Pett dynasty

Last updated

The so-called Pett Dynasty was a family of shipwrights who prospered in England between the 15th and 17th centuries. It was once said of the family that they were "so knit together that the Devil himself could not discover them". [1] This saying refers to the era during which Samuel Pepys was much involved in getting royal aid for Ann Pett, widow of Christopher Pett. The Petts Wood district of south-east London is named for the family. [2]

Contents

The Pett Family Tree

The four Peter Petts

Peter Pett, Master Shipwright of Deptford, was granted a Coat of Arms in 1563. His son, Joseph Pett of Limehouse, succeeded his father as Master Shipwright before Peter's death in 1605. Joseph surveyed the timber for the construction of a ship named Sovereign of the Seas, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hoborn, another shipwright and churchwarden at Chatham. Joseph died in 1652, aged about 60. Joseph's son, the second Peter Pett, carried on the private family business of shipbuilding at Wapping. Joseph's other son, also named Joseph, became the master carpenter employed at Chatham in 1643 by the then Earl of Warwick.

Another son of the first Peter Pett was Richard Pett, who raised his son (Peter of Deptford (1593–1652) and the third Peter Pett) to be a shipwright. The sons of this Peter Pett were Phineas (a captain in the Royal Navy) and another Peter (the fourth).

This fourth Peter was baptised in St Nicholas' Church in 1630, and was later educated in St Paul's School and Sidney Sussex College of Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1645. He then graduated to Pembroke College, Oxford, and in 1648 was elected to a fellowship at All Soul's College. He was bachelor of civil law to Gray's Inn from 1657 to 1658, and was knighted in 1661, after which he sat as a member of parliament for Askaeton in the Irish Parliament. He was called to the bar in 1664, as a barrister in law of the Middle Temple, and one of the original Fellows of the Royal Society in 1663, from which he was later expelled in 1675 for "not performing his obligations to the society". He also became Advocate-General in Ireland, before his death in 1699. Peter was a learned author and many of his manuscripts have survived him.

Phineas Pett, designer of the Sovereign of the Seas

Phineas Pett succeeded shipwright John Holding in the post of keeper of the plank yard, but his income was meagre by the standards set by his family. In his diary, he recorded that it became his duty, for which he considered himself unfit, to take charge of the affairs of his "poor sisters and brother." Phineas thought that his kinsman Joseph should have paid more attention to their plight, but he "cared not what became of them".

The Autobiography of Phineas Pett indicates his pride in the coat of arms of his father Peter. Phineas' son Peter, commissioner of Chatham, was disgraced because of the Battle of Medway and the loss of capital ships almost 100 years later. These arms display three black balls rather than the three R's of the Leicestershire Pates. The significance of the balls is made clear in some versions of this arms, which show below them a scuttled frigate. The lion passant shown on some versions indicates the Pett (Paetus (founders of Padua), Pettus) origins in Venice (colony of Padua), seafarer home of St. Mark, who is identified with a lion. [3]

Peter Pett, in his application for arms, explicitly indicates his descent from Thomas Pett of Skipton.

Joseph Pett of Limehouse, Master Shipwright

As noted above, Joseph Pett of Limehouse became Master Shipwright in 1589, before his father Peter's death. He was the father of Joseph Pett of Chatham and had another son, William, and a daughter, Lydia, who took up the trade of her father and is a rare example of a female master tradesman of the era. He was married twice, first to Margaret Curtis (who died in 1594), and later to Margaret Humphrey (who died in 1612). Joseph died in 1605.

Details of Pett families

Family 1

Family 2

Family 3

Extension of Family 2

Related Research Articles

Peter Pett

Peter Pett was an English Master Shipwright and Second Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard. He protected his scale models and drawings of the King's Fleet during the Dutch Raid on the Medway, in Kent in June 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which was otherwise disastrous to the British Royal Navy.

Phineas Pett

Phineas Pett was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was published in 1918.

Mathew Baker (1530–1613) was one of the most renowned Tudor shipwrights, and the first to put the practice of shipbuilding down on paper.

At the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Richard Chapman was the owner of a private shipyard at Deptford, had the title of 'Queen's Master Shipwright,' and had been involved in the construction of river defences along the Thames, along with Peter Pett and Mathew Baker, two other important shipwrights of the time. Chapman was Master Shipwright of Woolwich and Deptford and built the first Ark Royal.

