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LIFE OF DAVID PERRY.
Sources
hotocopies of each of the extant editions
were used in compiling
this edition, and I owe each my deepest gratitude -- for a photocopy of (1) the original 1822 edition: both the
Rhode Island Historical Society [RIHS] and the Vermont Historical
Society [VHS] ; for a photocopy of (2) the Alden edition [ca. 1903-1930]: Mrs. Walter Charles
[Mary] Perry of Hampden, NY, and also for a
faxed copy via ILL , Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225
; for a photocopy of (3) the 1928 Magazine of History
(Abbatt) edition, Dr. Fred A. Anderson, Dept. of History, University of Colorado,
and Dr. William Whiteman and Dianne Perry Whiteman (a 4th ggdau. of Capt. David Perry); for my first perusal of (4) the 1971 Polyanthos edition: the
Family History Library in
Salt Lake City, Utah;
and for various microform editions through Interlibrary Loan [ILL] and an extensive listing of those OCLC libraries holding
copies of the various editions I must thank Julie Trimble at the Davis County Library,
Farmington, Utah. Dr. William Whiteman, who is currently (1999) preparing an excellent annotated edition of Recollections for his family and friends, has generously and unstintingly contributed to my own knowledge via photographs, books, discussion, etc. In addition, numerous librarians and historians in Canada (e.g., Bob Cuff, Harry Cuff Publications Ltd, in Newfoundland; Jim Candow and Barbara Schmeisser of Parks Canada in Nova Scotia) as well as across the U.S. (e.g. Steven W. Sowards, Social Sciences and Humanities Reference Librarian, Michigan State U.; and Dr. Fred Anderson, Department of History, University of Colorado) have freely increased my knowledge, understanding and resources. Not the least of these librarians are the staff at both the South Branch and Headquarters of the Davis County Library System in Bountiful, Utah. Withouth their help in filling my incessant requests for interlibrary loans I could never have tackled so monumental a task. To Bob Cuff go additional thanks for suggestions on this web site and on the 2012 edition of Perry's Recollections, which greatly improved both. For information and documentation on David Perry, I am indebted to the extensive holdings of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City which I have consulted concerning him for thirty years.
I am grateful, also, to Karen Maurer Green -- owner of Frontier Press
in Cooperstown, NY, and purchaser of Polyanthos Press -- for allowing
me to buy at discount and distribute all but 5 of the remaining extant
1971 editions; to Leslie Warner of the William Reese Company
in New Haven, CT for information on the one of the only two first editions that were
for sale in 2000 (both have since been sold, one to the author of this site).
Regarding the other, thanks go to John Johnson for the image of his restored first edition,
for information on his discovery of it 30 years ago in an attic in Ludlow, Vermont, and
for cherishing Capt. David Perry's Recollections these many years [2-21-2000].*
I am especially grateful to Mrs. John Ferris Alden (a 2nd-great-granddaughter
of Capt. David Perry) and Winston DeVille for their respective editions without
which I never would have heard my ancestor�s life story with its admonition
and consequently would not have embarked on one of the greatest journeys
of my life -- that through both time and space to discover history, and my own
New England roots. I owe all of these people my thanks and will include grateful acknowledgment in the forthcoming edition.
A listing of the locations* of extant copies of the 1822 edition will appear
in the 2012 edition currently in preparation. Information in brackets on this Web Site
adding proper names are my additions.
Neither my footnotes comparing editions nor my historical, genealogical, and
topographical endnotes are included in this Web Site at this time, although
knowledge gleaned from them has been used in selecting links to other
sites and in the selected endnotes. Perry's Recollections on this site is a compilation of all editions. Selected references and annotations
will be given in the 2004 edition; some of these
may be incorporated into this site in the future.
Selected Genealogical Sources: "In the battles of Long Island and Harlem Heights, in August and September, 1776, we find Lieut. David Perry, Ensign Sylvanus Perry, and their half brothers, Ozias and Seth. David, Ozias and Seth were in the 3d Regiment, raised in 1775, and commanded by Israel Putnam. Sylvanus was in the 3d Battalion, Co. 5, Wadsorth's Brigade..." (Vol. 1, 523).
I have been unable to verify this information, which may have been supplied by great-grandchildren
and likely deduced based on histories of the American Revolution and the service of
generals and battalions, rather than
on primary records of the individual soldiers, which records are incomplete.
The wording of Perry's memoir leads to the conclusion that he was not at those battles.
Gen. Israel Putnam was, but Perry was discharged from Putnam's Battalion in Sept. 1775. (See Heitman, below.) He did not serve again until the winter of 1776-77 at Providence, Rhode Island, in the Fourth Battalion of the the State Regiment of Connecticut.*
(Note: This source is probably the originator of an error that continues online today. It states that Capt. David Perry married, first, Hannah Sherwin. This is incorrect. Hannah Sherwin married Capt. David Perry's second cousin, also named David Perry, b: 1 Apr 1728, in Barnstable, Mass., the son of John Perry Jr., son of John Perry Sr., son of Ezra Perry -- Capt. David Perry�s great grandfather. The cousin, David Perry of Barnstable, married Hannah Sherwin 5 Mar. 1761, and lived in Hebron, Tolland, Connecticut; they had at least two children: Hannah (b. 21 Jan, 1762), and Silas (b. 18 Apr. 1763), and maybe David (b. abt. 1765, possibly in Hebron). Hannah Sherwin is listed in Scoville and Holland as having died in 1763. This is probably a false deduction due ther confusion between the two David Perrys, Captain David Perry having married Anna Bliss in 1764. Indeed, David and Hannah [Sherwin] Perry may have had more offspring at the same time Capt. David Perry and his wife Anna [Bliss] Perry were raising theirs. --DGJ] |