The Perry Bunch

I promised you the story of Ticy Ann Joplin’s outlaw husband, and that’s coming soon. But before we get to Burwell Perry, we need to talk about his father, William “Billie” Perry. To understand the son, you have to meet the father first.

Now, I’ll warn you, our family doesn’t exactly have a neat and tidy tree. As a fellow genealogist once told me, “you don’t have a tree, you’ve got a shrub.” And you’ll see why. You may have to reread parts of this to keep all the connections straight, but I’ll do my best to break it down for you. Stick with me!

The First Marriage: Billie & Dillie

Billie Perry was born around 1805, though we don’t know the exact date. At age 25, he married Delilah “Dillie” Harrison, who according to records was just 15 years old, on September 8, 1830.

Billie and Dillie (yes, it’s okay to giggle) had nine children between 1832 and 1857, one of them being Burwell Perry, the future outlaw and husband to Ticy. Dillie died shortly after giving birth in 1857, most likely from complications of childbirth. That left Billie to raise their younger children alone, although by then some of the older ones had already married and started families of their own.

The Second Marriage: Catherine Joplin

On August 15, 1864, Billie remarried, this time to Catherine Joplin (Choplin). If that last name sounds familiar, it should. Catherine was Ticy’s aunt, the sister of Eli Wesley Joplin, Ticy’s father.

Billie and Catherine had one son, James Allen Perry, born in 1865. Tragically, Catherine died the same year, either in childbirth or soon after. With her death, Billie gained ownership of land Catherine had inherited from her father, William Joplin.

The Third Marriage

Three years later, Billie married for a third time, and this one may surprise you. His new wife was Arryanne Lowery Joplin, the widow of Eli Wesley Joplin… and Ticy’s mother. They married on January 4, 1868.

Billie and Arryanne had one child together, George Washington Perry, born May 26, 1870. And to keep the shrubbery growing: George was the paternal half-brother of Burwell Perry and the maternal half-brother of Ticy.

At the time, Arryanne had been a widow for six years and still had young children. Three of her six children from her first marriage to Eli were under 18 years of age. For reasons lost to time, her children never lived with her after she married Billie. I’d love to know why, but it’s one of those mysteries history won’t give up.

What we do know is that when Eli Joplin died, his estate was divided between his widow and children. Once Arryanne married Billie, her portion of that inheritance fell into his hands.

Do you see the pattern yet? The Choplin family certainly did.

A Land Grab Scheme?

By 1870, members of the Choplin family had filed court documents trying to retrieve their family land from Billie Perry. By then, it was no secret that Billie had made it his mission to become a prolific landowner. His method? Marry widows, then absorb their inherited property.

It worked, for a while. But the Choplins were not about to sit back and let their land slip away.

And I’ll be honest, I can’t help but wonder: were the deaths of Dillie and Catherine entirely natural? We’ll never know. But it certainly makes you think.

The Perry Children: A Notorious Bunch

Billie Perry’s legacy was more than farmland and family ties; it was also complicated. Of his 10 or 11 children, most lived ordinary lives and stayed out of the public eye. But a few became known in local court records:

1. Burwell Perry – gained a reputation in Wake County as ‘The Most Notorious Outlaw in Wake County’ and appeared in multiple court cases involving robbery, assault, and allegations of bigamy.
2. Wyatt Perry – faced serious legal trouble and was arrested for murder.
3. George Washington Perry – involved in at least one case of assault but seemed to turn his life around. He would go on to marry and have a family and was listed as a “prominent, substantial, and influential” member of the New Light Community in Historical Raleigh: with Sketches of Wake County by Moses Amis. At the time of his death, he had 75 living descendants according to his obituary.

There is no record that Billie himself was ever charged with a crime. Still, some of his personal choices—especially in relationships—may have contributed to tension and instability within the family. It’s hard to know whether Billie’s influence led his sons toward violence and lawlessness, or if their choices reflected the rough environment, they grew up in. They were, after all, raised in the Harricanes—a place known in local lore as somewhere you didn’t go unless you knew someone.

Burwell & Ticy: Another Land Move?

This brings us back to Burwell Perry and Frances “Ticy” Joplin. On October 17, 1871—just two and a half months after Ticy gave birth to her first son—she married Burwell Perry, her stepbrother. Yes, you read that right: her stepbrother. Their parents, Billie Perry and Ticy’s mother Arryanne Lowery Joplin, were already married, making Burwell and Ticy part of the same family long before the marriage.

Was their marriage simply a convenient arrangement in Billie’s on going land dealings?

Or was there another story, one more personal, and perhaps more complicated behind their decision to wed?

Be sure to come back for Burwell’s story, where we will look deeper into ‘The Most Notorious Outlaw in Wake County’ and explore what really might have bound him to Ticy.