William Peryam
Sir William Peryam (15349 October 1604) of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, was an English judge who rose to the position of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1593, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. Origins. Peryam was born in Exeter, the eldest son of John Peryam, twice mayor of Exeter, and his wife Elizabeth, a daughter and co-heir of Robert Hone of Ottery. The year of Peryam's birth is known to history but, as was common in the 16th century, the day and month went unrecorded. Through his mother's sister, Joan  Bodley née Hone, Peryam was cousin to Sir Thomas Bodley. Like the Bodleys, the Peryams were early adherents of Protestantism and were also threatened in the time of Marian persecutions. Under Queen Elizabeth however, the family thrived, with William eventually achieving eminence in law and his younger brother John Peryam (1541 – c. 1618), MP, elected to Parliament four times (Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593) and becoming Mayor of Exeter. The lawyer and politician William Hakewill and the clergyman and author George Hakewill were his nephews. Education. Young William was first educated in Exeter and then at Exeter  College, Oxford where on 25 April 1551 he was elected fellow. He resigned his fellowship some months later and went to London where he eventually studied law at the Middle Temple, being called to the bar in 1565. Career. A slight setback in his career occurred in 1568 when, after having been summoned to Ireland by Sir Peter Carew to help him prosecute an ultimately successful claim to an Irish barony, Peryam received an unexpected appointment as judge under the prospective President of Munster, Sir John Pollard. By writing to Sir William Cecil and earnestly petitioning the Privy Council, mentioning  his wife and children and delicate state of health, Peryam seems to have been able to avoid the transfer to Ireland altogether. Thereafter, his rise through the legal ranks was steady: in 1575 he became serjeant-at-law for the Michaelmas term, and on 13 February 1581, a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. His highest office came in January 1593, when he was knighted and promoted to Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Of his knighthood Prince wrote as follows: "Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory, as a signal testimony of her favour and his worth, was pleased to  confer upon him the honour of knighthood, but not before he had been twelve years a judge, so cautious was that wise princess in conferring titles, lest they should become cheap and contemptible". Landholdings. According to the Devon historian Sir William Pole (died 1635), who happened to be one of Sir William Peryam's sons-in-law and through his wife Mary Peryam one of his co-heirs, Sir William Peryam acquired the following estates, all situated near or adjoining one another in or near the parishes of Shobrooke, Crediton and possibly Sandford. All ended up unified in the possession  of the Tuckfield family, who made Little Fulford their seat for many generations, either through inheritance from Elizabeth Reynell, wife of Thomas I Tuckfield, a daughter of Richard Reynell and his wife Mary Peryam, daughter and heiress of John Peryam, or by purchase. Marriage and children. Peryam married three times: Monuments to daughters. Mary Peryham. Monument to Mary Periham (1567–1605), eldest daughter of Sir William Peryam and 1st wife of Sir William Pole (1561–1635), in the Pole Chapel, Colyton Church, Devon, in which parish is situated Colcombe Castle. The escutcheons show the arms of Pole and Peryam. Text: "" Elizabeth Periham . Mural monument in Heanton Punchardon Church, Devon, to Elizabeth Peryam (1571–1635), daughter of Sir William Peryam and wife of Sir Robert Bassett. Within a lozenge at the top and on an escutcheon to the sinister are shown her paternal arms of Peryam: "Gules, a chevron engrailed or between three lion's faces affrontes of the last". The arms of Peryam are also shown on an oval cartouche underneath, impaled by Bassett. The text is as follows: Should monuments by merit then surely thine, With stone and orient should shine, But since thy world of worth ye world doth know, This  marble stone may serve thy name to show. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all". Psal. 34.19. Which may be translated literally into English as: ""Sacred to the memory to Lady Elizabeth Bassett wife of Robert Bassett, knight, arisen from a famous stock, daughter and co-heiress of William Peryam, knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Royal Treasury, (he was) most impartial and duty-bound, (she was) pious, prudent, just, long-suffering, modest, chaste, temperant, constant, hospitable, compassionate, kind, a mother and healer of the poor, a preserver of her own  family. Arthur Bassett, Esquire, her sorrowing first-born son, of a duty of gratitude and respect therefore placed this monument to his mother in the year of Our Lord 1635 of her age 64 may she remain to the Lord...Thus does gold come forth into an oven"". Death and burial. He died on 9 October 1604, in the year of his seventieth birthday, at his house at Little Fulford (renamed Shobroke Park in the early 1800s, demolished) east of Crediton in Devon. His monument exists in Crediton parish church to the north of the chancel, showing a life-like  effigy of his recumbent figure his head propped up on his hand. He had served at the Exchequer for eleven years and nine months, and his funeral and burial in Crediton Church appears to have been a significant event, as it was well attended, according to Prince not only by "The gentry, clergy, and others in these parts, but also with heralds at arms, marshalling all according to their rank and place". Monument in Crediton Church. His monument exists in the large and important parish church of Crediton, about two miles west of Little Fulford. It is situated to the  north of the chancel, in the position of greatest honour, and shows a life-like effigy of his recumbent figure his head propped up on his hand. He wears a long Collar of Esses with a single portcullis, one of the badges of the Tudor monarchs. Underneath are shown sculpted in relief his three wives kneeling with his four daughters. The marble monument is decorated with ribbon-work and shows his heraldic achievement on top. The three heraldic escutcheons on the cornice have been defaced by blows from a chisel-like instrument and the armorials removed. The text inscribed on  a tablet within a strapwork surround above the effigy is as follows: Armorials. The heraldic achievement on top of the monument to Sir William Peryam in Crediton Church show the following: "Quarterly, 1st & 4th: Gules, a chevron engrailed between three leopards' faces or (Peryam modern, formerly Branch); 2nd: Argent, a chevron between three pears sable(?) (Peryam ancient); 3rd: Argent, two bars wavy between three billets sable (Hone of Ottery)". The arms of "a chevron engrailed between three leopards' faces" were according to Prince's "Worthies of Devon" (1710) originally the arms of the family of Branch, "whose heir was married  to Periam, of which family the ancient arms were "argent, a chevron between four (sic) pears sable"". These ancient arms of Peryham appear therefore to be canting arms playing on the Latin "pirum" (pear) and its derivative "perry" the drink made from pears. It would appear therefore that one of the younger sons of this marriage, the ancestor of Sir William, was required to adopt the arms of his mother's family, expired in the male line, in lieu of his paternal arms in order to inherit his maternal lands. Such cases were very common, from the earliest times. The  crest of Peryham is: "Two arms gules, issuing out of a crown or, holding in the hands proper a leopard's face of the second".