Judge John Perry

Judge John Perry

Perry, John Hoyt, 1848-1928

John Hoyt Perry was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Fairfield County in 1889, and in 1893 went into private practice in Bridgeport until his retirement in 1902. A Republican, he represented Fairfield in the House of Representatives in 1877, 1878, 1881 and 1889; in 1889 he was speaker of the House. In 1913 he was elected to the Connecticut Senate and served as the minority leader. He served as counsel for the United States in arbitration proceedings with Chile in 1902, and as counsel for the town of Fairfield. Judge Perry was first vice president of the Connecticut constitutional convention of 1902, and for many years served as president of the state police commission until its reorganization in 1921.

Locally, he was the president of the Southport Savings Bank, the Pequot Library Association of Southport from its founding, and the Fairfield Historical Society; trustee of the Hartford Seminary Foundation; chairman of the executive committee of the Southport Congregational Church and of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions; and a member of the alumni advisory board of Yale University from its creation until 1925. As president of the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars, he saw to the marking of historic spots, among others that of the Great Swamp Fight ending the Pequot War of 1638, in Southport just south of the Old Post Road.

His house at 134 Center Street in Southport is a village landmark, and included in the Historic American Buildings survey of the Library of Congress.

Portraits--Perry, John H. Judge-Pres. of F.H.S. 1922-29

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