John Tilley (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger) Mayflower passenger

John Tilley and his family were passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact, and died with his wife in the first Pilgrim winter in the New World.

<i>Lyons Whelp</i>

Lyon's Whelp or Lion's Whelp is the name of a historical British ship, it is also found in the Bible in Genesis 49:9 “Judah is a lion’s whelp." Popular today, the name was given to a series of 16th-century naval ships, then in the 17th century to a fleet of ten full rigged pinnaces commissioned by the first Duke of Buckingham.

Smalbroke family

The Smalbroke family was a powerful landed gentry family between the early 15th and early 19th centuries, owning large areas of land in Birmingham, England.

Anthony Deane (shipwright)

Sir Anthony Deane FRS (1633–1721) was a 17th-century mayor of Harwich, naval architect, Master Shipwright and commercial shipbuilder, and Member of Parliament.

HMS President was a 34-gun fourth-rate of the English Navy, built by Peter Pett I at Deptford Dockyard and launched in 1650. She was incorporated into the Commonwealth Navy in 1650. She partook in the Battle off Dover and Kentish Knock in 1652, the Battle of Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen in 1653. She was renamed Bonaventure in 1660. After the Restoration she was incorporated into the Royal Navy. She was present at the Battle of Lowestoft (1665), the Four Days Battle and the Oxfordness in 1666. She was rebuilt in 1666. She was present at the Battle of Martinique in 1667, Battle of Solebay (1672), Battle of Schooneveld and Texel in 1673, the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690, the Battle of Barfleur 1692.

Deptford Dockyard Former naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames

Deptford Dockyard was an important naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and many significant events and ships have been associated with it.

Reverend Walter Rosewell was the Vicar of Doulting, Somerset and later became a Presbyterian Minister at Chatham, Kent. He was sequestered and imprisoned in 1649 for refusing to take the oath of Engagement and for sedition.

Mary Lacy was a British sailor, shipwright and memoirist. She was arguably the first woman to have been given an exam and a pension from the British Admiralty as a shipwright.

Benjamin Rosewell (c.1665–1737) was a master shipwright at Harwich, Plymouth, Chatham and Sheerness Naval Dockyards, and Governor of Hawkins Hospital, Chatham.

Benjamin Rosewell was an attorney at Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, London.

Sir Henry Johnson was an English shipbuilder and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1679. He was one of the leading commercial shipbuilders on the River Thames during the period of enormous mercantile expansion and the Dutch wars after the Restoration..

Peter Pett was an English master-shipwright at Deptford.

Sir Peter Pett was an English lawyer and author.

Pett is a village in East Sussex, England.

Adam Hayes

Adam Hayes (1710–1785) was an 18th century shipbuilder to the Royal Navy. A great number of his models survive.

Christopher Pett

Christopher Pett (1620–1668) was a 17th century English shipbuilder for the Royal Navy and part of the Pett dynasty of shipbuilders. He is mentioned in the Diary of Samuel Pepys.

References

  1. ↑ Quote from The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815, ISBN   0-393-06050-0, pp. 45–46, by N. A. M. Rodger.The quotation is from Chapter Three, "A Looking-Glass of Calamity, Administration 1649–1660".
  2. ↑ Willey, Russ (2006). The London Gazzetteer. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. p. 383.
  3. ↑ Deptford, St Nicholas | British History Online
  4. ↑ John Beryman of Paglesham, Essex, wrote his will in 1621 (Essex Archives Online, D/ABW 44/116). He named his uncle Peter Pett of Ratcliffe, shipwright, Aunt Elizabeth Pett, and their children Peter "the younger," Anne, and Elizabeth. John Beryman (Berriman) was the son of John and Thomasyn Berriman, and the grandson of John Berriman, rector of Rochford Parish, Essex (d. 1617). Rev. John Berriman was the father of Elizabeth Berriman, baptized at Felsted, Essex, 31 January 1567. Young John's aunt Elizabeth Pett was either the sister of his father, John--Elizabeth Berriman--or the sister of his mother, Thomasyn, whose surname is unknown.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.