Individual Details

Is this the same man? Probably not - likely his father - born too early - Elizabeth Pettus was born about 1700-1705...

Born 1610 - Death unknown
Probable burial - Burton Parish Church Cemetery, Williamsburg.

Note: Researching burial location. Thomas served as a vestry member at Bruton Parish. But may have been buried at his plantation of Littleton.)

Colonel Thomas PETTUS (aka Councilor) came to America in 1638-1641, after serving on the Continent in the Thirty Years War, for the Virginia Company in command of forty men to assist the colonists in their struggles with the Powhatan Indians at Jamestown. He was about 40 years of age and a widower. Col. Pettus, Councilor, had a son, Capt. Thomas Pettus, and daughters Mary and Ann. Also possibly a daughter who married a Freeman. It is very probably sons Stephen ("the first Stephen") from his first marriage and John of Rapahannock and New Kent, was his child from Elizabeth.

Baptized in England on Aug. 23, 1610 (Anglican)

Colonel Thomas built a substantial residence on the James River on a tract four miles downriver from the Jamestown settlement not long after his arrival. He named the seventeenth century plantation house Littletown. This is what is contemporary Kingsmill near Historic Jamestown.

Colonel Thomas, son of William Pettus, sought a lifestyle different than was offered in his native environs. He found Virginia an attractive alternative lifestyle. He quickly became a member of the emerging provincial elite. Colonel Thomas PETTUS became a Governor's councilor in the mid-seventeenth century, serving on the prestigious Governor's Council from 1641 until 1660. He also served as Vestryman of Bruton Parish 1636-40 the Anglican Church in Williamsburg.

Colonel Thomas probably was entitled to some Jamestown property through investments made by his grand uncle Sir John PETTUS, who had purchased stock in the company holding the third charter to Virginia, The Third Virginia Charter Company.

The marriage of Colonel Thomas to the widow, Elizabeth ( Mrs. Richard) DURRANT, added substantial holdings to the estate which eventually encompassed 1280 acres. The PETTUS plantation left a lasting imprint on the Jamestown and Williamsburg landscape.

This lineage of Pettuses of Norwich shows how Virginia Pettuses were related to their neighbors, --the Sandyses, Burwells, Dabneys, Bacons, Rolfes, and Wyatts. Sir Francis Wyatt, Governor of Virginia, 1621-25 and 1639-41, m. Margaret, dau. of Sir Samuel Sandys, son of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York. Another son of the Archbishop was George Sandys, Secretary of the "Virginia Company" in London and later Member of the Council in Virginia. The brothers Sir James Bacon of Friston Hall and Sir Nathaniel Bacon of Shiffkey, Norfolk were 1st cousins of Sir Francis Bacon, the great scientist, thought by some to have written Shakespeare's plays.

Death

Williamsburg [city], Virginia

Child

Elizabeth Pettus ( - )