In 1846 Perley was chosen to report on the capabilities of the country along a projected line of railway. In 1847 he was sent on a mission to England in connection with this proposal. On his return he commenced that series of explorations among the fisheries of New Brunswick with which his name is chiefly associated. In 1849 he reported on those of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; in August 1850 he was appointed to inquire into the sea and river fisheries of New Brunswick, and devoted two months to the work, covering nine hundred miles, of which five hundred were accomplished in canoe. A year later he examined the fisheries of the Bay of Fundy. From notes made in these missions he compiled his ‘Catalogue of Fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,’ 1851.
During the next two or three years he compiled the trade statistics in aid of the negotiations for a reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States, and when, in 1854, the treaty was concluded, he was appointed a commissioner to carry out its terms.
Perley died at Forteau, Labrador, on 17 Aug. 1862, on board H.M.S. Desperate, while on an official tour. He married, in September 1829, Jane, daughter of Isaac Ketchum, and had eight children, the only survivor of whom, Henry Fullerton Perley, is now chief engineer to the Canadian government.
Perley contributed articles to many English and American periodicals, and his various reports are well written. He was a good public lecturer, was interested in literature and science, and founded the Natural History Society of New Brunswick. He was also an ardent sportsman.
His chief reports were published separately, at Frederickton, and are: 1. ‘Report on Condition of Indians of New Brunswick,’ 1846. 2. ‘Report on Forest Trees of New Brunswick,’ 1847. 3. ‘Report on Fisheries of the Bay of St. Lawrence,’ 1849. 4. ‘Report on Fisheries of Bay of Fundy,’ 1851, to which is appended the ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Fishes.’ 5. ‘Reports on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick,’ 1852. 6. ‘Handbook of Information for Emigrants to New Brunswick,’ 1856.
[Morgan's Bibliotheca Canadensis, Ottawa, 1867; Perley's works; private information.]
PERNE, ANDREW (1519?–1589), dean of Ely, born at East Bilney, Norfolk, about 1519, was son of John Perne. Educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. early in 1539, and proceeded M.A. next year. He became a fellow of St. John's in March 1540, but a few months later migrated to Queens' College, where he was also elected a fellow. For three weeks he held fellowships at both colleges together, but soon identified himself with Queens', where he acted as bursar from 1542 to 1544, as dean in 1545–6, and as vice-president from 1551. He served as proctor of the university in 1546. He proceeded B.D. in 1547, and D.D. in 1552, and was incorporated at Oxford in 1553. He was five times vice-chancellor of the university (1551, 1556, 1559, 1574, and 1580).
Perne gained in early life a position of influence in the university, but his success in life was mainly due to his pliancy in matters of religion. On St. George's day 1547 he maintained, in a sermon preached in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft, London, the Roman catholic doctrine that pictures of Christ and the saints ought to be adored, but he saw fit to recant the opinion in the same church on the following 17 June. In June 1549 he argued against transubstantiation before Edward VI's commissioners for the visitation of the university (Foxe, Acts), and just a year later disputed against Martin Bucer the Calvinist doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture (MS. Corpus Christi Coll. Cambr. 102, art. 1). In 1549 he was appointed rector of Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk, and in 1550–1 was rector of Pulham. Subsequently he held the livings of Balsham, Cambridgeshire, and Somersham, Huntingdonshire. Edward VI, convinced of his sincerity as a reformer, nominated him one of six chaplains who were directed to promulgate the doctrines of the Reformation in the remote parts of the kingdom. For this service Perne was allotted a pension of 40l. a year. He was one of those divines to whom Edward's articles of religion were referred on 2 Oct. 1552. On 8 Nov. he became a canon of Windsor. When convocation met shortly after Queen Mary's accession, he, in accordance with his previous attitude on the subject, argued against transubstantiation; but Dr. Weston, the prolocutor, pointed out that he was contradicting the catholic articles of religion. Aylmer attempted to justify Perne's action, but Perne had no intention of resisting the authorities, and his complacence did not go unrewarded.
Early in 1554 he was appointed master of Peterhouse, and next year formally subscribed the fully defined Roman catholic articles then promulgated. As vice-chancellor he received in 1556 the delegates appointed by Cardinal Pole to visit the university. He is said to have moderated the zeal of the visitors, and he certainly protected John Whitgift, a fellow
