London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Local Studies Library Information Sheet No. 37
CAPTAIN JOHN PERRY, R.N.
John Perry was born in Gloucestershire in 1670.
He joined the Royal Navy as a teenager,
becoming a lieutenant in April 1689. Scarcely a
year later, he lost his right arm during a battle
with a French privateer (a privately owned ship
engaged by the French government). He had
remained on duty at his post leaving his wound
untreated for too long and the arm could not be
saved.
Perry spent 1690-1 building a dry dock for large
ships in Portsmouth Dockyard. This demanded
good engineering skills and Perry designed a
technically proficient sluice gate as well as a
powerful engine to pump water out of the dock.
As a result, he was promoted to captain and
placed in charge of a fireship in 1692. However,
returning from a year in the West Indies, his ship
and that of his superior officer, were attacked off
Ireland by two French privateers. This time he
was forced to surrender and, in keeping with
practice at the time, on his return to England was
court martialled for the loss of his ship. Found
guilty of failing in his duty, he was sentenced to
10 years’ imprisonment.
Perry began his sentence in the Marshalsea Prison in Southwark, but successfully
petitioned the Board of Admiralty setting out the justification for his surrender, and in
June 1697 he was pardoned and acquitted by the Lords Justices. During his stay in
prison, he wrote A Regulation for Seamen (1695), in which he put forward his idea for
the replacement of impressment (forcing men to serve) with a system of registering
men as naval or merchant seamen for a maximum year's paid service followed by
immunity from recall.
Perry’s career then turned towards hydraulic engineering. His first job was building a
dry dock in Flushing, Holland, but in 1698 he was introduced to the Russian
ambassador and was offered £300 per year to work in Russia. He started by surveying
the line of a canal to be built between the rivers Volga and Don to link the Caspian with
the Black Sea; however work was halted by the outbreak of war between Russia and
Sweden.
Perry’s next two projects centred on the river Voronezh in south-west Russia, a
tributary of the river Don. In 1702-1703 he built a dam across it with a lock which
enabled warships to be floated onto the bank for reconditioning. Over the next two
years, 1704-05, he constructed another lock further upstream allowing larger ships to
navigate into the Don. Perry's salary and expenses had been unpaid for some time
but, in 1712, the response to his petition for payment was unacceptable threats and he
Please turn over……
considered it wise to leave Russia under the protection of the British ambassador.
Perry published The State of Russia, under the Present Czar, in 1716. It was an
influential account and was widely read running to several editions. Even today it is of
great interest as it provides an observation on Tsar Peter the Great's attempts to reform
and westernise Russia.
Back in England, Perry was contracted to stop the breach in the river wall at
Dagenham. A large gap in the flood defences allowed the river Thames, with each tide,
to scour out soil from Dagenham marshes. This had created a mud-bank in the middle
of the river which was causing a hazard to shipping and trade.
Perry built strong sluices and designed dovetailed timber piles to withstand the
tremendous pressure of the water at high tide. In total, three dams were built, the last
one standing firm against the tide. Gradually, over time, Perry reinforced the
embankment which was described as being 5-6m broad, formed of vertical piles and
horizontal boarding, and filled with chalk to prevent the foot of the future embankment
from spreading. Some 300 men were employed in stopping the breach and it took five
years to accomplish. It was completed on 18 June 1719.
Following this success, between 1716 and 1724, Perry spent time in Rye, Dover and
Dublin advising and designing harbour improvements and in 1727 he was paid for his
plans to make the river Ouse in Yorkshire navigable as far as York. In 1729 he settled
in Spalding, Lincolnshire, where he acted as engineer to the Adventurers of Deeping
Fen and spent time drawing up proposals for the drainage of the fens. He never
married and died in 1733, aged 63. He is buried in Spalding parish church.
John Perry Primary School and John Perry Children’s Centre in Dagenham are named
after him.
Primary Sources held at LBBD Archives and Local Studies Centre:
Boswell, William: The case and proposal of William Boswell relating to the stopping the
Breach at Dagenham (c.1714) LBBD Archive ACQ2005/04
Perry, John: An Account of the Stopping of Daggenham Breach (1721)
Perry, John: The State of Russia, under the Present Czar (1716)
Primary Sources held elsewhere:
John Perry: Four petitions of Captain John Perry . . ., (April 1725), at The National
Archives, ref: PC 1/4/9
Extensive correspondence regarding Dover Harbour can be found at the British Library
ref. BL, Add. MS 42075
Secondary sources at LBBD Archives and Local Studies Centre:
Smiles, Samuel: Lives of the Engineers Vermuyden, Myddelton, Perry, James Brindley,
(1904)
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online can be accessed through the main
library website using a London Borough of Barking & Dagenham library card number
for the log-in.
See also Local Studies Information Sheet no.19 Sir Cornelius Vermuyden and
information sheet no.36 The history of Dagenham Breach.
Archives & Local Studies Centre, Valence House, Becontree Ave, Dagenham RM8 3HT / 09.2014