A wife named Sarah is recorded in the estate papers of John Shannon from 1815 in Pendleton District, SC. However, a recently discovered will for this Sarah lends doubt to her being the mother of John’s listed children. In her will she mentions none of these children. The Perkins information appears to have been recorded by the descendants of Aaron Shannon in some form, possibly a family bible, now lost, or from simply an oral family tradition. However, the given name Perkins appears in more than one line of descent from John (~1759-1815) and strong genetic matches exist between all of their descendants and descendants of the Perkins and Sherrill family (The mother of the Perkins family that settled in Wilkes was the daughter of William Sherrill). So, the Perkins connection seems solid, even in the absence of any documentation of a marriage, but whether or not the mother’s name was Sarah cannot be confirmed.
Bad Genealogy Rant: Thomas Shannon (1730-1794) and descendants. 