PERROTT, THOMAS (died 1733), Presbyterian minister, and academy tutor

Born it is believed, at Llan-y-bri, Carmarthenshire; he had a brother, John, who was successor-elect to him as schoolmaster at Trelawnyd (T. A. Glenn, Newmarket Notes, ii, 20), and a nephew who went to Carmarthen Academy. David Peter says that Perrot was taught by William Evans (died 1718) at Carmarthen - this would seem (as Perrot's name does not appear in the Academy lists) to refer to Evans's preliminary school rather than to the Academy proper. But it is perfectly certain that Perrot was at Abergavenny under Roger Griffith, and afterwards at Shrewsbury under James Owen. He was ordained minister at Knutsford, 6 August 1706, by Matthew Henry. He was afterwards at Trelawnyd ('Newmarket,' Flintshire), as minister and as master of the school set up by John Wynne (1650 - 1714); the dates are uncertain, but he signed a document there in 1712 (Glenn, loc. cit.), and had left when John Evans's statistics were compiled c. 1714-5 - at the time of his appointment to Carmarthen, he was at Bromborough. On 2 February 1718/9, the records of the Presbyterian Fund Board speak of allowing him £10 a year if he moved to Carmarthen; according to W. D. Jeremy he went there in 1719, but according to McLachlan he was still at Bromborough in 1720 - confirmation of this may be found in a correction, ' Thomas Parrot 1720 ' in Evans's lists (A History of Carmarthenshire, ii, 174). He died 26 December 1733.

His fellow-student Jeremy Owen praises Perrot highly for his learning, his impartiality, and his moderation. True, a very long-standing tradition, which goes back as far as Joshua Thomas's youth (see his Hanes y Bed., 185) asserts that Perrot's ' Arminianism ' led many of his students to forsake Calvinism. In fact, however, there is no real evidence that he went beyond Baxterianism; and it is no more logical to ascribe the Arminianism of Jenkin Jones or Samuel Thomas to Perrot's direct teaching than it would be to blame that uncompromising Calvinist Vavasor Griffiths for the Arianism of his pupils Richard Price and Jenkin Jenkins. It seems far more probable that it was Perrot's weakness as a disciplinarian that brought the academy into contemporary disrepute - it is clear that the number of the students had swollen beyond his capacity to control them, even if we doubt Wilson's statement (NLW MS 373C ) that more than 150 Nonconformist students 'and as many, if not more, Anglicans' had passed through his hands. Indiscipline at Carmarthen was the reason given by Vavasor Griffiths for insisting upon the removal of the academy from that town. It seems to be agreed that Perrot was personally popular, both as tutor and as minister of Lammas Street church.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru, iii, 435, iv, 213
• G. D. Owen, Ysgolion a Cholegau yr Annibynwyr (1939), 20-4
• The Presbyterian Fund and Dr. Williams' Trust (1885) (index)
• McLachlan, English Education under the Test Acts (1931) (index)
• Jeremy Owen, Golwg ar y Beiau y sydd yn yr hanes a brintiwyd ynghylch pedair neu bum mlynedd i nawr, ym mherthynas i'r rhwygiad a wnaethbwyd yn Eglwys Henllan … 1707, 1708, 1709 (Carmarthen 1732-3), preface
• and the other references given above

Published date: 1959

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