For an extensive obituary, see The Abbeville Press and Banner, Abbeville, South Carolina, 17 December 1890, pg. 4. Newspaper online at Library of Congress, Chronicling America - Historic American Newspapers.
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James Wardlaw Perrin, the third child and eldest son of Thomas Chiles Perrin and Jane Eliza Wardlaw Perrin, was named for his maternal grandfather. He received his early schooling in Abbeville. He entered the College of South Carolina in 1850 or 1851, graduated in 1853, and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1854.

James did not follow the legal profession, but instead devoted much of his time to being a planter, and took over the management of "Cotton Level", one of his father's two plantations, about 15 miles south of Abbeville Village. Profitable crops of cotton were grown at Cotton Level. James recorded harvesting 22,154 pounds of cotton from the end of August to mid-November of 1860; in 1862 there were 71 slaves living on the plantation.

In 1859 James and Mary Jane moved back to the town of Abbeville for the birth of their first child. Their other 8 children were born on the plantation.

On 3 May 1861 The Abbeville Press published an order of readiness and a request for volunteers from J. Wardlaw Perrin, Captain of the Southern Rights Dragoon, "Call for Cavalry: Please give notice that an order has been received to hold the Southern Rights Dragoon in readiness for service and, for the present, to act as a Reserve Corps."

On 20 June 1861 he enlisted in Orr's Regiment as a private, was appointed sergeant within two months, and attained the rank of Captain. He served as Quartermaster for the Regiment.

At the war's end, James returned to farm the land at Cotton Level. He was active in the difficult days of Reconstruction and was appointed the head of a committee on 20 July 1866 "to consider the present embarrassed condition of the country in consequence of its indebtedness," and to seek means of relief.

In addition to enduring the changes in the social and economic structure of the south in the Reconstruction years, personal tragedy also struck the family in the years after the Civil War. In 1867 their daughter Mary died at eighteen months of age. Three years later they lost their six year old daughter Jane Eliza. On 28 January 1874 James' wife bore her ninth child, a son, and died following the childbirth on the next day. James was left a widower at age forty, with seven children, ages newborn to sixteen. His last born son survived less than four months, and died 15 May 1874.

James left the Plantation and moved his family into the town of Abbeville. In 1880 the children were scattered; the two oldest boys, Thomas and John, were attending boarding school at Erskine Academy, daughters Sarah and Emma lived with their aunt and uncle, James and Emma Perrin Cothran, and the two youngest boys, James and Willie, were with their maternal uncle, J. Fraser Livingston. Cotton Level was sold in 1878, and was owned for several years by John W. Chiles who was married and lived there until his death. The early Perrin plantation homes have burned, and the fields have grown into pine forests. But the Cotton Level house was still standing in 1997. It remains in the ownership of Chiles descendants, and is rented seasonally as a hunting lodge.

In Abbeville James Wardlaw Perrin became active in civic affairs. No longer farming the plantation, he turned his interest to Agricultural Associations to improve farming methods and supplies. He was president of the Grange and a member of the Abbeville Agricultural Association. He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of a school of manual training for boys. He also entered into politics, and was active in the local Democratic Conventions. From 1881-1882 he was Mayor of Abbeville. From 1876 until his death in 1890, James Wardlaw Perrin was Treasurer of Abbeville County, South Carolina.

On 13 December 1890 James Wardlaw Perrin died of a heart attack at the age of fifty-seven. He was eulogized by Rev. J. Lowery Wilson, pastor of the Abbeville Presbyterian Church, as a man remembered, "Whether as a soldier or as a citizen-- in prosperity or in adversity-- Captain Perrin was always the same-- an honorable man, a courteous gentleman, and a sincere friend. A man of the people, of kind heart and pleasing manner, he acquired the esteem and love of a wide circle of friends, to whom the tidings of his sudden death will bring a deep sense of personal bereavement."
Written by MLPBailey, a great-granddaughter.