The town was chartered on July 17, 1761, by a New Hampshire Grant and named after the second-listed grantee of the town (with five others), Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, and since 1760 Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet (1712–1779), British Governor in New Jersey and Massachusetts
Originally named for Oliver Partridge, one of the three purchasers of the town (along with Governor Francis Bernard), the name was officially changed to Peru in 1806, on the suggestion of the Rev. John Leland, "because it is like the Peru of South America, a mountain town, and if no gold or silver mines are under her rocks, she favors hard money and begins with a P."
Somes was requested by the Massachusetts governor, Francis Bernard, to settle there and establish mills (Shettleworth, & Vandenbergh, 2001).
The assembly first chose James Otis, but Governor Bernard rejected this choice, and Cushing was named as a compromise candidate.
George Bernard Shaw | Sir | Francis Bacon | Sir Walter Scott | Francis I of France | Francis Ford Coppola | Pope Francis | Connie Francis | baronet | Baronet | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Francis I | Francis Poulenc | Francis of Assisi | Francis Drake | Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis | 1st United States Congress | Richard Francis Burton | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Bernard of Clairvaux | Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein | William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham | Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Francis |
The Bridgeman Baronetcy, of Ridley in the County of Chester, was created on 12 November 1773 for Orlando Bridgeman, Member of Parliament for Horsham and younger son of the 1st Baronet, of the Great Lever creation.
For over 50 years Copley has been the partner of John Hugh Chadwyck-Healey (born 1922), grandson of Charles Chadwyck-Healey, 1st Baronet.
Pollock was the fifth son of Mr George Pollock, fourth son of Sir Frederick Pollock (1st Baronet, of Hatton) (elder brother of Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet, of The Khyber Pass).