Christopher R. Perry-- Part 4: Personal Life, Five Sons in Navy

Christopher Perry returned to the United States in July 1800 and the crew was discharged.  The General Greene was placed in ordinary at Washington Navy Yard and reduced to a hulk in 1805 before being burned Aug. 24. 1814, to prevent capture by the British.

Perry and most of the other officers of the U.S. Navy were laid off by the Naval Peace Establishment Act of 1801 which reduced the size of the Navy.  Only nine of the 42 captains of the Navy retained their commissions.

PERSONAL LIFE

Perry married  Sarah Wallace Alexander on August 2, 1784.  She was the descendant of an uncle of famed Scottish hero William Wallace.  They had eight children.  All five of the sons were officers in the U.S. Navy who died in the service.  The two most famous are Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry.

I was unable to find out anything about Christopher Perry in the War of 1812.

In 1800, he became the owner of a large house in Newport, Rhode Island, that still stands and is called the Knowles-Perry House which is probably where he lived for the rest of his life.  He died in 1818. and is buried in the Belmont-Perry plot in the Island Cemetery in Newport.

--Brock-Perry