1174 772a HAZARD FAMILY

17b6, ALEXANDER PERRY, born May 4, 1822; died Nov. 9, 1888; married Lavinia Carly Howe, May 6, 1847.

§98L MATHEW CALBRAITH PERRY, 7 (Christopher Raymond, 6; Mercy Hazard, 5 , Oliver, 4; George, 3 , Robert, 2; Thomas I), was born in Newport, Rhode Island, April 10,1794; he died March 4, 1858. He entered the Navy, 1809; was made lieutenant in 1813. In 1819, while cruising, he settled the question of the location of the first occupation of Liberia. In 1821—24, in com— mand of the schooner S/zark, he captured several pirates near the West India Islands. In 1833, after a three years’ cruise in the Mediterranean, he became the superintendent of a school for gun practice in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and superintended the application of steam to war vessels. In 1837 he was made captain, and in 1838 went abroad to visit the dock—yards, and inspect the danger signals on the coasts. In 1839—41 he was commandant at the Brooklyn navy- yard, afterwards of the African squadron and the Gulf squadron, and gallantly co— operated with the land forces at the battle of Vera Cruz. In 1852—54 he went on an expedition to Japan. He was one of the first public men in this country who looked for the peaceful opening ofJapan, and long before he was appointed to command the fleet, March 1852, he had carefully studied the land, the people, and the problem from every side. He arrived off Uraga in the bay of Yeddo, - July 7, 1853, and after leaving letters for the Tycoon, sailed away July 17, and returned 1n February, 1854. On March 8, the formal articles of convention between the United States and Japan were exchanged at Yokohama, on the spot now occupied by the Union Christian Church. Perry 3 one mistake was in not treating with the true sovereign, the Mikado, from Osaka, instead of with his lieutenant, the Tycoon. Commodore Perry was a cultivated scholar and the Narrative of the Expedition of an flmericaa Squadron to the Claim Sea: and 7apan, though nominally edited by Dr. Francis L. Hawks, is, in the main, an exact reprint of Perry s diary and autograph nairative. He died in New York.

A superb bronze statue of Commodore M. C. Perry, with four bas— reliefs in bronze illustrating scenes in his public life, by J. Q. A. Ward, stands 1n Truro Park, Newport, Rhode Island, erected by his son—in—law, August Belmont, of New York.‘

He married, October 24, 1819,Jane Slidell, daughter of John Slidell, of New York. She was born in New 9York, February 29, 1797, and died at Newport,

January 14, 1879.

CHILDREN

1767a. JOHN SLIDELL PERRY, died March 24, 1817.

1767a. SARAH PERRY; married, Dec. 15, 1841, Col. Robert S. Rodger; (brother of Rear-Admiral yo/m Rodgerr, U. S. N.), at Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York.

1767:. JANE HAZARD PERRY; married, Oct. 20, 1841, joint Hoae, of New York; died Dec. 24,

1882.

I The International Cyclopaedia, Vol. 11., p. 529. 1768a.