The Autobiography of Phineas Pett
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Elizabeth. Lucy. Margaret. William. Joseph. | |
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+-------------------------+-----------+--------+ |
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(1) Ann = PETER, = (2) Elizabeth. Richard, Lydia, |
Tusam. of of London. _d._ 1610. |
Wapping |
_Shipbuilder_, |
_d._ 1631? |
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+-----------------+-----+----------+-------------------+-----+ |
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PETER, of = Elizabeth William, Elizabeth = Thomas Ann Mary |
Deptford, Johnson. _Clerk in Barwick. |
_Master Holy |
Shipwright_ Orders_, |
_b._ 1592, _d._ 1651. |
_d._ 1652. |
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+------------------------------------------------+
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+------+-----+----+------+------+------+-----------+-------+
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Jane, | Noah, Peter the | Abigail, Elizabeth, |
Susannah, | _d._ 1595. Younger, | _d._ 1599. _d._ 1599. |
_d._ 1567. | _d._ 1600. | |
| +---------+ +-----------+
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PHINEAS Rachel, = Rev. W. Mary, = (?) Cooper.
(_see next _d._ 1591? Newman. _d._ 1626.
Table_).
FAMILY OF PHINEAS PETT.
PHINEAS PETT,
= _b._ 1570, _d._ 1647. =
(1) Ann Nicholls, (2) Susan Yardley, (3) Mildred Byland,
_m._ 1598, _née_ Eaglefield, _née_ Etherington,
_d._ 1627. _m._ 1627, _m._ 1638,
| _d._ 1637. _d._ 1638.
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+-------------------------+
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+---+------------+-----------+-------+-+----+-------+-+------+
| | | | | | | | | |
| Henry, Richard, Joseph, | | Phineas, | | Christopher,
| _b._ 1603, _b._ 1606, _b._ 1608, | | _b._ 1615, | | _Master
| _d._ 1613. _d._ 1629. _d._ 1627. | | _d._ 1617. | | Shipwright_
| | | | | at Woolwich
| | | | | and Deptford,
| | | | | _b._ 1620,
| | | | | _d._ 1668.
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| +----------+ | +---+ |
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John, = Katherine Peter, Ann, | Phineas, = Frances
_Captain | Yardley _Commissioner_ _b._ 1612. | _Captain | Carre.
R.N._ | at Chatham, | R.N._ |
(lost in | _b._ 1610, | (killed |
VI | _d._ 1672. | in +--+
Whelp), +--+ | Tiger), |
_b._ 1602, | | _b._ 1619, |
_d._ 1628. | | _d._ 1666. |
| | |
| +-+----------------+ |
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| +---+-+----+ |
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| Mary, Martha, = John |
| _b._ 1617, _b._ 1617, Hodierne. |
| _d._ 1617 _m._ 1637. |
| |
| +--------+
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Phineas, Phineas
_Master (owner of
Shipwright_ the MS.,
at Chatham, _c._ 1670),
_b._ 1628, _b._ 1646,
_d._ 1678. _d._ 1694.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] Bodleian. _Clarendon State Papers_, No. 166.
[72] _E.g._ Pett Place near Charing; Pett near Stockbury; Pett Street
near Wye and Pett village near Winchelsea.
[73] _E.g._ Geoffrey del Pet, 1270, _see_ Rye, _Cal. of Feet of Fines
for Suffolk_. 'Walter de le Pet' (of Wattisfield), _see_ Powell,
_A Suffolk Hundred in the year 1283_; 'Adam atte Pet' (of Stonham
Aspul), 'William del Pet' (of Wattisfield), _see_ Hervey, _Suffolk in
1327_; 'Peter atte Pette of Shorn' (Kent) in _Close Roll_ 1344.
[74] Mr. Redstone informs me that to this day large blocks of loam
and clay are squared off in the pits of Rickinghall to form house
walls.
[75] Printed by the Harleian Society.
[76] Skipton in Craven in the W. Riding and Skipton upon Swale in the
N. Riding.
[77] I have only discovered one early instance of the name in
Yorkshire, 'Ralph Pet' who lived in the 'Honor and Forest of
Pickering' in 1314, and this, it may be observed, was on the sea
coast.
[78] April 1912, p. 124.
[79] S.E. of Thetford: not the Hopton in East Suffolk.
[80] They were already there in the 13th; see note on p. xliii.
[81] _Gawdy MSS. (Hist. MSS.)_ 405; what appears to be Pett's draft
of this letter is to be found in _Egerton MS._ 2713.
[82] It is also possible that Thomas of Skipton did not bear the
surname 'Pett.' According to Bardsley, _Curiosities of Puritan
Nomenclature_, p. 3, 'Among the middle and lower classes these
(descriptive surnames) did not become _hereditary_ till so late as
1450 or 1500.'
