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- Mr. Perley came to this country, at the age of twenty-two years, in thefleet with Governor Winthrop, and located in "Charlestowne Village," onland which is now included in the city of Woburn and called "Button-end,"near a tract of meadow... which has been known for two and a halfcenturies as "Parly meddowe," through which meanders a brook spanned by aplank bridge... six and a half feet wide, and known as "Parly brook." Thename is found in probate records, and in the colonial records, 2:75, asit is spelled above; and it is pronounced by the citizens of Woburn todayas it is here spelled.
He located in Ipswich, on High street, a short distance from GovernorBradstreet and the Waldo family. The place was and is the second houselotnorthwest of the High-street cemetery, and it is remarkable that it hasthe same shape and area now that it had then--two and a half centuriesago. Alexander Knight's homestead was on the northwest, George Smith's onthe southeast, "a drift way" on the northeast, and High street on thesouthwest. At present the new part of the cemetery is on the northeast.
It was a picturesque spot. Located on the western slope of Town hill andagreeably elevated from the street, it commanded a fine view of theverdant slopes of Turkey and Timber hills and the ridge-range of housesalong Scott's lane, the present Washington street. The deep frontage ofhis lot afforded ample opportunity to arrange a spacious avenue from thestreet to his dwelling, with flowering plants and shrubbery on eitherside, after the fashion of the average gentleman of the old country.Whatever he did in the matter, his selection of grounds of such possibleimprovements, attest his good taste and judgment, educated, no doubt, bythe experiences of his early life. There he brought his young wife andbegan the business of life anew; there most of his children were born;thence have radiated the family name and influence.
He resided there about seventeen years, selling, 3 Sept., 1652, for œ27,his "dwelling house and homestead" to Walter Roper, carpenter, ofTopsfield.
Mr. Perley was a large land-holder, and besides possessions in Essex,Rowley and Boxford, he had in Ipswich, in 1635, land at Heartbreak hill;in 1640, 1:3 mo., a road from Rowley to Salem was laid out "over thefalls at Mile river and by marked trees over Mr. Appleton's meadowe,called Parlye meadowe": he was a commoner in 1641; he owned a houselot onMill street in 1642, the street being now called Washington, and the lotbeing traversed by Mt. Pleasant street; he had a planting lot on Townhill in 1645: "att a meeting of the seven men the 3th (5) 1651" there was"granted to Alen Perlye (in exchange for Thirty acres more or less atChebacco lyeing on the west syde of his meddowe) the sume of forty-fiveacres of upland (This land was then sometimes called, or was contignonsto, the "Sorton Reserve," land set a part for Rev. John Norton's brother,who declined to pe??py it. The territory was early known--before 1693--as"The Ipswich Farms", or "The Farms", a designation that obtained till theincorporation of Linebrook Parish.--State Archives, 113: 45-6 and 5??)lyeing beyond Mr. Winthropes farme Joyneing up to some of the ppriatyesthereabouts"; he was granted 10 acres by the town in 1660; he owned oneand a half shares in Plum Island in 1664, and, at some time, five acresof upland and marsh called Reedy marsh. In 1670, he had liberty of thetown to cut timber for a "barne."
He was admitted to the privileges of freemen, 18 May, 1642; was a grandjuror 25 Sept., 1660, and at various times was witness to legaldocuments, and served on important committees, he was upon the coroner'sjury in the case of his neighbor.
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1608 - 1675 (67 years)