Forced to abandon his studies after his father's building business failed in 1774, he moved to London in 1777.

His political influence was sufficient for Pitt and Lord Shelburne to offer him a parliamentary seat, though he refused.

On two occasions he was acquitted: for printing an advertisement for a Derby meeting of the Society for Constitutional Information in 1792, and for copying a paragraph from Leigh Hunt's Examiner about the Prince of Wales in 1810.

In August 1798 he married Anne Hull: their eight children included the Indian judge and politician Thomas Erskine Perry (1806–1882).

Their daughter, Horatia Ann, married John Crawfurd, and accompanied him on his Mission to Siam and Cochin China from 1821 to 1822.