Once again, Jerseyman has caught me by surprise. He has published a fascinating post relating to early maneuvering before the first Quaker settlers arrived in the Delaware River.
The blog is “History–Now and Then,” by “Jerseyman” and the post in question is The Best Laid Schemes o’Mice an’ Men, Gang aft Agley
Under instructions from the Quaker trustees, James Wasse and Richard Guy had a survey made by Richard Hancock, which was published by John Thornton and Robert Green and titled “A Mapp of Virginia Mary-land, New-Jarsey, New-York & New England,” probably around 1677 or 1678. It showed three designated areas for settlement, one being at “Bethlem” which became Gloucester, another called Antioch where Salem was located, and the third was 5000 acres at the Falls.
I am not publishing the map here–you’ve got to visit History Now and Then to see it.
Jerseyman points out that these proposed settlements were ignored by the actual settlers, at least in the beginning. But like most people, I had no idea there was such a plan in the works. The instructions to James Wasse are also new to me. This post is a keeper for sources relating to the early history of West New Jersey.
Jerseyman
October 17, 2010 @ 8:32 pm
Marfy:
Thank you for your kind comments about my blog! I am appreciative of your interest and humbled by your attention.
You may wish to make a closer read of my text. Actually, the first settlers to arrive after Fenwick DID begin to take up the land as James Wasse had surveyed it, but the compromise settlement of Burlington, established on the landscape within a month after arriving on the Delaware River, caused Bethlem Township and the 5,000 acres at the Falls to disappear quickly from the historical record. In Antioch Township, Wasse designated a shire town named Antioch, which became the community of Greenwich.
If you maintain an interest in the earliest period of West New Jersey’s settlement, you should own at least Volume 1 of The Papers of William Penn, edited by Mary Maples Dunn and Richard S. Dunn and published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 1981.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
Marfy Goodspeed
October 20, 2010 @ 7:47 am
Jerseyman, I was abbreviating your post a little too much. I appreciate the insistence on accuracy.
Elvin Pettet
May 18, 2013 @ 11:16 pm
Jerseyman,
I was blown away reading your blog about early New Jersey, and I thought you might be interested in this about what I believe to be my own family history. Nathanial Pettit’s father Thomas came to America in 1630 on the ship Talbot, landing in the Boston area. I have not proven my exact line yet, as the first firm proof is Elias Pettet buying land in Burnt Cabin Valley, then Cumberland County, PA in 1764. It is now in Fulton County, PA. I still need Elias’s parents. Have you found any reference to Pettit/Pettet in your NJ research?
7. NATHANIEL PETTIT 1st (son of Thomas and Christian) “The Quaker of Newtown” was born at Exeter in 1645, as he testified in court in December 1667 that he was then 22 years of age and that his brother John was older. A member of the Society of Friends, he was living in Newtown, L. I., from 1655 to 1696.
About 1665 he married MARY BAILEY, daughter of Elias Bailey of Newtown in 1656, who later went to Jamaica, L. I., and on 19 October 1699 bought a tract of three hundred acres from the West Jersey Society’s thirty thousand acres in New Jersey above the Falls of the Delaware. Mary Bailey’s grandfather was John Bailey, one of the purchasers from the Indians of Elizabeth, N. J.
A highway was laid out through Hempstead Swamp, near Newtown, L. I., and in the apportionment of land 23 April 1668, Nathaniel and his brother Thomas 2d received ten acres each.
In the year 1673 war was declared between Holland and England, and Captain Keith came to Newtown to tender the oath of allegiance to its ninety-nine male inhabitants. Four of these, including Nathaniel Pettit 1st, were Quakers who, on 13 September 1673, refused the oath but promised fealty to the Dutch who had recently occupied Manhattan.
Nathaniel’s name is on the Charter from Governor Dongan, 25 November 1686, with his sons Nathaniel, Moses and John. In 1696 he removed to Hopewell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, settled at the Falls of the Delaware, and in 1696 bought 200 acres from John Wilsford, Sr. and Jr., who had bought it in 1685 from Mahlon Stacy and Peter Fretwell. In 1691 Nathaniel Pettit was the first Collector of Hopewell Township.
In 1711 he granted 100 acres in Amwell to his son Elias. In 1718 with his three sins, Elias, Jonathan and Nathaniel 2d (who married Elizabeth Heath) he purchased a plantation, in all 1400 acres of land, at Trenton near the Assanpink Creek, including the ground where the New Jersey State Capitol now stands. Petty’s Run was named for him.
Nathaniel Pettit 1st died before 25 Jun 1718 in Hopewell Township, N. J., aged 73. His Will, dated 13 March 1714/15, was probated at Burlington, N. J., 25 June 1718 and filed also in New York 9 July 1719. His son Jonathan was Executor; Inventory dated 24 June 1718.
