Abraham Perkins was born in England in about 1613. He was living in Hampton, New Hampshire by 1638. He married Mary Wise. They had thirteen children. He died in 1706. Descendants and relatives lived in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and elsewhere.

Isaac Stearns (d.1671) and his family immigrated from England to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Charles Stearns (d.1695) immigrated from England to Watertown, Massachusetts and married twice. Nathanial Stearns immigrated from England to Dedham, Massachusetts, married twice, and died after 1690. Descendants of the three immigrants lived throughout the United States.

The siblings, Samuel (b. 1783), James (b. 1787) and Martha (b. 1798) Perkins, are found first in Anson County, North Carolina in the early 1800s. Their ancestors probably immigrated to the Carolinas during colonial times. By 1815 the three families were in Tennessee. Descendants are in Mississippi and Texas.