Rep. App. ix. (Earl of Donoughmore's MSS.), 12th Rep. App. x. (Earl of Charlemont's MSS.), 13th Rep. App. iii. (MSS. of J. B. Fortescue); MSS. Brit. Mus. 33100 ff. 320, 481, 33101 f. 101, 34417 f. 254, 34419 ff. 129, 178; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. xii. 867; Webb's Compendium.]
PERY, EDMUND HENRY, Earl of Limerick (1758–1845), was the only son of William Cecil Pery, lord Glentworth (1721–1794), bishop successively of Killaloe and Limerick, who was raised to the Irish peerage on 21 May 1790, by his first wife, Jane Walcot. He was a nephew of Edmond Sexton Pery, viscount Pery [q. v.], speaker of the Irish House of Commons. Born in Ireland on 8 Jan. 1758, Edmund was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, but did not take a degree. He travelled on the continent of Europe, and in 1786 entered the Irish House of Commons as member for the county of Limerick. He retained this seat till 4 July 1794, when he succeeded to the Irish peerage on the death of his father, Lord Glentworth.
Though of overbearing manners and small talent, Pery was a successful politician. He closely attached himself to the protestant ascendency party, which monopolised all power after Lord Fitzwilliam's recall in 1794. For his services to the government Glentworth in 1795 was made keeper of the signet, and in 1797 clerk of the crown and hanaper. On the outbreak of the rebellion of 1798 he raised a regiment of dragoons for service against the rebels at his own expense. He strongly supported Lord Clare in furthering the scheme for a union between England and Ireland. He spoke frequently on its behalf in the Irish House of Lords, and did much to obtain the support of influential citizens of Dublin. In return for these services he was created a viscount in 1800, and was one of the twenty-eight temporal lords elected to represent the peerage of Ireland in the parliament of the United Kingdom after the legislative union had been carried out. On 11 Feb. 1803 he was raised to the dignity of Earl of Limerick in the peerage of Ireland; and on 11 Aug. 1815 he was made an English peer, by the title of Lord Foxford. Subsequently Limerick resided greatly in England. He took a prominent part in Irish debates in the House of Lords, and steadily opposed any concession to the Irish catholics. He died on 7 Dec. 1845, in Berkshire, and was buried in Limerick Cathedral. Barrington describes him as ‘always crafty, sometimes imperious, and frequently efficient,’ and adds, ‘He had a sharp, quick, active intellect, and generally guessed right in his politics.’
Limerick married, on 29 Jan. 1783, Alice Mary, daughter and heiress of Henry Ormsby of Cloghan, co. Mayo, by whom he had issue. He was succeeded in his titles and property by his second grandson, William Henry Tennison Pery.
[Lodge's Peerage; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Sir Jonah Barrington's Historic Memoirs of Ireland; Cornwallis Correspondence; Irish Parliamentary Debates; English Parliamentary Debates.]
PERYAM, Sir WILLIAM (1534–1604), judge, was the eldest son of John Peryam of Exeter, by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of Robert Hone of Ottery St. Mary, Devonshire (Pole, Collections for Devon, p. 149). He was born at Exeter in 1534, and was a cousin of Sir Thomas Bodley [q. v.] His father, a man of means, was twice mayor of Exeter, and his brother, Sir John, was also an alderman of that town and a benefactor of Exeter College, Oxford. William Peryam was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow on 25 April, but resigned on 7 Oct. 1551, and sat for Plymouth from 1562 to 1567. He joined the Middle Temple, where his arms are placed in the hall, was called to the bar in 1565, became a serjeant-at-law in Michaelmas term 1579, and on 13 Feb. 1581 was appointed a judge of the common pleas. Upon Sir Christopher Hatton's death in 1591, he was named one of the commissioners to hear causes in chancery, and he was frequently in commissions for trials of political crimes, particularly those of Mary Queen of Scots, the Earls of Arundel and Essex, and Sir John Perrot. Accordingly in January 1593 he was promoted to be chief baron of the exchequer, and was knighted, and presided in that court for nearly twelve years. On 9 Oct. 1604 he died at his house at Little Fulford, near Crediton, Devonshire, and was buried at Little Fulford church, in which neighbourhood he had bought large estates. He had also built a ‘fayre dwelling house’ (Pole, Collections for Devon, p. 221) at Credy Peitevin or Wiger, which he left to his daughters, and they sold it to his brother John. A picture, supposed to be his portrait, and ascribed to Holbein, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 88, 135). He was thrice married: first, to Margery, daughter of John Holcot of Berkshire; secondly, to Anne, daughter of John Parker of North Molton, Devonshire; thirdly, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon [q. v.], lord-keeper; and he left four daughters, of whom the eldest, Mary, was married to Sir William Pole [q. v.] of Colcombe, Devonshire, and Elizabeth to Sir
