1643 On September 5, the town of Exeter ordered that "William Cole, Tho[mas] Wiet and Tho[mas] Wardell shall pay unto Sam[ue]l Walker, Hen[ry] Roby and Tho[mas] Pettit, either of them a peck corn for harm done to them by swine." [1]
1646/47 Hannah, daughter of Thomas and Christian Pettit, was born on February 1 ("ye beginning of February") in Exeter, Old Norfolk County, Massachusetts (now Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire). [2]
1650 On November 14, Thomas Pettit witnessed a deed between Edward Gyllman and John Gyllman, both of Exeter. [3]
1660 [59/60?] Thomas Pettit seniour and Thomas Pettit junior were among the inhabitants of "Medlborough" (Newtown) who made an agreement on March 9 about payment for the killing of wolves. [4]
Research Notes:
1617/18 "The will of Philemon Ewer of Cuxeton, co. Kent, 7 January 1617 [1617/18]. My body to be buried in the churchyard of Strood. To my son Philemon Ewer my best cloak, hat, doublet, jerkin, and hose, and all my books. To my son-in-law Thomas Pettitt shillings. Residuary legatee and executrix: my wife Elizabeth. Witnesses: John Nordash and William Hippsley. Proved 31 January 1618. (Archdeaconry and Consistory of Rochester, original will, 1618.)" [5]
James Moore states, [6]
Thomas Pettit was in Boston, Mass., as early as 1634. On January 8, 1638, he received a house lot. In the founding of Exeter he received 6 acres and 30 poles as his share of uplands and signed his name to the combination. More than half of the 34 made their marks. He served as Selectman 1652 to 1655. In 1655 his name appears at Newtown and May 8, 1657 he is made Marshall. His name appears among the freeholders, December 4, 1666, and on the Dongan Charter 1686. His wife's maiden name was Christian Mellows.
Ely et. al. state, [7]
The emigrant ancestor of the Pettit family was Thomas Pettit who came to New England about 1650. He was one of a company of Englishman who, in 1652, petitioned Governor Stuyvesant for permission to settle a colony on Long Island within the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam. His son Nathaniel was a resident of Long Island in 1673 and in 1686 with Thomas, John and Moses Pettit, was a signer of the charter of Newtown, Long Island. Nathaniel removed form Newtown, Long Island, to Hopewell Township in 1696, and purchased land adjoining Joshua Ely.
Pettit Peregrinations 654 to 1961 states, [8]
Thomas Pettit married Christian Mellowes in County Essex, England, in November 1629, five months before they sailed on the Ship "Talbot" which left England in March 1629-30. After three months at sea, they landed at Charleston (Cambridge) July 2, 1630. It was just twenty days after Winthrop's Flag Ship the "Arabella" landed at Salem. …
The Talbot carried Thomas Pettit and his wife Christian Mellowes and her brother Oliver Mellowes, a widower born in 1597.
Oliver Mellowes was a manufacturer of "says and pays". "Says" was a coarse woolen serge and "pays" a cotton cloth with extra long nap. Thomas Pettit worked for his brother-in-law three and a half years to pay for the passage money advanced for himself and his wife. John Pettit worked one and a half years to pay for his passage. Abraham Mellowes, father of Christian Mellowes, was born about 1569. He invested fifty pounds in the Massachusetts Bay Company and came to New England on August 19, 1633. He died in May 1639.
Christian Mellowes was born about 1611. Her mother was Martha Bulkeley, born about 1572. She descended from King Edward Knights of the Garter and from eight Sureties of the Magna Charta of A. D. 1215.
Thomas Pettit, born in Widford, England about 1609, died in Newtown, Long Island, before October 1668. He was granted a house plot on January 8, 1637-8 in Boston where the Capitol now stands (1961) …
Crossing the Atlantic in 1629 was not a "Luxury Cruise". The Talbot carried about sixty passengers together with their livestock and supplies. The passage took sixty days (from March to June) a turbulent season on the North Atlantic. Through all the hardships of a sail crossing, Thomas Pettit's wife, Christian Mellowes, waited her fateful day of confinement, hoping that her new son would be born in the new land of freedom. Her desires were almost attained, or were they actually realized? Her son Thomas Pettit 2nd was born in Salem harbor while his shipmates were waiting the thrill of taking their first steps on the hallowed soil of America …
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson with her brother-in-law, the Reverend John Wheelright, were arrested in April 1638 for non-conformity. Thomas Pettit who sympathized with Mrs. Hutchinson was arrested on suspicion of "slander, insubordination, and inciting to riot". He was convicted and sentenced "to receive thirty lashes and be held in goal". The Church and State were one at that time. Later the Hutchinson group were released on agreeing to leave the Colony within ten days. Mrs. Hutchinson with about twenty followers joined Roger Williams at his "Rhode Island Plantation". Thomas Pettit went to the Falls of the Piscataqua in New Hampshire with the Reverend John Wheelright where they settled on a tract of land obtained from the Indians. There they founded the town of Exeter and in 1638 established the Congregational Church. Thomas Pettit received six acres and thirty poles as his share of Exeter Uplands. On July 4, 1637, they joined in signing "The Exeter Combination", a Declaration of Independence. Half of the signers made their 'mark', but Thomas Pettit's signature is seen in excellent handwriting. Each letter is printed separately in his signature.
