Perkins family of Ufton

The Perkins family of Ufton was an English recusant family associated with Ufton Court at Ufton Nervet in Berkshire. The family acquired the Tudor manor in 1581, when Francis Perkins, a wealthy London merchant, purchased the estate and established it as the principal seat of his descendants. Over roughly seven generations, the Perkinses maintained Ufton Court while remaining committed to Roman Catholicism during a period when the English state required outward conformity to the established Church of England. Their religious position had serious legal and financial consequences. Under the post-Reformation settlement, Catholics who refused to attend Anglican services could be classified as recusants and subjected to recurring fines, property penalties, surveillance, and official suspicion. The family's experience illustrates how religious allegiance shaped the fortunes of landed families in Protestant England. In 1587, Swithun Wells, a relative by marriage who later became a Catholic martyr, acknowledged during interrogation that he had stayed at Ufton Court for three months. At that time the house was held by Francis Perkins, son of the original purchaser. The younger Francis was fined the statutory penalty of twenty pounds per month for non-attendance at the parish church. The burden was reportedly so severe that he leased Ufton to his cousin Thomas Perkins to raise the money. The family continued to preserve both its faith and its residence through later generations. Government pursuivants raided the house on at least two recorded occasions, prompting the use of concealed architectural spaces associated with the protection of Catholic priests. These included priest holes in the walls, a hidden chapel in the roof space reached by a concealed stair, and an underground passage that extended toward nearby woodland and may have served as an escape route. The surviving features are significant evidence of the practical measures taken by recusant households to maintain Catholic worship and shelter clergy despite official searches. The direct male line ended with John Perkins, who died without issue in 1769. His elder brother, Francis Perkins, who died in 1736, had arranged an entail governing the succession. The settlement provided that, if Francis had no male heir, the estate would pass first to John and, after John's death without heirs, to John Jones of Llanarth, the son of a Perkins daughter. The property subsequently passed by marriage to William Congreve of Aldermaston, who was related to the playwright William Congreve. The family's historical associations also include Arabella Fermor, who married Francis Perkins of Ufton Court, the Francis Perkins who died in 1736. Fermor had previously become the subject of the social incident later transformed by Alexander Pope into the mock-heroic poem The Rape of the Lock. Her marriage connected a celebrated figure of early eighteenth-century literary and social history with one of Berkshire's prominent Catholic families. The Perkins family's importance therefore rests not on commercial activity but on its role in the history of English recusancy, country-house architecture, Catholic survival, and the transmission of Ufton Court across generations.

The Perkins family's recorded association with Ufton began in 1581, when Francis Perkins, a prosperous London merchant, bought Ufton Court, a Tudor manor in Berkshire. The purchase established the estate as the family's seat during the religious and political tensions created by the English Reformation. Although the Elizabethan settlement made the Church of England the established religious institution, the Perkins family remained Roman Catholic. Their adherence placed them within the recusant community: Catholics who declined to attend Anglican worship and consequently faced fines, surveillance, and restrictions on property and public life. The family's early history at Ufton is closely connected with the enforcement of recusancy laws. In 1587, Swithun Wells, a relative by marriage and later a Catholic martyr, told interrogators that he had lodged at Ufton Court for three months. The house was then held by Francis Perkins, the son of the original purchaser. Because the younger Francis failed to attend the parish church, he incurred the statutory fine of twenty pounds for each month of non-attendance. The cumulative cost was so damaging that he leased Ufton to his cousin Thomas Perkins in an effort to meet the financial obligation. This episode demonstrates how recusancy penalties could affect ownership, tenancy, and the economic stability of Catholic landowners. The Perkinses nevertheless retained their connection with Ufton across successive generations. The house was searched by government pursuivants on at least two documented occasions. Its fabric contained a number of features associated with the clandestine practice of Catholicism. A concealed chapel was built in the roof structure and could be reached by a hidden staircase. Priest holes incorporated into the walls offered places in which visiting clergy could hide during searches. An underground tunnel, still partly traceable, led from the house toward woodland and provided a possible route of escape. These arrangements were characteristic of the defensive architecture developed at some recusant houses, where private worship and the protection of priests had to be carried out discreetly. The family's later history was governed by inheritance as well as religion. Francis Perkins, who died in 1736, created an entail that specified the succession in the absence of a male heir. His brother John Perkins became the next intended heir but died without issue in 1769, bringing the direct male line to an end. The settlement then directed the estate toward John Jones of Llanarth, the son of a Perkins daughter. Ufton subsequently passed through marriage to William Congreve of Aldermaston, a cousin of the dramatist William Congreve. The family also acquired a literary connection through the marriage of Arabella Fermor to Francis Perkins of Ufton Court. Before the marriage, Fermor had been involved in the social incident in which a lock of her hair was cut and taken, an episode Alexander Pope later recast in The Rape of the Lock. Her marriage brought her into the Perkins household and linked the family's Catholic and Berkshire identity with one of the best-known literary subjects of early eighteenth-century England. The Perkins family of Ufton is therefore remembered primarily as a historical family rather than a commercial organization. Its significance lies in the continuity of a Catholic landed household under penal conditions, the architectural evidence of concealed worship and protection, the legal pressures imposed on recusants, and the eventual transfer of Ufton Court after the extinction of the direct male line.

• 1769

  End of the direct male line

  [1]Perkins family of Uftonen.wikipedia.org

  John Perkins died without issue. Under the earlier entail, the estate passed toward the family of John Jones of Llanarth and later by marriage to William Congreve of Aldermaston.

• 1736

  Death of Francis Perkins

  [1]Perkins family of Uftonen.wikipedia.org

  Francis Perkins died after establishing an entail that specified the succession of Ufton Court if he left no male heir.

• 1587

  Swithun Wells is linked with Ufton Court

  [1]Perkins family of Uftonen.wikipedia.org

  During interrogation, the future Catholic martyr Swithun Wells acknowledged that he had stayed at Ufton Court for three months. Francis Perkins, the house's owner, faced severe recusancy fines.

• 1581

  Francis Perkins acquires Ufton Court

  [1]Perkins family of Uftonen.wikipedia.org

  Wealthy London merchant Francis Perkins purchased the Tudor manor of Ufton Court and established it as the seat of his family.

Not applicable as a commercial brand; historically, the family represented landed Roman Catholic recusancy in post-Reformation England.

1. 1Perkins family of Uftonen.wikipedia.org