The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
as 'Captain Phineas Pett, overseer of the work, and one of the
principal officers of his Majesty's navy, whose ancestors, as father,
grandfather, and great-grandfather, for the space of two hundred
years and upwards, have continued in the same name officers and
architects in the Royal Navy,' he was, it may be presumed; recording
the local tradition of the Pett family. That this tradition was
strong and persistent is clear from the fact that Mansell, writing
to Thomas Aylesbury[71] in 1620 to propose Peter Pett as builder of
the new pinnaces; recommended him on the ground that 'his family have
had the employment since Henry the Seventh's time,' while forty years
later, Fuller, in his 'Worthies of England,' also referred to it in
these words: 'I am credibly informed that that Mystery of Shipwrights
for some descents hath been preserved successfully in Families, of
whom the Petts about Chatham are of singular regard.'
This tradition, so far as it relates to the descent of the 'mystery'
from generation to generation, was no doubt well founded, but there
is no evidence that office under the Crown was held by any of Phineas
Pett's ancestors earlier than his father, Peter.
The name 'Pett' is said by a modern writer on the history of English
surnames to be a Kentish variant of the name 'Pitt.' This would imply
a Kentish origin of the family, and this supposition might seem to be
strengthened by the fact that the name, as a place-name, only occurs
in Kent and on the eastern border of Sussex.[72]
The fact is, however, that 'pet' is simply a Middle-English variant
of the familiar word 'pit,' kin to the old Frisian 'pet,' and is
found in use throughout the east coast counties from Sussex to
Yorkshire, but more frequently in the South than in the North. In the
13th and 14th centuries this surname occurs in the form 'atte Pet'
or 'del Pet'; i.e. 'at the pit' or 'of the pit,'[73] which indicates
clearly that the bearers had, on the introduction of the hereditary
surname from the 12th century onward, taken the name 'Pet'--or had
it thrust upon them--because they were known as living near to a
pit, and were thereby distinguished from other Walters or Adams
dwelling on the heath or by the wood etc. etc. A study of the local
distribution of this name in the 14th century shows that the pit in
question, though it may occasionally have been a well, a sawpit, or
a pitfall for wild beasts, was more usually a place where, owing to
the absence of stone from the district, clay or loam had been dug in
forming the walls of the rude cottages in which all but the upper
strata of society then dwelt. Thus one great centre of the Petts in
Suffolk in the 13th and 14th centuries, the district between Thetford
and Eye, is a heavy clayland from which stone is absent.[74] By the
end of the 16th century this name, in the form 'Pet,' 'Pett,' and
'Pette' was common in Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and South Norfolk.
In 1583, Peter Pett, then Master Shipwright at Deptford, obtained a
grant of arms from Herald's College. The original has unfortunately
disappeared, but from the reference to it in Le Neve's 'Pedigree of
the Knights'[75] it appears that he claimed descent from 'Thomas
Pett of Skipton in Cumberland' through John Pett his grandfather and
Peter Pett his father, who had been a shipbuilder at Harwich. The
fact that there is no Skipton in Cumberland shows that this record
is hardly reliable as regards the place of origin of the family.
Neither of the existing Skiptons,[76] which are both in Yorkshire,
remote from the sea, is likely to have given birth to a family of
shipbuilders; and there is no indication that any relations of the
Petts were at any time resident in Yorkshire or Cumberland. Moreover,
the name was practically unknown at this period in the North.[77] In
an attempt to elucidate this matter, Major Bertram Raves put forward
in the 'Mariner's Mirror'[78] the suggestion 'that Thomas Pett was
of Hopton,[79] in Suffolk, and that Hopton was fudged into Skipton
by the Tudor Heralds in the grant of arms to Peter Pett.... Petts
about or near to Hopton at the time were yeomen or husbandmen.... The
pedigree may, therefore, have seemed to need treatment.' He then goes
on to show that Petts were established in the neighbouring villages
of Hepworth, Wattisfield, Harling, and Walsham-le-Willows; the Petts
at Wattisfield having been in the neighbourhood since the 14th
century.[80] One significant fact is the letter which Peter Pett,
the half-brother of Phineas, wrote to Sir Bassingbourn Gawdy[81] of
Harling, in 1598, in which he apologises for his delay in visiting
him and sends his remembrances to Lady Gawdy and others: it is clear
from this letter that Peter was well known in the neighbourhood, and
was, it may be presumed, related to the Thomas Pett living there at
that time.
But it seems very doubtful whether Skipton really was a wilful
substitution for, or a mis-transcription of, an original 'Hopton,'
for there is no evidence that anyone of the name ever lived at
Hopton, and it seems possible that some earlier Pett may have
migrated to Yorkshire and his descendant John have returned to East
Anglia.[82]
Of Thomas Pett nothing is known; and of John his son nothing can be
stated with certainty.
