Baronetcies have been granted to the Perrott family. One was created on 28 June 1611 in the Baronetage of England, but the first holder died before his Letters Patent were sealed, so it has been deemed not to be created. The first complete creation was on 1 July 1716 in the Baronetage of Great Britain and the second on 21 June 1911, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom.
One written record of the family starts with Stephen Perrot of Poptown in Pembroke, who died in 1338.[1] However John Burke claims they were originally from Brittany and gives an earlier account.[2]
A descendant, Sir John Perrot, KB, Lord of Haroldston and of Langhorn, which castle he built, was also Lord of Carew and its castle, in Pembrokeshire, to which he added substantially. He was Lord Deputy of the Province, Lieutenant-General and sometime Governor of Ireland under Elizabeth I, Admiral of England, Privy Councillor, and possessed estates said to be worth an annual revenue of £22,000 per annum. He married twice. By his first wife he had a son, Sir Thomas Perrott, 1st Baronet of Haroldston, created 28 June 1611, who died before his Letters Patent was even issued, having married in 1583 Lady Dorothy, sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.
Sir Thomas had two daughters: Elizabeth, who married John Pryse of Gogerthan; and Penelope, who first married famed astronomer Sir William Lower in 1601, and second, Sir Robert Naunton, one of the biographers of Sir John, and Secretary of State to James I of England. (The existence of a third daughter Dorothy, said to have married a cousin, James Perrott, Lord of Wellington, is purely fictitious.)[3] Sir John's son by his mistress, Sybill Jones, was Sir James Perrot, Knt.,[4] Privy Councillor. This family suffered greatly for being cavaliers during the civil war, their estates ravaged.[5]