Welsh Journals

ADMIRATION OR REVULSION: INTERPRETING THE LIFE, CAREER AND CHARACTER OF SIR JAMES PERROT (1571-1637) By Roger Turvey Part Two Ireland Like a moth to a naked flame Sir James Perrot seemed irresistably drawn to Ireland. Whether or not Ireland was 'a country for which he felt the deepest passion', there is no doubting Perrot's great fascination for and interest in Irish affairs.' The reasons for this are not easy to fathom, per- haps he saw Ireland as the land of opportunity to garner official goodwill by exemplary service or as a means to obtain plantation land on the cheap which, for many, had proved a valuable stepping stone to an Irish peerage. Of course, his interest may have been purely personal and unknown to us or, as seems likely, it stemmed from the links with the island and its people established by his late father, a man for whom he cared very deeply. Unlike a number of his ambitious contemporaries, Perrot actively sought service in Ireland but rather than wait on the Crown to appoint him to a position, he suggested to the king that one might be created especially for him! The post which Perrot thought was most suited to his talents was that of 'Cess-master', something akin to a tax-collector, but, in the event, the Crown did not take him up on his offer. Nor, in spite of his entreaties, did the king appoint Perrot a member of the Commission for Defective Titles in 1606 the main object of which was to prevent prying into Irish land titles caused by the Crown's search for concealed lands.3 It is entirely possible that Perrot was encouraged in his desire to serve in Ireland by his newly acquired brother-in-law Sir Arthur Chichester who had been appointed Lord Deputy in February 1604 a little more than a year before his kinsman's petition (June 1605) to the Crown. If so, then even this close connection failed to work in his favour and Perrot was left to ponder on his next course of action. Although thwarted in his earliest endeavour to serve in Ireland, Perrot ensured that he would not suffer the same fate twice and, almost exactly two years later in 1607, he travelled to Dublin to personally seek Chiches- ter's patronage.4 Initially it seems Chichester had nothing for him but in