This interesting surname with variant spellings Perrin, Perryn, Perren, Perring (chiefly Devon), etc. derives from the Middle English, Old French given name Perrin, a diminutive of the personal name Peter, itself coming from the Greek Petras meaning "rock or stone". The surname dates back to the mid 12th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Geoffrey Perrun (1185), "Records of the Templars in England in the 12th Century, Lincolnshire", Alexander Peryn (1268), "The Assize Rolls of Somerset", and John Perin (1279), "The Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire". Church recordings include one Joane Pearing who married Phillipp Maske on August 25th 1614, at St. Katherine by the Tower, London. Grace, daughter of Samuell Perring, was christened on September 6th 1663, at St. Savior, Dartmouth, Devon, and Mary Perring married William Orum on September 21st 1699, at St. James, Dukes Place, London. One Jane Perring married Arthur Embley at St. Martin in the Fields Westminster on August 18th 1705. William Perrin aged 20, a famine emigrant, sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Rochester" bound for New York on May 8th 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Pirun, which was dated 1166, The Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire, during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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