Person:William Pitts (18)

Conflated Wife and Children

There is no evidence that William Pitts ever had a wife Elizabeth or children Edmund Pitts, Leonard Pitts or Elizabeth (Pitts) Holbrook as is often seen on the Internet. In 1638 a widow Elizabeth Pitts arrived at Dorchester and joined the church there and later in Charlestown.^[1] She later removed to Weymouth where on 1 Aug 1655 administration of the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth Pitts was granted to William and Elizabeth Holbrook. Their accounting includes charging for caring for “My mother Mrs. Pitts” during illness.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} She was the mother of Elizabeth who married William Holbrook before 1645 and dead before 9 Sep 1696 when her husband wrote his will naming his second wife Abigail.^[8][9] There is absolutely no evidence as to the name of the husband or husbands of widow Elizabeth Pitts. Indeed she may have married several times and the maiden name of her daughter [[Person:Elizabeth Pitts (3)|Elizabeth] may not have even been Pitts. It would be impossible for widow Elizabeth Pitts to have been the wife of William Pitts as William Pitts was very much alive in Boston at the time of her death (see citations below). As for Edmund and Leonard Pitts see below. While they are possibly related William Pitts there is no reason to think that they were his sons.

Biography

Philip James with his wife, four children and two servants (viz) William Pitts and Edward Michell came from Old Hingham in 1638 on the Diligent and settled in New Hingham. Philip James died just after arrival.^{[10] [11]}

John Farmer conflated this passenger William Pitt (or Pitts) with another man named William Pitt who arrived in 1623 on the Fortune.^[12] Robert Charles Anderson correctly disambiguate these two men. William Pitt who arrived on the fortune in 1621 was granted two-acres with William Wright in 1623 in Plymouth [PCR 12:5]. However, he was probably dead by 1627 as he was not included in the division of the cattle and there are no other records of him found. And Anderson points out that there is no connection between this man and any other person of the name in New England.^[13][14]

The William Pitts (or Pitt) who arrived in 1638 as servant of Philip James to Hingham did not bring a wife or children. Anderson indicates this is probably the same man as the William Pitts who arrived in Marbleheadby 1647.^[15][10] Interestingly an Edmund Pitts with brother Leonard Pitts also arrived in Hingham about the same time although their relationship to William Pitts is not known. According to the History of Hingham (which Anderson cites) William Pitts of Hingham moved to Marblehead and later Boston. He married Susanna, widow of Philip Alley on 7 Dec 1655. She died at Marblehead on 28 Sep 1668.^[16][17] The Founders of Marblehead states that John Coit a shipbuilder of Marblehead built a stage in Codner's Cove and sold it to William Pitt in 1647. "Pitt was a merchant in Boston and resided at Marblehead between 1647 and 1659, when he returned to Boston, leaving his son-in-law Christopher Lattimore in charge of his property at Marblehead." On December 12, 1648 Marblehead was split off from Salem as a separate town and William Pitts was given lot # 5 and near Erasamus James, Thomas Gray and Mr. Walton and lot 8 near Mack Huckstable and Timothy Allen in the division of the swamp. William Pitt made his career as a merchant who supplied the fishermen of Marblehead with provisions as did his son-in-law Christopher Latimore, Moses Maverick, Isaac Allerton, John Legg and Francis Johnson. On 14 Nov 1647 he was fined in court for striking George Tucker with a pot and breaking his head (George Tucker was a cantankerous man who was no stranger to fights). He removed to Boston where he was living as late as 1668. On January 10, 1654 he took out a mortgage from Robert Brick on his house, warehouse, wharf, and land in Boston. His wife's inventory was dated September 8, 1668 and allowed December 10, 1670. Her will records "unto my husband one half and unto my daughter Mary Lattimore (of Marblehead) the other half." William Pitt had a daughter Mary Pitt, born about 1632 who died at Marblehead, May 8, 1681, at the age of 49 years; her gravestone is the oldest on Burial Hill. She married Christopher Latimer who was born about 1620 and died at Marblehead on 5 Oct 1690. When William Pitt moved to Boston he conveyed to Christopher Latimer the house and stage in Codner's Cover on February 2, 1659 that he has purchased by John Coit. Christopher Latimer also took over his father's business and his fishing fleet. On February 1, 1663, he conveyed to Robert Hooper "all that dwelling house of mine in Marblehead which standeth on ye hill where John Goytes house Stood, which he sold unto my father Pitt," located off Front Street. Latimer conveyed the north part of his holdings to his son-in-law, Captain Nathaniel Norden, on June 13, 1687.^{[18][19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]}

