfortunate that up until 1661 the place of origin of the persons  were given and after 1670 the ship that they traveled on.

In 1662, Sir Robt. Cann, Bart., Merchant, was listed as the Mayor of Bristol, and John Wright and Robert Yeamans were listed as Sheriffs. Information on Cann: In the early 1600s, Sir Robert Cann, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, England,  was heavily investing in the merchant trade with the colonies. He and  his family grew very rich from his investments in shipping. Like many  merchants of the time, he had license from the King to be a privateer,  which is a pirate in fancy words. Privateers were armed and allowed to  attack and possess any ship not flying the British flag. Sir Robert did  not personally go to the colonies, but many of his family did with his  blessing and aid. The list of "masters" shows few other people bound to/sponsored by James Bisse.  Further, it is often cited that Robert Perryman was *from* Bristol, which is also unproven. In 1857, descendant Elisha Perryman, or a friend shortly after his death, published "A Sketch of the Life, Labors and Adventures of Elder Elisha Perryman", and parts of that autobiography were republished in 1881 in a book titled History of Georgia Baptists. From his opening paragraph:  "My ancestors came from Wales; the time of their emigration to this  country, I do not know."
This substantiates that Bristol was simply a port of departure, not where Robert Perryman lived.   The late Emmett K. Perryman Jr., also a descendant of Robert Perryman and Mary Scott, self-published a book in 1993 in which he discussed possible origins of the family name in America. Excerpts:  While the name Perryman is generally considered to be of English origin, the   people so named were likely of Celtic blood, the original Britons who were  conquered by the Romans in the First Century A.D. and then by the Saxons  in the centuries following the death of King Arthur. While many of the surviving  Britons fled to France (Brittany) and Wales, others remained in Devon and  Cornwall, where they were known as the West Welsh.   In Devon and Cornwall, the name Perryman first appears in the early 1200s.  Surnames were not adopted until about the thirteenth century, and the name  Perryman took many forms -- Periman, Puryman, Periam, Perriam, including  a Norman version of De Puryham. Sometimes, father and son spelled their  names differently. Some historic documents seem to indicate that the  Perrymans were of property and known as "Lords of the Manor" in the  southwest counties; most authorities agree that the name evolved from the  association with pears, either as working or living in a pear orchard. History leaves little trace of the name Perryman. There was, in the court of   Elizabeth I, a Sir William Periam who was Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.  His coat of arms was identical to a coat of arms granted to Sir John Perring,  Knight, and to a Perryman in 1710. The identical arms tie them to what  stabilized as the present day spelling of Perryman. " Or. on a pile vert a chev. engr. betw. 3 leopards faces of the field" Crest: 2 arms issuing out of clouds ppr. habited vert, cuffed ar. holding a leopards face or."   The Perrymans in America seem to traditionally have come from Wales;  however, I increasingly feel that they really come from "West Wales", i.e.  from Cornwall and Devon.  - Lee Perryman -