Thomas Perrot

Sir Thomas Perrot (1553 – 1594) was an Elizabethan courtier, soldier, and member of parliament. He campaigned in Ireland and the Low Countries, and was involved in the defence of England against the Spanish Armada. He was imprisoned several times, on one occasion to prevent a duel with Sir Walter Raleigh, and on another occasion because of his secret marriage to Dorothy Devereux, a Lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and sister of the Queen's favourite, the Earl of Essex. Perrot's only daughter, Penelope, married Sir Robert Naunton, author of Fragmenta Regalia, which claimed that Perrot's father, Sir John Perrot, was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

Family Thomas Perrot was the son of Sir John Perrot by his first wife, Anne Cheyne (d.1553), the daughter of Sir Thomas Cheyne, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and his first wife, Frideswide Frowyk (died c.1528), daughter of Sir Thomas Frowyk, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.

By his father's second marriage to Jane Prust (d.1593), widow of Lewis Pollard (d.1563) of Oakford, Devon, and daughter of Hugh Prust (d.1559) of Thorry, Devonshire, Perrot had a half-brother and two half-sisters:

William Perrot (d.1587), who died unmarried. Anne Perrott, who married Sir John Phillips, 1st Baronet, of Picton Castle. Lettice, who married firstly Walter Vaughan of Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, secondly John Langhorne of St Brides, and thirdly, on 8 April 1605, Arthur Chichester, Lord Deputy of Ireland.

Perrot also had at least four illegitimate siblings, Sir James Perrot, John Perrot (born c.1565), Elizabeth Perrot, and another sister whose name is unknown.

Career

Perrot saw his first service as a soldier when he accompanied his father to Ireland in 1579. He was knighted when the English forces landed at Waterford. On his return home he was imprisoned in the Fleet to prevent a duel with Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1583, Perrot was again imprisoned in the Fleet for his secret marriage to Dorothy Devereux, one of the Queen's ladies in waiting. As he had no male heir, his property was divided between his wife, Dorothy, and his daughter, Penelope. After Lower's death Penelope (née Perrot) married secondly Sir Robert Naunton, by whom she had a daughter Penelope (born 1620), who married firstly Paul Bayning, 2nd Viscount Bayning, and secondly Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke. Sir Robert Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia is the source of the claim that Thomas Perrot's father, Sir John Perrot, was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII.

After Perrot's death in 1594, his widow, Dorothy, married Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland.