The Perkins family of Ufton Nervet in the English county of Berkshire were a prominent Roman Catholic family in Protestant England. From 1581 until 1769, a span covering seven generations of the Perkins family, they lived at Ufton Court in the parish.[1]

The last member of the family was John Perkins (d. 1769); on his death, due to an entail made by his brother Francis, the estate passed to John Jones, of Llanarth, and then to William Congreve, of Aldermaston, a relation of the famous dramatist of that name.[2][3]

Arabella Fermor (1696-1737), who married Francis Perkins of Ufton Court (d. 1736), was the inspiration for Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock.[4]

The Roman Catholic martyr, later sainted, Swithun Wells was a relation of the Perkins family; when interrogated in 1587, Wells stated that he had lived for three months at Ufton Court, then in possession of his nephew Francis Perkins; as a recusant, Perkins was fined the statutory £20 a month for failing to attend the parish church, and had to rent Ufton to his cousin Thomas Perkins to pay the heavy fines. The house- which was raided by the authorities on at least two occasions- today retains signs of the family's secret adherence to their faith, including a chapel in the rafters, hiding places for priests, and an escape tunnel through woodland.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Victoria County History, A History of the County of Berkshire: vol. 3, London, 1923, URL= https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol3/pp437-444 Date accessed= 19 November 2018
  2. ↑ Magna Britannia, vol. I, part II, containing Berkshire, Rev. Daniel Lysons, Samuel Lysons, London, 1813, p. 392
  3. ↑ Hinson, Colin (15 December 2006). "The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1896)". County of Berkshire. GENUKI. Archived from the original on 6 May 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  4. ↑ Magna Britannia, vol. I, part II, containing Berkshire, Rev. Daniel Lysons, Samuel Lysons, London, 1813, p. 392
  5. ↑ A History of the Attwell Family 1200-1650, Bill Attwell, Lulu, 2014, p. 47
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