The English
surname PERKINS is patronymic in origin, being one of those names
derived from the first name of a father. In this case, the surname is
composed of two elements: "Per", which is a contracted form of Peter and
the diminutive suffix "kin". Hence, the literal meaning of this surname
is "Little Peter". The "s" ending usually denoted "Son Of". The surnames
of Parkin and Perkinson are other variants of the name. This custom of
naming appears to have commenced in the Middle Ages, when it was the
practice for sons to take their surnames from the Christian name of
their fathers.
Early instances of the surname include
one Edmund Perkyn, whose name was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls for
Suffolk in 1327, and a Walter Perkyns, who lived in Worcestershire in
1327 (Subsidy Rolls). More recent records reveal that this is the
surname of some notable English Families. The name is most numerous in
the south of England, the south Midlands and South Wales. Notable
bearers of the surname include the English theologian William Perkins
(1588-1602) and, more recently, the American editor Maxwell Evarts
Perkins (1884-1947).
The Perkins family is so ancient, so
shadowed in the legends and traditions of a time when accurate records
were not kept, that it is impossible to say when or where it had its
origin. The very fact that the surname evolved from a Christian name
would indicate not only that there are several "branches", but that in
all probability, if they could be traced, there are many distinct
families of the same surname, derived from ancestors who had the same
Christian name, though in no way related to each other.
Before 1700 one family of Perkins
produced a then "old pedigree" tracing back to the ancient Kings of
Britain before England was a name. There is another pedigree showing the
descendants of a Osbert Parkins, who lived soon after the Norman
Conquest. And in an old Subsidy Roll of Worcestershire for the Sixth of
Edward III (1318) a Julia or Juliana Perkins is recorded as living and
paying taxes in Madresfield, when Peter Perkins of the Ufton pedigree
was still a boy.
The Perkins of Ufton, Berkshire, are
generally believed by genealogists to be the parent branch from which
nearly all the Perkins of England and America are descended. The most
widely used pedigree is that of Peter or Perkin Morley, who is stated to
have been "serviens" ( probably a military rank next below Knight) to
Hugh DeSpencer who was at the time one of the richest, most powerful
nobles in England and who was living in the year of the poll tax (1381).
Traditionally this man is said to have been Pierre de Morlaix, High
Steward of the estates of Hugh DeSpencer. He is suppose to have been a
younger son of the Morlaix family who fled to England in the train of
the DeSpencers. Whether he was the scion of French nobility or the
Shropshire man that many genealogists suggest, he is recorded as Peter
Morley, alias Perkins of Shropshire, "sevients" to Lord Hugh DeSpencer
of the manor of Shipton in Oxfordshire, and husband of Agnes Taylor.
This Perkins had a son, Henry Perkins who had a son, John Perkins,
living in 1399 who was Seneschal to Thomas DeSpencer, Earl of
Gloucester, 1398, recorded in an old Court Roll of Madresfield Manor.
John Perkins had a son, William Perkins living in 1420 who married a
certain Margaret. In 1424 there was a fine imposed between John Collee
and Elizabeth and William Perkins, (son of John the Seneschal) and
Margaret, his wife, by which the manor and advowson of Ufton Robert
(near Reading) and a moiety of land in Buscot and other places and Ufton
where settled on William and Margaret Perkins and their heirs. That is
how the family acquired the Ufton estate which belonged to Richard II in
which there are records that he acknowledged to hold an estate of the
manor of Madresfield by fealty and 8s 5d per annum. The Ufton estate
remained some centuries with the descendants of this William & Margaret
Perkins. In 1444, William signed as witness to a deed or grant from
Henry VI to provost and college of Eton, of lands in New and Old Windsor
and Clewer. In 1447 he is mentioned in the Court Roll of the Manor of
Bray as holding the office of "Baillous" to the Duke of Gloucester, who
was brother to Henry V and uncle and guardian to Henry VI during his
minority. William Perkins had a son, Thomas Perkins,Esq., living in 1460
and dead before 1479. In the "Close Roll" , Edward IV (1461) there is a
deed by which Thomas Perkins,Esq. in conjunction with the "King Maker",
Earl of Warwick, and his brother John, Lord Montague, received certain
manors in Hampshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, in which he
probably acted as co-trustee. From this Thomas Perkins,Esq., both the
Berkshire and Nottinghamshire families descended, the former from John
Perkins,(eldest son of Thomas Perkins.Esq.), who inherited the Ufton
estates, the latter from another son, Thomas Perkins, to whom the
property at Madresfield passed. John Perkins,(eldest son of Thomas
Perkins Esq.), had a son named Thomas, who married the daughter and heir
of a certain More. This Thomas Perkins had two sons, Richard Perkins,
the eldest, he died without issue by his wife, and William Perkins, who
married the daughter of a Wells. This William Perkins had a son, Francis
Perkins, Esq., of Ufton, who married Anna Plowden. Francis & Anna (Plowden)
Perkins had two sons I mention, Francis Perkins the heir, living 1623
who married Margareta, daughter of Jo Eston DeCatmore, Esq. of County
Berks; and Edward Perkins, second son. In 1623 there were probably
branches of the Ufton family scattered throughout England.
Thomas Perkins (son of Thomas Perkins,
Esq.,) to whom passed the estate of Madresfield in Worcestershire,
married Ellen Tomplins of Nupend, their eldest son, William Perkins
married into Warwickshire, as so did William's son, Richard Perkins of
the parish of West Hide, County Hereford.
There was a large settlement of Perkins
in the district around Madresfield from much earlier times then the
pedigree suggests. They of Madresfield married chiefly into
Herefordshire, where they had property. From them various branches
appear to have sprung in that and adjacent counties. The families
descended from Madresfield are those of Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire
and Ireland.
From William Perkins (1495), of
Hillmorton Parish, Warwickshire, was descended the John Perkins who
possibly was the one that settled in Ipswich, MA and was the progenitor
of many American branches of the Perkins Family.