In 1647 Thomas became Chief Military Man and Inspector of the staves. He served as Selectman of Exeter from 1652 to 1655. He and Christian, his wife, had a daughter, Hannah, born in Exeter in early February 1647/8. His son Thomas Pettit, Junior, received a grant of thirty acres of land in 1649 (Bell's History of the Town of Exeter p-18-32) Los Angeles Library Gen. R. 974.22.E 96 Be.).
Thomas senior was one of the signers of a petition sent to the General Court in behalf of Exeter in October 1651 and signed a contract with three others in behalf of the town agreeing to make fair payment to Mr. Dudley the town Minister.
John Pettit, brother of Thomas Pettit Senior, with his family settled in Stamford Connecticut where their names appear frequently on the town records as receiving allotments of land, on birth and death records and on the official papers as public officers.
Thomas Pettit Junior's name appears on the town Register for May 20, 1652. In 1654 the Duke of York (brother of Charles II) granted all of the land east of the earlier Connecticut grant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This enabled the Bay Colony to surround the settlements of Exeter and in order to survive, Exeter was forced to be reinstated with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thomas Pettit was unwilling to again be under that jurisdiction so he with eight children (Thomas Junior born in Salem Harbor in 1630, Sarah born in Boston in 1634, Joseph born in Boston in 1636, Elizabeth born in Exeter in 1637, John born in Exeter in 1638, Mary born in Exeter in 1640, Nathaniel born in Exeter in 1645, and Hannah born in Exeter in 1647) and other settlers sold his property and moved to Long Island. They petitioned Governor Stuyvesant and were granted the right to settle in Queens County where they named their settlement Newtown. It was later changed to Elmhurst. The Dutch had settled this general area as early as 1644 and called it Mittleburg. It was south of Hempstead on the coast.
Soon after their arrival in Newtown the Town Marshall was voted out of office for exercising his duties in an objectionab1e manner. Thomas Pettit, Senior, was elected to that office on May 8, 1657. This developed family complications since Nathaniel Pettit, his son, had fallen in love with Mary Bailey the deposed Marshall's daughter.
Thomas Pettit's name was on the list of Freeholders in 1666. Thomas Pettit, Senior (1st), died before October 1668. He was fifty nine years old.
John Wurts discusses the Pettit family. [9]
Consistently a Non-Conformist, Thomas Pettit, with many others in 1637, sided with Mrs. Anne Hutchinson...in their controversy with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During the trial, 7th of 1st mo. (April?) 1638, Thomas Pettit, was arrested on suspicion of slander, insubordination and inciting to riot. He was convicted and sentenced to receive thirty lashes and to be held in gaol. As the Church and State were then one, they were all arrested, but were later released upon their agreeing to leave the Colony within ten days...Thomas Pettit went to the Falls of the Piscataqua in New Hampshire with Rev. John Wheelwright and thirty-three others and...they founded the town of Exeter, and in 1638 established the Congregational Church ... signed the Exeter Combination ... He became in 1647 chief military man and Inspector of Staves. He served as Selectman of Exeter from 1652 to 1655.
The Duke of York, brother of Charles II, granted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony all the land East of the earlier Connecticut grant. This enabled the Bay Colony to surround the settlement at Exeter, making it ecomomically necessry for it, in order to survive, to be reinstated with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.Thomas Pettit, unwilling to be again under its jurisdiction, sold his property and with his wife and eight children and other settlers, came in 1655 to Long Island and petitioned Governor Stuyvesant, who granted them the right to settle. They named the place Newtown (now, since 1895, Elmhurst, Queens County (Mespat) and formerly called Mittleburg) which the Dutch had settled in 1644.
Soon after his arrival on Long Island the Town Marshall, one Elias Bailey, was voted out of office by the townspeople for exercizing the duties of his office in an objectionable manner, and Thomas Pettit was elected 8 May 1657 to fill the office ...
On 4 December 1666 Thomas Pettit's name was on the list of freeholders.
[1] Robert Charles Anderson, Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Vol. 7, T-Y (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011), 239, citing Exeter Hist 445 and NHPP 1:44-45, [AmericanAncestors].
[2] "Old Norfolk County Records," The Essex Antiquarian 5 (1901), 12-15, at 15, top, left, [HathiTrust].
[3] "Old Norfolk County Records," The Essex Antiquarian 1 (1897), 18-24, 49-50, at 22, [HathiTrust].
[4] Town Minutes of Newtown: 1656-1688, Vol. 1 (New York: The Historical Records Survey Project, 1940), 41, [HathiTrust].
[5] Elizabeth French, "Genealogical Research in England," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 69 (1915), 353-9, at 357, [InternetArchive].
[6] James W. Moore, Rev. John Moore of Newtown, Long Island, and Some of His Descendents (Raston, Penn.: Chemical Publ. Co., 1903), 250, [HathiTrust].
[7] Reuben Pownall Ely, Warren Smedley Ely, and Daniel Brittain Ely, An Historical Narrative of the Ely, Revell and Stacye Families who were among the founders of Trenton and Burlington in the Province of West Jersey 1678-1683 with the genealogy of the Ely descendants in America (New York, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1910), 157, [InternetArchive].
[8] Lucille Layton Davidson, transcriber, "History of Thomas Pettit and Christian Mellowes" from William Alfred Pettit Sr., Pettit Peregrinations 654 to 1961 (Provo, Utah: J. Grant Stevenson, 1961), 15-19 (Also, see https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/185476, which links to a digital copy of the book available at Family History Centers.), [URL].
[9] John S. Wurts, Magna Charta, Vol. VII (Philadelphia: Brookfield Publishing Co., 1954), 2291, [GoogleBooks].