Born in the United Kingdom in 1831, Perrin was married with two children, and working as a grocer's clerk, when he was convicted of rape and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation.
He arrived in Western Australia on board Palmerston in February 1861,[1] and received his ticket of leave the following year.
He was employed by the Dempster family at their Wongamine farm, and later purchased a small block of land on the boundary of their estate.
The following year he received a government grant of 0.81 hectares (2 acres) for a school site, and a small schoolhouse was built.
William Perrin ran his school for nearly thirty years, teaching his children and some of his grandchildren there.