Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 25 - Justice Perrin
Justice Perrin. — A steadfast Huguenot, named Perrin, left for conscience’ sake his property at Nonere, and took refuge at Lisburn. This was at the period of the Revocation. A few years afterwards he removed to Waterford, and there founded a family. The Judge’s father married a cultivated Irish lady, named Daly, and had many children, but was in straitened circumstances until a brother died, and left him £30,000, amassed in India. The Ulster Journal states that Louis, the future Judge, was born in the County of Waterford, near Clonmel. Mr. J. Roderick O’Flanagan, author of “The Irish Bar,” claims him as an Ulster man, and a pupil of the Diocesan School of Armagh. He gained a scholarship in Trinity College, Dublin, in 1799. He became a student of law, and kept the terms both in London and Dublin, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1806. Mr. O’Flanagan writes of him, “He had a great knowledge of the laws of pleading and evidence, and was especially versed in mercantile law — a branch not very much studied by the general class of Irish law students.” “He was so respected for his character and conduct as to acquire the title of Honest Louis Perrin.” He went the North-East Circuit, and had a very large practice for many years. He became a King’s Counsel. As a Whig he entered Parliament in 1831, and was made Sergeant-at-Law, and in 1834 Attorney-General for Ireland. Although a useful and successful M.P., he accepted a seat in the Irish King’s Bench in 1835, and adorned the Bench for a quarter of a century, exhibiting “great sagacity, and a strong sense of right.” Mr. O’Flanagan says:—
“To any argument that bore upon the case before him he displayed great attention; but if irrelevant topics were introduced, a very significant grunt showed the advocate the Court was not with him. He held the scales of justice with a firm and steady hand, and, as between the Crown and the subject, there was no inclination of the scales to either side. He was very social and hospitable, and entertained his friends either at his town house in Granby Row, Rutland Square, or at his country villa [at Clontarf].”
His eldest son, John Perrin, who had obtained eminence at the Bar, and was counsel to the Castle of Dublin, died on 28th January i860, aged forty-three. This severe blow confirmed Justice Perrin in his resolution to resign. He retired in that year to a villa near Rush, but “his habits of dispensing justice were so strong that he used to attend at Petty Sessions, to the great pleasure of the county magistrates, who felt quite proud of his attendance on their bench.” He died on 7th December 1864.