Stephen Pettus^[1]

1619 - 1686  (67 years)

• Name	Stephen Pettus
  Birth	1619	Norwich, Norfolk, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	1686	Saint Peter and Paul Parish, New Kent, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I24582	Master
  Last Modified	14 Sep 2015

  
  

  Family	Katherine Morris,   b. 1620, Norwich, Norfolk, England d. 1656, , , Virginia, USA (Age 36 years)
  Marriage	1656	Norwich, Norfolk, England
  Children	+ 1. Susanna Pettus,   b. 1656, Saint Peter and Paul Parish, New Kent, Virginia, USA d. 30 May 1717, Saint Peter and Paul Parish, New Kent, Virginia, USA (Age 61 years)
  Family ID	F6397	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Sep 2015

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1619 - Norwich, Norfolk, England Marriage - 1656 - Norwich, Norfolk, England Death - 1686 - Saint Peter and Paul Parish, New Kent, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  Stephen Pettus is thought to have been born about 1619 in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He died in St. Peters Parish, New Kent, Virginia in 1686. It is generally thought he was a son of the well-known Col. Thomas Pettus, owner of the “Littletown” plantation near Jamestown, although this has not been proven. Stephen cannot be tied clearly to any other Pettus family members. Col. Thomas Pettus, Stephen’s probable father, was christened in 1598 in Norwich. He served in the British Army in theThirty Years' War in Europe. He was sent to Virginia in command of 40 men to assist the colonists in their struggles with the Powhatan Indians at Jamestown. His exact arrival date is not known but was between 1638 and 1641. From 1641 to 1660, Col. Thomas served as a member of the prestigious Governor’s Council and was considered a member of the emerging “provincial elite.” He was an active participant in the affairs of Jamestown and is mentioned in many documents of the period. He married a widow, Elizabeth Mourning (Mrs. Richard Durant), in 1645 and acquired additional land as a result of this marriage. When he died in the 1660s, his land passed to his son from this marriage, (Capt.) Thomas Pettus, Jr. Stephen is thought to have been a son of Col. Thomas’s from his first marriage in England. The name of Col. Thomas’s first wife is not known. Although some report her name as Katherine Morris, this is believed to have been the wife of a different Thomas Pettus who was a nephew of Col. Thomas. A Virginia Genealogical Histories publication states: “Col. Thomas Pettus was 40 years old when he came to Virginia. Probably a widower. With him or before him came a Stephen Pettus. Here by 1637. The name Stephen is not found in records of Pettuses of Norwich, England, but Capt. Thomas Pettus [son of Col. Thomas] named a son Stephen. Looks like the “first Stephen” was a son of Col. Pettus by a first wife and named for her family. To summarize: Col. Pettus, Councilor, had son Capt. Thomas and daughters Mary and Ann. Also possibly a daughter who married a Freeman and very probably sons Stephen (“the first Stephen”) and John of Rapahannock and New Kent.” One story claims that Stephen Pettus and his brother were imported as indentured servants to Virginia by their father in 1637. Importation of “indentured” family members to Virginia during the seventeenth century was not that uncommon, because under the law at the time a man received fifty acres of free land for each “imported servant.” Occasionally the same person was even “re-imported” after a trip back to England. There is a record showing that on July 12, 1637 a man named Matthew Edloe was granted 1,200 acres on the north side of the James River as compensation for the “transportation of 24 persons.” The list of persons transported includes the name of Stephen Pettus. (from Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 6, by Virginia Historical Society, William Glover Stanard) Stephen patented at least two tracts of land in New Kent County, Virginia. One was on the north side of the Chickahominy River about 25 miles above its mouth. It was here that he started a plantation and made his home. Stephen married, although his wife’s name is not known. They are generally thought to have had two daughters, one of whom (Susanna) became his heir: 1. Elizabeth Pettus 2. Susanna Pettus, about 1656-1717, married Evan Ragland In Ragland family traditional history, Stephen Pettus is known as the plantation owner who “acquired” Evan Ragland, a 14-year old who had been shanghaied from England and sold to the highest bidder in the colonies. At the end of his indenture, Evan Ragland (founder of the Ragland family in America) married Stephen’s daughter Susanna and eventually inherited Stephen Pettus’s land.

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=83664346&pid=18