The Pettit Family of Sussex Co., New Jersey

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The Origins of the Pettit family in America

According to Baldwin, Nathaniel Pettit is the son the of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Heath) Pettit of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. Baldwin traces Nathaniel the elder's lineage to another Nathaniel Pettit who came from Exeter, New Hampshire via Newtown, Long Island, New York. Nathaniel the elder married Mary Bailey the daughter of Elias Bailey of Newtown. In 1695, Nathaniel and Mary (Bailey) Pettit purchased 100 acres in what is now Trenton, New Jersey [re: Baldwin & Court Records T:209]. Nathaniel wrote his will on the 15th of March 1714/5 and he will was proved the 25th of June 1718 and names his children: Moses, Judith Neald, Nathaniel, Elias, and Jane Ealy. The earliest ancestor of this family is believed to be Thomas Pettit who married Christian (said to be Mellowes). Thomas came to Boston, Massachusetts prior to 1637 and by 1639 had removed to Exeter, New Hampshire. The Pettits later settling at Newtown, Long Island.
Nathaniel Pettit elder of Hunterdon county, New Jersey married Elizabeth Heath. Elizabeth's parents are named by Frank C. Baldwin as Andrew and Elizabeth (Barrett) Heath. Andrew is identified as the same may who arrived in 1682 as the bonded servant to William Yardley; possibly Yardley's nephew. Baldwin states that "they came from Staffordshire in England and settled in Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. On July 29, 1686, Andrew was released after four years of bonded service. Andrew Heath moved to New Jersey in 1699 when he bought 420 acres of land near present-day Trenton. About 1703 he helped established the Hopewell Church, on of the first Episcopal Churches in the area. And in 1705 four of Andrew's children were baptized there: Andrew, Elizabeth, John, and Sarah." Andrew made his will on the 03rd of January 1716/7 and the instrument was proved on the 29th of December 1720 in which he names his wife Hannah and children: Martha, John, Elizabeth, Andrew, Sarah, and Richard. He also names his grandchildren: Elizabeth, Abigail, and Andrew Pettit and his wife's children: Daniel Clark, Samuel Clark, and Hannah Clark [re: Baldwin & County Court records 23:219].
Baldwin writes of the Heath family and quotes from Louise H. Tunison and Althea F. Courtot's work "The Heath Family of Hunterdon County, New Jersey; a 1977 manuscript in the collection of the Hunterdon County Historical Society. Andrew Heath married twice, first to the widow Elizabeth Barrett Venables Bannor. She had married first William Venables who is also found as a passenger on the same ship as the one Andrew Heath and the Yardleys arrived on. Venables died leaving his widow and two daughters Joyce and Frances. Elizabeth remarried to a Lawrence Bannor. She married Andrew Heath after 1688 and died by 1699 when Andrew and his step-daughter Joyce leave an instrument conveying land. Andrew married secondly the widow Hannah Clark, whose maiden name unknown.

Nathaniel Pettit, United Emipire Loyalist

Nathaniel appears to have been a prominent individual in both early Sussex county, New Jersey and as a Loyalist in early Ontario. He is named as an United Empire Loyalist in William D. Reid's book [re: p. 249]. The Pettit family Website put together by Frank C. Baldwin of Oak Park, Illinois, chronicles the descendants of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Heath) Pettit of Hunterdon county, New Jersey. Though this work by Mr. Baldwin appears to be well document, the quoted sources have not yet been check and reviewed for accuracy and plausibility. However, on the particular information relating to Nathaniel Pettit of this sketch, it appears that Mr. Baldwin's information corroborates other material in both Reid and in the "Ontario Register, Vol. 2" in reference to the Green and Pettit families.
Baldwin states that Nathaniel is the son of Nathaniel & Elizabeth (Heath) Pettit. Nathaniel married Margaret MacFarlane on the 28th of February 1747; her parentage is not given by Baldwin. Nathaniel Pettit served as a Justice on the Court of Common Pleas for Sussex County from 1770 to 1775 and was a member of the New Jersey Assembly from 1772 to 1775. He was Loyalist during the Revolutionary War and consequently imprisoned during the war. It is noted in the "Ontario Register" that he was imprisoned with Adam Green another prominent Loyalist in Sussex county. He emigrated to Canada in 1788 and received 2000 acres of land as compensation for his losses in New Jersey. In Canada he also provided public service as a judge and member of the Land Board. In 1792 he was elected to the Parliament of Upper Canada. He died in Ancaster, Ontario and is buried at the Anglican Cemetery in Grimsby. Nathaniel's tombstone provides his date of birth as the 12th of June 1724 and his death as the 09th of March 1803. Margaret MacFarlane Pettit's vital statistics are provided by Baldwin as a birth date of the 02nd February 1726 and her death as the 04th of September 1770 in New Jersey.
The best account of Nathaniel Pettit's life is found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Below is a transcription of the article on Judge Pettit.