In 1497 William Pette of Dunwich left by will[83] 'to my brother
John Pette, my new boat and all my working tools'; a legacy that
implies that the brothers were shipwrights. It is not improbable
that this was the John Pett who was engaged in caulking the Regent
in 1499. From the entry in the Roll[84] it is clear that John was
a master workman or shipbuilder; for the sum paid him, 38_l._
1_s._ 4_d._, is a fairly large amount for that period, and covered
miscellaneous stores besides the caulking of the 'overlop' or deck,
and the sides of the ship 'against wind and water.' Unfortunately his
account, 'billam suam inde factam,' is no longer in existence. This
work was possibly carried out at Portsmouth, where the Regent had
been fitted for the Expedition to Scotland in 1497,[85] and where she
was again undergoing repair in 1501,[86] but there would have been
nothing unusual at that period, when the resources of the Portsmouth
district were hardly sufficient, in entrusting such work to a
shipbuilder from the eastern counties. In 1485 a master shipwright
had been sent from London to Bursledon to superintend the removal
of the mast of the Grace Dieu and her entry into dock,[87] and
shipwrights were frequently impressed from East Anglia for work in
Portsmouth and Southampton. The work may, however, have been carried
out at Harwich, where the King's ships sometimes rode.[88]
With Peter, the son of John, we come at length upon sure ground. The
will he made in March 1554 is upon record, and shows that he was
possessed of a dwelling-house and shipbuilding yard at Harwich,
which he bequeathed to his son Peter, the father of Phineas. Possibly
he was the Peter Pett noted by Mr. Oppenheim[89] as among the
shipwrights pressed from Essex and Suffolk working at Portsmouth in
1523: there can be no doubt that he was the Peter Pett of Harwich
who, with other shipwrights, signed a decree of appraisement of a
ship in 1540.[90]
His son Peter Pett, who died in 1589 when Master Shipwright at
Deptford, entered the royal service some time before 1544, as already
noted.
There is no record of the names of the earlier ships built by him,
but it is known that in 1573 he built the Swiftsure and Achates,
and in 1586 the Moon and Rainbow; all at Deptford. At the time of
his death in 1589 he was engaged upon the Defiance and Advantage,
which were completed by Joseph Pett, his second and eldest surviving
son, who, as already remarked, succeeded to his place as Master
Shipwright, his eldest son William Pett of Limehouse, also a Master
Shipwright, who built the Greyhound in 1586, having died in 1587.
Peter Pett was twice married, and had four sons and one daughter by
his first wife, whose name is not known; and six daughters and three
sons (of whom Phineas was the eldest) by his second wife, Elizabeth
Thornton. These will be found set forth in the subjoined tables,
which will serve to illustrate the relationship between them and the
other members of the family referred to in the manuscript.
Peter Pett, towards the end of his life, had achieved a great
reputation as a shipbuilder and was, as is evident from his will, a
man of considerable means. He died possessed of a house at Harwich,
where he had also built almshouses; a house at Deptford; land at
Frating, near Colchester; the lease of a house at Chatham; and
'ground'--presumably a shipbuilding yard--at Wapping. In addition to
this property, he left 20_l._ to the children of his son Richard;[91]
6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ to the child of his daughter Lydia; 100_l._ each
to Phineas and his brothers Noah and Peter; and 100 marks to each of
his four daughters by his second wife and to an unborn child that
probably did not live. The payments to the children of his second
wife were to be made on their attaining the age of twenty-four, but
from the statements of Phineas on pages 12 and 13 it would appear
that part of the money was embezzled by the Rev. Mr. Nunn and part
retained by Phineas' brother Joseph.
Peter Pett, of Wapping, the third son of the above, carried on
business as a shipbuilder in the private yard at Wapping which had
been left to him by his father. He does not appear to have held any
office under the Crown, but seems to have been well known to the Lord
High Admiral, for in his letter above referred to be puts off his
visit to Gawdy on the ground that he has to be 'next Sunday with the
Earl of Nottingham at the Court at Richmond.' In 1599 he published
a poem entitled 'Time's Journey to seeke his Daughter Truth; and
Truth's Letter to Fame of England's Excellencie,' which he dedicated
to Nottingham. He was also the author of a sonnet in three stanzas of
seven lines entitled 'All Creatures praise God.'[92]
It is not necessary for our present purpose to pursue the fortunes
of this family further, but the reader who is desirous of obtaining
information as to the later descendants of Peter Pett of Harwich will
find it in an excellent paper in vol. x. of the 'Ancestor,' by Mr.
Farnham Burke and Mr. Oswald Barron, entitled 'The Builders of the
Navy: a Genealogy of the Family of Pett.'[93]
RELATIONS OF PHINEAS PETT.
THOMAS PETT
|
JOHN
|
PETER, of Harwich, = Elizabeth Paynter.
_Shipbuilder_, |
_d._ (?) 1554. |
+--------------+-----------------+
| |
(1) ? = PETER, of Deptford, = (2) Elizabeth Ann = John Chapman.
| _Master Shipwright_, | Thornton,
| _d._ 1589. | _d._ 1597.
| +------------------------------------+
+----+----------------------------------+-----------------------+ |
| | | |
WILLIAM, = Elizabeth (1) Margaret = JOSEPH, = (2) Margaret | |
of Lime- | March. Curtis, | of Lime- | Humfrey, | |
house, | _d._ 1594. | house, | _d._ 1612. | |
_Master +--+ | _Master | | |
Shipwright_, | | Shipwright_,| | |
_d._ 1587. | | _d._ 1605. | | |
| | | | |
+------+--+ +-----+ +----+----+ | |