Peter Perdreau was a French Huguenot who resided on the western bank of the Cape Fear River at approximately the present-day site of Orton Plantation in Brunswick County, North Carolina. He and his wife were killed at their home sometime in 1724. Though colonists assumed that a group of American Indians might have killed them, no evidence was ever found to support that claim or any other theory and no one was ever held responsible for the crime. Following the Perdreaus' deaths, Jacob and Anne Johnson robbed their house to settle a debt the Johnsons held with the Perdreaus' son Peter Jr.