"Pettit (Petit), Nathaniel, office holder and politician; b. 12 June 1724 in Sussex County, N.J., son of Nathaniel Pettit and Elizabeth Heath; m. 26 Feb. 1747 Margaret McFarland, and they had one son and six daughters; d. 9 March 1803 in Ancaster, Upper Canada.
Nathaniel Pettit's forebears emigrated in 1630 from Essex, England, to the area around Boston, Mass. The family eventually dispersed, some members settling in New Jersey where in Sussex county Nathaniel achieved financial security and legal prominent prior to the American revolution. He owned two valuable mills and in 1766 was appointed judge in the county Court of Common Pleas. In 1768 his personal standing in the community rose further with his election as one of the two members returned from the county to the provincial legislature. But his success, at a time when officials appointed by Britain came to be feared and distrusted, ultimately worked against him.
Initially Pettit was sympathetic to colonial grievances; in 1774 he was appointed at a county meeting to a ten-man committee to oppose taxation without representation and to support the suspension of imports from Britain. But on 12 Jan. 1776 he was brought before the provincial committee of safety for refusing to pay taxes levied by the revolutionary congress. He was fined and stripped of his judicial appointment, which precipitated and open declaration of his loyalty. Approaching his mid fifties, he was not physically able to join a loyalist corps, but with the aid of a former fellow member of the legislature, Joseph Barton, in late 1776 he raised a battalion of 500 men. Pettit, "lame and infirm," remained in Sussex County where his assistance to "the friends of Government ... exposed him to the worst treatment" from the rebels. Imprisoned from 4 April 1777 to 28 May 1778, he obtained his liberty only by paying heavy fines and taking out large bonds for his future behaviour. Pettit estimated these losses "at a very moderate computation" to be in excess of £1000. Moreover, when he left the United States he had to sell his mills and lands for less than half their value. Although he pressed his "well attested" case before loyalist claims commission, it "was attended with no effect." With several friends he left his home and arrived in the Niagara area of Quebec in 1787 "to solicit a settlement where he may enjoy that liberty and comfort so amply secured by the British constitution." He received a grand of 700 acres, and in 1794 another 1,300.. His land were located in Saltfleet, Grimsby (North and South Grimsby), Burford, Ancaster, and Aldborough townships.
On 24 July 1788 Lord Dorchester [Guy Carleton] established four new administrative districts in what was to become Upper Canada. The chief institutions in the new districts were the land board and the Court of Common Pleas; Pettit's appointment to both on 24 Oct. 1788 in the Nassau District reflected his pre-revolutionary prominence. He served on the land board with john Butler, Robert Hamilton, Benjamin Pawling, and John Warren, and also was a member of its successor, the land board of Lincoln County, established on 20 Oct. 1792. The other officials sitting n the district court wee Hamilton, Pawling and Peter Ten Broeck. The board settled matters of land title and the court handled questions of debt. Neither concern was crucial to Pettit's interests and his attendance was sporadic; he was present at only 9 of 36 sessions of the land board between 26 Oct. 1789 and March 1792 and 4 of 23 sessions of the court between 28 Oct 1788 and 10 April 1794. The court was abolished by act of the provincial legislature in July 1794 and the land board by order in council the following November. Pettit was a justice of the peace from 19 June 1789; his last commission was dated 1 April 1803, several weeks after his death. He was named to the first Heir and Devisee Commission for the Home District on 19 Oct. 1797 and reappointed on 21 July 1800 for Lincoln County. He did not attend any of the three meetings between 1 Oct. 1800 and his death.
Pettit's stature is perhaps best reflected by Dorchester's recommendation of him on 15 March 1790, on the advice of Sir John Johnson, as one of eight legislative councilors for the intended province of Upper Canada. Of those commissioned on 12 July 1792, five were selected from this 1790 list. For whatever reason, possibly because of advanced age, Pettit was rejected on the suggestion of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. However, on 27 Aug. 1792 he was elected for the riding of Durham, York, and 1st Lincoln to the first parliament of the new province. The records for this period are fragmentary and it is not known how he participated in the affairs of the assembly. He was succeeded in the second parliament by Richard Beasley.
Pettit did not live long enough to accumulate much more than the land he had been granted. In fact, between 1800 and 1802 he sold off substantial portions of it, mostly to his sons-in-law. In his will he left the remainder to his five surviving daughters and £80 to his son-in-law Lawrence Lawrason, a successful London merchant. In some ways the British government had compensated Pettit for his losses; however, his advancing years did not allow him to rebuild his life to its former eminence.
In collaboration with Bruce A. Parker
Crozier & Green's work on the John Green family mention Nathaniel Pettit and note that there are numerous sources on the family. One source quoted are the Nathaniel Pettit papers Vol. XXX11 of the Ontario Historical Society. Crozier & Green quote both personal letters written by Nathaniel Pettit and his family Bible. Also in 1879, Nathaniel Pettit's grandson Lawrence Lawrason II of London, Ontario wrote an autobiographical sketch which was published in 1882 and tells of his grandfather's emigration and settlement in Upper Canada [re: pg. 34].
The children of Nathaniel & Margaret (MacFarlane) Pettit are:

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