7. Nathaniel Pettit 1st and Mary Bailey had eight children, all born in New Hampshire, and here listed in the order mentioned in their father’s Will:
71. Moses Pettit, born about 1655, died 1718, married first Lydia Lawrence and second Alice (Issue); and had by his first wife: Nathaniel Pettit, born 1689, who had Jonathan Pettit, who married Mary SHOURDS in 1747, ancestors of David Pettit.
72. Mary Pettit, died childless at Burlington, N. J., in 1754, having married first Samuel Moore and second Rev. Paul Watkinson, Rector of the Burlington (N. J.) Church, who witnessed his father0in0law, Nathaniel Pettit’s Will.
73. Judith Pettit married a Mr. Neald.
74. Elias Pettit married a Miss Havens. He made a Deed to his son John for property in Amwell, N. J.
75. Nathaniel Pettit 2d, of whom below.
76. Jane Pettit, of whom below.
77. Jonathan Pettit, of whom below.
78. John Pettit, of whom below.
75. NATHANIEL PETTIT 2d, born 1676 (son of Nathaniel Pettit 1st and Mary Bailey) was a Justice of Sussex County, N. J. Formerly a Quaker, he was in 1723 or 25 an organizer and founder of St. Andrews (P. E.) Church at Ringoes, and was part owner of 700 acres at Trenton. The Church was removed before 1776 to Lambertville, N. J. He died soon after 1768 and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hunterdon County.
He married about 1689 ELIZABETH HEATH, daughter of Andrew Heath, interpreter, for the West Jersey Proprietors, among the Leni Lenape Indians along the Delaware, and negotiator of land deals with the Indians. An early resident of Amwell and Hopewell Townships, he bought 420 acres of land from John Hutchinson near the Falls of the Delaware, 4 February 1699. From Ransclough, near Leake, co. Stafford, Andrew arrived in New Jersey 28 September 1682 on the ship “Friends Adventure,” indentured to William Yardley. Elizabeth Heath was a near relative of Jane Heath, who in 1663 had married William Yardley.
Andrew Heath lived on the farm that was owned in 1877 by Joseph B. Anderson, in Ewing Township near the New Jersey Insane Asylum. In 1701 he was appointed Assessor of Hopewell Township, while Nathaniel Pettit 1st was Collector. On 2 November 1703 he was appointed by the Council of Proprietors at Burlington to go with the Commissioners of the West Jersey Society to act as an interpreter to the Indians above the Falls. He owned a large plantation adjoining the one bought in 1696 by Nathaniel Pettit 1st, where Trenton now stands.
Andrew Heath’s Will, dated at Hopewell Township 3 January 1716/17, was recorded 29 December 1720. In it he mentions his second (?) wife Hannah (widow of a Mr. Clark) and her three children by her first marriage: Daniel, Samuel and Hannah Clark. Hannah probably was his second wife. He also mentions his children as follows:
1. Elizabeth Heath, who married Nathaniel Pettit 2d. She had had her portion.
2. John Heath, who had had his portion. (no known issue)
3. Andrew Heath, Jr., “who received land up at Malazadok.” He or his father, with Charles Wolverton, was a witness 7 November 1727 to the Will of Richard Ceane of Amwell and, with George Fox, inventoried his estate 24 November 1727.
4. Sarah Heath, who was to have £50 at age 21.
5. Richard Heath, who received six hundred acres in New Jersey on the Musconetcong River.
6. Martha Heath, who was bequeathed £20 when 18 years old and £20 more when 21 years old.”
Sandra Miranda
December 10, 2020 @ 4:22 am
There is confusion with the Pettit research Thomas & Christian Pettit also had a son Thomas Pettit Sr. who’s plantation was located in West Riding York Shire in the Providence in New York he also had a son Nathaniel Pettit living in Burlington N. J. He is mentioned in Quaker Joshua Elys Will which said “If George marry Christian daughter of Nathaniel Pettit, which I declare is quite contrary to my mind, then he is to enjoy no share of my seat to be divided as aforesaid” Why because he was not a member of the Society of Friends .. Thomas Pettit had a daughter Mary Pettit that married the son of his second wife they removed to Chesterfield New Jersey in 1699, John Moore is recorded as being a Lawyer in Burlington Court after his death she married Rev. Warkinson..she mentioned her brother Nathaniel Pettit in her Will
Mary Smith
December 18, 2021 @ 12:26 pm
Elvin Pettet…. Nathaniel Pettit & Mary Bailey had six children named in his Will. 1) Jonathan Pettit 2)Moses Pettit 4) Judith Pettit Neald 4)Elias Pettit 5)Nathaniel Pettit & Jane Ely Pettit and her husband George and their three children Mary, Joshua & Jonathan Ely.. Please explain how these other children were not named in his will.
Mary Reed married Capt Samuel Moore… Mary Pettit married John Moore the son of John Moore Jr. and Hannah Jessup. Thomas Pettit married Hannah the widow of John Moore Jr. Mary Pettit was likely the daughter of Nathaniel’s brother Thomas.