“This family came from Periers, near Evreux, Normandy, where it remained in the fifteenth century (La Roque, Mais. d’Harcourt, ii. 1360, 1361). Hugo de Periers possessed estates in Warwick 1156 (Rot. Pip.). Geoffrey de Periers held a fief in Stafford 1165, and Adam de Periers in Cambridge (Liber Niger). Hugh de Perers, thirteenth century, held a fief at Sixtenby, Warwick, and Leicester, from Roger Mowbray (Testa). Sir Richard de Perers was M.P. for Leicestershire 1311, for Herts 1316-24; and Viscount of Essex and Herts in 1325.” - The Norman People. He had been pardoned for his participation in the death of Gaveston in 1313: and was thenceforth constantly employed in the King’s service. In 13x4 he received a writ of military summons to serve against the Scots; in 1315 was empowered to raise one hundred archers in Essex; in 1322 was Commissioner of array and Leader of the levies in Hertfordshire: in 1324 employed to select and array the knights of the counties of Essex and Herts required to perform service in Gascony, and the same year summoned to the great Council at Westminster. - Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. Holt-Perers in Norfolk preserves his name. His daughter and sole heir, Alice, an extremely beautiful woman, was the so-called “Abishaig of King Edward III.” She had been one of the ladies of Queen Philippa’s household, and is said to have married Sir Thomas de Nerford, who left her a widow in 1371. The Queen had died two years before, but she appears to have remained at Court, and exercised extraordinary influence over the aged King. In 1373 he granted her “all the jewels which belonged to Philippa his late Queen, with all her goods and chattels;”and bedizened in these, as Lady of the Sun, she paraded the streets of London in a dazzling blaze of splendour. She rode in great state from the Tower to a tournament held in her honour at Smithfield, followed by “many lords, knights, and ladies; each lady leading a lord or knight by his horse’s bridle, till they came to West Smithfield, where presently began solemn justs, which held for seven days.” - Barnes. Nor did she rest content with her authority and magnificence at Court. She aspired to be a power in the State. She liked to help and promote her friends, and even to interfere with a high hand in the administration of justice. She would, we are told, sit in Court by the side of the Judge, and dictate to him his verdict. She “was in such credit with Edward III. that she sat at his bed’s head, when all of the Council, and of the Privy Chamber, stood waiting without doors; and moved those suits that they dared not. Yet,” adds Sir Richard Cotton, “those two suits whereof she was condemned, seemed very honest; her mishap was, that she was friendly to many, but all were not so to her.” When Parliament met in 1376, she was proceeded against as one of those by whom the realm “had been of long time evil guided;” and the Commons, through their Speaker, Sir Peter de la Mare, demanded her instant removal from the King. This request was allowed; and she, with the rest of the accused, and “others of their affinitie” was commanded to depart from Court. All duly obeyed; but she, at least, quickly returned, and was at Shene when the King died. Walsingham asserts that she drew the rings from his fingers as he lay powerless on his death­bed; and one of the counts against her in the new reign was that “contrary to that she had promised by oath in the last parliament, she had presumed to come within the Court and to obtain of the King whatsoever was to her liking.” She was banished the realm, and all her goods declared forfeit to the Crown. Within two years, however, she was reinstated by Richard II., “being then the wife of Sir William de Windsor.” She owed this act of grace solely and entirely to her marriage. In 3 Rich. II. Lord Windsor “was by Indenture retained to serve the King with one hundred men-at-arms for half a year; and in consideration thereof he had restitution of the Landes which were belonging to Alice Perers (sometime a Concubine to King Edward III.) then his wife, which were in the King’s hands by reason of her forfeiture.” - Dugdale. It has been urged on her behalf - though unfortunately there are many instances to the point - that Lord Windsor would never have married a woman who had been the King’s mistress. There is no certainty that she deserved the ugly name with which she has been branded: and it is hard to believe that Edward III., on whom no breath of scandal had rested in the very heyday of youth, should have had a paramour in his infirm old age. Froude insists that the story “which throws a stain of dishonour on the end of our great English sovereign,” rests on the unsupported authority of a priest, and is altogether unworthy of credit. “Lady Alice Perers was the wife of Lord Windsor, a nobleman attached to Edward’s person, who had been a distinguished Viceroy in Ireland. Her family had for many years been involved in angry law­suits with the Abbot of St. Albans; and long after this affair”(the death-bed scene) “which Walsingham describes so rhetorically, we find her still a great lady, her father’s heiress, carrying on the controversy with the Abbey. She was evidently regarded there with bitter personal hostility, and charges from that quarter require to be scrutinized.

“Turning now to other evidence against her, we find from the Rolls of Parliament that she was complained of by the Legislature as presuming on the King’s favour to interfere in the business of the courts of law. Although there is no hint in the Roll that she was the King’s mistress, the complaint has appeared to harmonize so well with Walsingham’s charge as at least to confirm it.

“The Speaker of the House of Commons, however, who presented the charge, was Peter de la Mare, the Abbot’s brother or cousin; and thus again there is a suggestion of personal motive. The particulars when looked into amount to no more than this: Lord Windsor was a favourite with Edward, and an object of jealousy both with other noblemen, and with the popular party in Parliament. A hostile commission was to be appointed to inquire into Lord Windsor’s conduct in Ireland. Lady Alice, who may have been a favourite with the King also without being a concubine, interceded with him successfully in her husband’s defence to prevent his being sacrificed to his enemies.” It will be observed that Froude chiefly rests his argument on the chronological error that Alice Perers married Lord Windsor during Edward’s lifetime, whereas in reality she only became his wife about 1378. They had no children, but she left some daughters by her former marriage. One of them, Joan Skerne, is mentioned in her will.

Another family of the same name, but said to be of entirely different origin, and derived from Perieres in Brittany, existed in the West of England, where Philip Perer held of the Honour of Plympton, Devon. - Testa de Nevill. “The family of Perry, seated in that county in 1307 (see Pole) bears similar arms, and is believed to have the same origin.” - The Norman People. These arms are Party per pale indented Or and Gules. Burke assigns them to the Perrys of Cornwall.

A Norman name: Perrières, local name