Samuel Perry

Frank Smith, The Genealogical History of Dover, Mass. (1917), 190-191. "#1. Samuel (5) Perry (Abel (4), Samuel (3), John (2), John (1)). b. 1767, m. Oct. 1789, Olive, dau. Jonathan and Ruth (Eames) Rice. He died May 6, 1818. Mr. Perry was decended from John Perry, who was born in England and was the first of the family to come to America. He arrived here in 1631 in company with John Eliot and became a member of the Roxbury Church. The Perrys were long connected with Dover and were prominent and respected citizens. Samuel, who came from the adjoining town of Natick, was the first to settle here. Elijah Perry and other Natick families were annexed to the Dover Parish by an act of the General Court and continued for many years to worship here and to take books from the Proprietor's Library. Samuel Perry purchased the original Michael Bacon farm on the Clay Brook Road. He drowned one spring evening by falling from the bridge which crosses the river on the Cheney estate -- then called Loring's Bridge -- during a severe thunder storm."