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 (Boston, Massachusetts. New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 2015) 266; Pitts, Elizabeth: Unknown; 1638; Dorchester [EQC 1:12; DChR 4; ChChR 10; SPR 3:26; Weymouth Hist 4:472]
2. ↑ "Abstracts from the earliest wills on record in the county of Suffolk, Mass." in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society) 9:135
3. ↑ Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Probate Records 3:26
4. ↑ Weymouth Hist: George Walter Chamberlain, History of Weymouth, Massachusetts, Volumes Three and Four, Genealogy of Weymouth Families (Weymouth 1923; rpt. Baltimore 1984, 2 volumes in 1) 4:472
5. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts , 1636-1686, 9 volumes (Salem 1911-1975) 1:12
6. ↑ DChR: Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636-1734 (Boston 1891) 4
7. ↑ Records of the First Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1632-1789 , James Frothingham Hunnewell, ed. (Boston 1880) 10
8. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (NEHGS, 1999-2011), Vol. 2:352
9. ↑ Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Joseph Neal, 1769-c.1835 (Portland, Maine, 1945)
10. ↑ ^10.0 10.1 "Daniel Custhing's Record" in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1861) 15:26
11. ↑ Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth, 1620-1640 (Boston 1930; rpt. Baltimore 1972): "August 10, 1638 "DILIGENT" of Ipswich, John Martin, Master. She sailed from Ipswich, Suffolk, in June and arrived August 10 at Boston, with one hundred passengers, principally from Hingham, Norfolk, destined for Hingham, MA."
12. ↑ John Farmer, A genealogical register of the first settlers of New England ... To which are added various genealogical and biographical notes, collected from ancient records, manuscripts, and printed works (Lancaster, Mass., Carter, Andrews & co., 1829) p 231 link
13. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 (Boston, Massachusetts. New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 2015) 266: Pitt, William: Unknown; 1623 on Fortune; Plymouth (land grant only) [GMB 1481; PM 359].
14. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995). 1481 link
15. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 (Boston, Massachusetts. New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 2015) 266: Pitts, William: Hingham, Norfolk; 1638 on Diligent; passenger list only [NEHGR 15:26]. (A William Pitts appeared at Marblehead in the 1650s [Hingham Hist 3:114].)
16. ↑ George Lincoln, History of the Town of Hingham, Massachusetts, 3 volumes (Hingham 1893; rpt. Somersworth, New Hampshire, 1982) 3:114 link
17. ↑ Marblehead Genealogy Project
18. ↑ Thomas E. Gray, The Founding of Marble-head (Baltimore 1984) p 8, 27-8, 32, 43, 59, 86-7, 108-9, 166
19. ↑ Essex Institute Historical Collections , Volume 1 to present (1859+) 46:15, 71,230,309;; 47:71,72,77,226; 51:68; 54:26; 69:211; 69:213,214
20. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts ,1636-1686, 9 volumes (Salem 1911-1975) 1:90; 7:57,71,77-79, lll, 12,134,151,152, 226; 9:62, 241, 265, 516
21. ↑ James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England , 4 volumes (Boston 1860-1862; rpt. Baltimore 1965) 1:39
22. ↑ Essex Ant: The Essex Antiquarian, Volume 1 through 13, Sidney Perley, ed. (Salem 1897-1909) 5:121 v. 6, p. 79; v. 10, p. 135
23. ↑ Roads Samuel, Jr, The History and Traditions of Marblehead (Boston : Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1880) p. 13
24. ↑ The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1635-1681, 3 volumes (Salem 1916-1920; rpt. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1988). Citations to the unpublished probate records are to case numbers, or to register volumes (which begin with volume 301) 1:358 Essex Probate Docket #16435
25. ↑ Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem Massachusetts (Salem: Sidney Perley, 1924) v. 2, p. 2
26. ↑ Frank R. Holmes, Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families, 1620- 1700 (Reprinted) III