Thomas PETTUS, COL

Sources:

Hopkins of Virginia and Related Families; Walter Lee Hopkins {1931}, 9
Genealogies of Virginia Families, Virginia Magazine of History, Baltimore {1981}, II:849
Genealogies of Virginia Families, Virginia Magazine of History, Baltimore {1981}, II:847

Notes:

                   Thomas Pettus, 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. He married in 1645 Elizabeth, widow of Richard Durant, of of Virginia. He was known as Col Thomas Pettus and was a member of the King's Council in 1642-1660.

Many genealogical writers have stated that Sir John Pettus was the father of the emigrant to Virginia. The first Sir John was buried in 1613. His sons were Augustine and Thomas. Sir Augustine, born 1582, had two sons, Sir Thomas, first baronet of Rackheath, who had Sir Thomas, second baronet, who died 1671 in England, and Sir John, third baronet. The other son of Sir Augustine was Sir John, born in 1613, whose only son mentioned was Richard who died in 1662 after going to France.

Thomas Pettus, Sir John's younger brother, who was baptized in 1542 and died in 1620, had 17 children, whis second child being William, baptized in 1583 and died in 1648, and he is stated by Prof Charles J Colcock, of Charleston, S.C., in his compilation of the lineage of the Pettus Family, in the Virginia Historical Society library, Richmond, VA, to have been the father of Thomas Pettus, the emigrant to Virginia. We believe Professor Colcock is correct and in collecting our data we have drawn largely from this source.

Thomas Pettus, the emigrant, received a patent for land in James City County, VA, in 1643, and in 1645 had a grant of 886 acres on James City County in right of his wife Elizabeth, the widow of Richard Durant. He came to Virginia in 1638 and died in 1660. [Henry Duke, Councilor p338]
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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.

http://www.communique.net/~pepbaker/pethop00.htm