[83] _Ipswich Probate Court Bk._ III. f. 202.
[84] Ac xxxviij_li._ xvj_d._ tam super novas iact' (? jacturas) et
le calkynge de le Overlope navis regis vocatae le Regent quam pro le
calkynge anti ventum et aquam ejusdem navis ac aliis necessariis pro
eadem nave fiendis et providendis per manus Johannis Pett ut prius
per billam suam inde factam plenius apparet datam xiij die Novembris
A^o xv^o Regis Henrici vij^{mo.}. P.R.O. _E._ 405 (80).
[85] _Naval Accounts and Inventories of Henry VII._, N.R.S., Vol.
viii.
[86] _P.R.O. Augmentation Office Misc. Bk._, 317, f. 236.
[87] _N.R.S._, vol. viii. pp. liv, 222.
[88] In 1487, Thomas Rogers, clerk of the King's ships, was paid
xxvi_s._ viij_d._ for his expenses in going to Harwich, and
victualling the King's ships there. See _Material Illustrative of the
Reign of Henry VII_, vol. ii. p. 143.
[89] _Administration_, p. 74.
[90] _P.R.O., H.C.A._ 7 (1), 'probos viros Petrum Pette et Johannem
Moptye villae Harewici (_and two others_) fabros lignarios, anglice
shipwrights.'
[91] Richard Pett of London, gent. (elsewhere described as 'unus
valettorum regis') in 1593 sold his share of the property at Deptford
to his brother Peter Pett, of Wapping. This property had been bought
by his father in 1566.
[92] Printed by the Parker Society in _Select Poetry_, vol. ii. p.
386.
[93] The following errors may be noted: p. 149, the name 'Marcy'
should be 'March'; p. 151, the William Pett who petitioned the
Admiralty in 1631, was not the son of Joseph but a much older man,
apparently belonging to another branch of the family; p. 157, the
dates of the death of Phineas' second wife and of his third marriage
are antedated by a year; p. 158, the date 'July' was an error of the
Harl. transcriber; the dates of birth and death of Phineas, junior,
are incorrect; p. 172, Joseph Pett of Chatham was not the son of
Phineas, but of Joseph of Limehouse, and he was born in 1592 not 1608.
3.--_Phineas Pett._
[Sidenote: Education.]
From the care that had been taken to provide for his education, and
from the fact that it was only at the 'instant persuasion' of his
mother that he was 'contented' to be apprenticed as a shipwright, it
may be inferred that Phineas had been destined for the Church or the
Law, and that Peter Pett did not propose that his son should follow
in his own footsteps. The peculiarity[94] of the name chosen for
him (which no doubt refers, not to the disobedient son of Eli, but
to 'Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,' who
received 'the covenant of an everlasting priesthood')[95] gives rise
to the surmise that his parents had intended him for the Church, but
whatever the intention may have been, it was certainly abandoned on
the death of his father.
Phineas does not seem to have profited greatly from his studies at
Cambridge. He was hardly a master of English; possibly he had a good
knowledge of Latin, for the influence of the Latin idiom is to be
seen in almost all his periods; but the fact that he had subsequently
to practise 'cyphering' in the evenings does not imply any great
acquirements in mathematics, even of the very elementary forms which
at that period were sufficient for the solution of the few problems
arising in connection with the design of ships. Nevertheless, he
received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1592 and that of Master in
1595.
If the statement that he spent the two years of his apprenticeship
to Chapman 'to very little purpose' is to be accepted literally, it
would seem that the misfortunes that subsequently befell him must
have aroused latent energies and filled him with determination to
master the details of his future profession when he returned to
England in 1594. His voyage to the Levant and subsequent employment
as an ordinary workman under his brother Joseph no doubt gave him a
practical acquaintance with ships that enabled him to profit greatly
by the instruction of Mathew Baker, although apparently this only
extended over the winter of 1595-6. Pett's confession that it was
from Baker that he received his 'greatest lights,' written, as it
must have been, after he had found Baker an 'envious enemy' and an
'old adversary to my name and family,' indicates how great that
assistance was. This is borne out by a letter[96] which he wrote
to Baker in April 1603, in order to deprecate the old man's wrath,
which had been aroused when Phineas, then Assistant Master Shipwright
at Chatham, commenced work on the Answer. The letter was partially
destroyed by the fire which damaged the Cottonian Library in 1731,
but fortunately Pepys had copied it in his Miscellanea.[97]
SIR,--My duty remembered unto you. It is so that I received a message
from you by Richard Meritt, the purveyor, concerning the Answer, who
gave me to understand from you that you were informed I meant to break
up the ship and to lengthen, and that I should no further proceed
till I received further order from you. Indeed the ship was heaved up
by general consent, both of my Lord, some of the Principal Officers,