As an update to my last post, I have found the documentation in Bertie County, North Carolina showing that Arnold R. Perry (1784-ca. 1860 Logan Co., (W)VA) was the son of Abraham Perry of Bertie County, North Carolina (ca. 1735-1788). Abraham, also known as Abram, was a Planter, as well as a Shoemaker. Abraham Perry was a son to John Perry (II), who moved to Bertie Co., NC in 1721 from the Upper Parish of Nansemond County, Virginia. John Perry (II) was born around 1690 in Nansemond Co., and died in 1760 in Bertie Co., NC. The Perrys settled in Bertie just after the Tuscarora Indians were driven out of that county, and John named his large estate Perrytown. Perrytown was adjacent to a Plantation called Colerain, which was owned by the ship captain/merchant family of Campbells. Perrytown is still listed on the Bertie Co maps on the Chowan River just below the present-day town of Colerain, North Carolina. Many Perrys lived in this area as Planters/Merchants, shipping their hogsheads of tobacco on ships that their Perry cousins in London, England were operating. Micajah Perry of London, England, who headed the London Office of Perry & Lane Merchants of London, was a nephew to Phillip Perry of Whitemarsh Plantation in Virginia. Phillip Perry was born in 1597, settled in America in the early 1600s as a shipping agent for his father's branch of the Perry shipping business in Glasgow, Scotland, and owned land in Isle of Wight Co., Virginia, as well as in Gloucester Co., Virginia. Phillip Perry died in 1669 in Isle of Wight Co., Virginia, and left two sons -- Phillip Perry Jr. and John Perry, Sr. John Perry (II)'s father, John Perry, Sr., was born in the 1660s, and is thought to have died in either Nansemond Co., Virginia (now around present-day Suffolk, Virginia) or in Perquimans County NC or in Chowan County NC. Micajah Perry was granted a Perry coat-of-arms around 1704, going all the way back to his ancestors' Perry coat-of-arms from Devon, England. A book titled "Perry of London" by author Jacob M. Price details the maritime-merchant Perry family from the 1400s to the middle 1700s. A map that was produced by the cartographer Thornton of London was presented to Micajah Perry, and it included a colored copy of Micajah Perry's coat-of-arms. This map of Virginia, with Micajah Perry's coat-of-arms displayed on it, are now in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia. Micajah Perry's grandson, also known as Micajah Perry, was appointed the Lord Mayor of London during the 1730s, and lead the construction of the new Palace in London for the King of Great Britain. The shipping firm of Perry & Lane was the world's largest exporters of tobacco, and frequently traded in Rotterdam, Madeiras, the Azores, Barbados, the Virginia Colony, and the Pennsylvania Company. Some of the Perrys ships included: the Exeter Merchant of Exon, the Pennsilvania Merchant of London, and others. The Morgans, including Captain Christopher Morgan, were a family of ships captains who commandeered many of the Perry's ship's voyages. The Morgan family stayed closely associated with the Perry family, as did other sea-faring families, including the Lanes, the Arnolds, the Ballards, the Jeffreys, and others.

During the mid-1700s, Abraham Perry, the great-grandson of Phillip Perry of ye Whitemarsh, was married to a woman named Anne, and they lived on part of the original John Perry (II) plantation called Perrytown on the Chowan River, just upstream from Edenton, North Carolina. Edenton was the home of Blackbeard the pirate. Abraham also seems to have had a mistress named Mary Robinson, and by Mary Robinson Abraham fathered several children, including Asenath "Sena" Perry, Arnold R. Perry, Elizabeth "Betsy" Perry, and possibly others (it is suspected that some of these illegitimate children may have maintained the surname of Robinson). The Robinson family was from Bertie County and Martin County, North Carolina.

Abraham Perry deeded land to his children by both Anne (his wife) and Mary Robinson (his mistress). Abraham's daughters by Anne, named Priscilla and Sarah, married to Solomon Stone and William Stone of Bertie Co.. These Stones were brothers, and were the sons of Benjamin Stone, who was a neighbor to John Perry (II) and Abraham Perry in Bertie Co. in the neighborhood of Herring Creek and Eastermoste Swamp, along the Chowan River. It is believed that the Stones of Pike Co., KY may be related to this same Stone family. Abram Perry was struck by lightning and killed in May of 1788 in Bertie Co., while out in the field with some of his field hands. Abram and the field hands took shelter under a tree, and the tree was struck by lightning, killing Abram and some of his men. Mary Robinson and her children continued to live on land that Abraham Perry had deeded to them in Bertie Co.

In January 1799, Mary Robinson married to Arthur Venters in Onslow County, North Carolina. Arthur Venters was originally from Bertie Co., NC, but received a Land Grant in Onslow Co. around 1780 or 1781, so had gone there to live. Arthur already had a sizeable family of his own by his first wife, including sons Jesse Venters and John Venters. One of these sons, John Venters, married Nancy Crum, who was the daughter of Adam Crum -- a Revolutionary War soldier who served in North Carolina during that war and resided in the Big Sandy River Valley after that war. After the death of Arthur Venters' first wife (name unknown at this time), Arthur remarried to Mary Robinson in 1799. The Venters and Perry family continued to live in Onslow Co., NC until 1806, when they headed west -- some through Cumberland Gap and others through Pound Gap -- into present-day Pike County (then it was Floyd County) along Cedar Creek of Levisa Fork and Coon Branch of Island Creek of Levisa Fork. Robinson Creek and Arnold's Branch in that area still bear the names of this family to this day.

Some of the familys that the Perrys and Venters were associated with in North Carolina that may have migrated with them in their travel from Carolina to Kentucky were: the Robinsons, the Rowes, the Lanes, the Warrens, the Stones, the Waltons, and others. Arthur Venters was related to Malachi Venters of Bertie Co., and Malachi's descendants received a Land Grant in Davidson Co, Tennessee as compensation for Malachi's service in the Revolutionary War. Other close Perry relatives, from Bertie and Franklin and Granville and Guilford Counties in North Carolina, migrated into Sumner and Knox and Davidson Counties in Tennessee, as well as into Cumberland and Floyd and other Counties in Kentucky.

Arthur Venters was living in the home of Arnold R. Perry as late as the 1830 Census of Pike Co., although it is not known whether Mary Robinson Venters was still alive at that time. Arnold married in 1816 to Mary "Polly" Ratliff, who was the daughter of Nathaniel Ratliff and Polly Farmer Ratliff of Montgomery Co., Virginia. Nathaniel Ratliff's father, William "Old" Ratliff, died in Pike Co., Kentucky during the early 1800s. Many of these Ratliffs lived around Ratliff Creek of Levisa Fork, in the same general area as the Perrys and Venters and Robinsons. Arnold and Polly Perry had many children, most of whom moved to the Wayne County, West Virginia area. One of Arnold and Polly Perry's sons, Nathaniel Perry, was my GGG-grandfather. Nathaniel Perry was born in September 1827 in Pike County, Kentucky, and he died in 1905 on Perry Ridge in southern Wayne County, West Virginia. Nathaniel Perry married to Emmariah "Emma" Williamson, who was the daughter of Rev. Elias "Aily" Williamson and Malenda Marcum Williamson. Elias Williamson was the son of Aulden Williamson.