Person:Thomas Pettus (2)

Children of Thomas Pettus and Elizabeth Mouring are: 1. Mary; 2. Ann, m. Philip Hunley; 3. John (b. New Kent Co., VA); 4. Stephen (b. bef. 1637); 5. Cpt. Thomas (b. c. 1656, Williamsburg, James City Co., VA; d. 1690, Lunenburg, VA).

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Notes for THOMAS PETTUS , COL:

1 AUTH Hist. and Register of ancestors and Members of the Society of Colonial Dames

1 AGNC p. 505

1 DEST Will, Meade, 115

1 MEDI Will. "Gleanings in England" by Henry F. Waters.

Authorities as to service: Stanard's Colonial Virginia Register p. 35

Virginia Historical Magazine, Vol

Authorities as to descent:

Thomas McAdory Owen, History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography (1921) Vol. 4, p . 1316, New York Public Library.

Ibid.: Mrs. L. Clarence Stacy (Pocahontas Hutchinson): The Pettus Family(1957). (New York Public Library) p. 7 and 44, will of Chilion Palmer,Halifax County, Virginia, copy attached signed Chilion, Stacy gives name as Chilton, See also; Excerpt B, opposite Column: Excerpt B: History ofJefferson County, Florida--Mary Oakley McRory and Edith Clarke Barrows, Monticello, Florida (1939) p. 26, In 1758 Martin Thomas Palmer appeared in Virginia, married twice and became the father of several children. A son by the later wife, by name Chilian married Mary Pettus in 1779, they were the parents of ten children.

Stacy: The Pettus Family, pp. 517.

MEMBER OF GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL 1642-1648

Ibid. pp. 5, 6, 48 Note: Authorities disagree as to the identity of the wife of Dabney Pettus , b. 1685. See--W.F. Anderson: Early Descendants of William Overton...(no date), p. 92 (4) a nd infra. Also, F. Hamilton Baskervill, A.M. (1921): Andrew Meade of Ireland and Virginia, pp .142-143, 152. It would appear in the references cited that Dabney Pettus, b. 1685 married Anne Overton, and that a later Dabney (or John?) Pettus b. 1704 married another Anne Overton . However, the evidence isnot conclusive.

Stacy: The Pettus Family, pp. 4-5, 46 Baskervill, p. cit. p. 142.

Stacey" The Pettus Family pp. 3-4, 48 Baskervill, op. cit. pp. 147, 142.

Va. Genealogical Histories, Vol. p. 847

Col. Thomas Pettus was 40 years old when he came to Virginia. Probably a widower. With him o r before him came a Stephen Pettus. Here by 1637.Had land grants in 1655 and 1667. Was accused and acquitted of withholding tithes in 1674. Sued the sheriff of New Kent in 1662. Thena me Stephen is not found in records of Pettuses of Norwich, Eng. But Capt. Thomas Pettus named a son Stephen. Looks like the "first Stephen"was a son of Col. Pettus by a first wife an d named for her family. Have heard of no one claiming descent from "the first Stephen". To summarize: Col. Pettus, Councilor, had son Capt. Thomas and daughters Mary and Ann. So prove d. Also possibly a daughter who married Freeman.And very probably sons Stephen ("the first Stephen") and John of Rapahannock and New Kent.

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Baptized August 23, 1610, served on the Continent with Sir Thomas Dale in the Thirty Years War, and was sent to Virginia by Sir John Pettus of the London Company in command of 40 men. H e married in 1645 Elizabeth Durant, widow of Richard Durant. He was known as Col. Thomas Pettus and was a member of the King's Council in 1642-1660.

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Appointed by Crown Gov. Council of VA 1641-1660, highest honor of Virginia, title given "Colonel"

Vestryman of Bruton Parish 1636-40

Littletown Plantation on James River

Referenced in Hopkins of Virginia, The Pettus' of Cornhill, and The Pettus' of Virginia and England. (Rudd)

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Colonel Thomas Pettus (aka Councilor) came to America in 1638-1641, after serving on the Continent in the Thirty Years War, for the Virginia Company in command of forty men to assist the colonists in their struggles with the Powhatan Indians at Jamestowne. Colonel Thomas built a substantial residence on the James River on a tract four miles downriver from the Jamestown settlement not long after his arrival. He named the seventeenth century plantation house Littletown. Colonel Thomas, son of William Pettus, sought a lifestyle different than was offered in his native environs. He found Virginia an attractive alternative lifestyle. He quickly became a member of the emerging provincial elite. Colonel Thomas Pettus became a Governor's councilor in the mid-seventeenth century, serving on the prestigious Governor's Council from 1641 until 1660. Colonel Thomas probably was entitled to some Jamestowne property through investments made by his granduncle Sir John Pettus, who had purchased stock in the company holding the third charter to Virginia, The Third Virginia Charter Company. 11 The marriage of Colonel Thomas to the widow, Elizabeth ( Mrs. Richard) Durrant, added substantial holdings to the estate which eventually encompassed 1280 acres. The Pettus plantation left a lasting imprint on the Jamestown and Williamsburg landscape. About 1972 the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission located and began excavation of Colonel Thomas Pettus' Littletown 15 site at Kingsmill (right) and determined the layout and size of the buildings from discolored earth where dwelling supporting postholes existed. Several plantation sites comprised the Kingsmill area. The Pettus Littletown Plantation archaeological site, uncovered by historical archaeologist William M. Kelso, is located near the marina on the private Kingsmill Resort property south of Williamsburg, VA. An article entitled "The Virginians" in the November 1974 National Geographic Magazine 8 gives an account of this archaeological find and excavation and further insight into the development of Colonial Virginia. Below is the complete four paragraph excerpt from the section on pages 593-596, under the subtitle "Post Molds" Reveal a Colonial Saga, which pertains to Colonel Thomas Pettus. Author Mike W. Edwards writes:

"Thomas Pettus was one of those hardy settlers - a land clearer and housebuilder. When, he arrived in 1641, land was available near Jamestown. He built on a tract four miles downriver from the settlement."

"I came on Pettus's holdings on a hot July afternoon and met half a dozen young people who had cleared the land again - at least, a little of it. They scraped the earth with trowels; one brushed with a whisk broom."

"From beneath his yellow hard hat - protection from the sun -archeologist William Kelso of the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission explained that the team sought 'post molds' - discolored earth that would disclose where posts had stood. Judging from the ashes here, this had been Pettus's smokehouse. 'As you can see,' Bill said, waving a hand toward rows of holes, ' we've found the other buildings of the homestead.' "

"It was not a grand manor. Pettus built a T-shaped house and haphazardly added outbuildings, all of wood. 'It was almost a medieval layout,' Bill continued. 'In the 17th century, men like Pettus were concerned more with survival than pleasing architecture.' He apparently possessed little china or crystal. 'Mostly we've found items of local clay, crudely formed and crudely fired.' "

Later findings and thinking can be found in William M. Kelso's "Rescue Archaeology of the James - Early Virginia Country Life" 3 and Kingsmill Plantations, 1619-1800, Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia, Studies in Historical Archaeology 12 which is an extensive study of the Kingsmill Plantations and contains many references to Thomas Pettus' Littletown Plantation.

Colonel (Councilor) Thomas PETTUS was an active participant in the affairs of Jamestowne and Old Fields at Middle Plantation, Williamsburg's name until the 66-year-old community was incorporated in 1699, and he is mentioned in many documents of the period. After Colonel Thomas died in 1660, the plantation house and land passed to his son Captain Thomas Pettus, Jr.