This Pettit site has been created as the official Pettit site. The purpose of this site is to provide researchers with early colonial historical documents up to and including the settlement of the frontier states of the 1800s. The historical text includes early maps that show settler migration patterns, colonization, timelines and stories of the early settlers. This Pettit site provides legal records in the form of wills, grants, deeds, taxes, et. al.

This is my birthright for I am a Pettiet a direct descendant of Benjamin Pettit - a captain in the American Revolution - a fight for freedom. From France to America-the history has been recorded and preserved.

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Historical research proves my French Huguenot ancestors were part of the migration to the British Isles, victims of the religious persecution of being Protestant initiated circa 1661 by rulers in France. The Huguenots settled with the Scotch-Irish and later sailed to the New World with these colonists. Here they settled and intermarried. The following excerpts show a path of migration for the Pettits, Brevards, Larrimores and allied lines.

The purpose of this research project is:

First, to find the Pettit documents that PROVE Rebecca Larrimore, wife of Benjamin Pettit, is the true and legal daughter of John Larrimore and Elizabeth Brevard. This is currently a theory documented in the files under Pettit family oral tradition. To date, it is recorded that Benjamin Pettit, born about 1750 in Virginia married Rebecca Larrimore about 1778, bearing him ten children. It is purported that Rebecca was born about 1758 in South Carolina, the daughter of John Larrimore and Elizabeth Brevard.
Editor's note: I have found no evidence to support any type of connection between the Brevards and Larrimores - nor any connection between the Brevards - Larrimores and/or Pettits (of any spelling!)

Benjamin Pettit was living in Lincoln County, Kentucky as early as 1774 - with wife and children. Mentioned in the will dated 1785 of Benjamin Pettit from Surry County, North Carolina, receiving one shilling sterling, indicating that he may have been assisted previously by his father. Benjamin Jr. is mentioned as "grandson, son of my son, Benjamin and wife Polly Logan, daughter of William Logan, deceased."
Editor's note: Naming patterns of children points to the validity of the claim that Captain Benjamin did indeed marry Polly Logan and that she in turn was the mother of Captain Benjamin's elder children.

William Logan died in 1776 - listed as buyers at the sale of estate property on 25 November 1776 are Benjamin and Thomas Pettit, Patrick and Hugh Logan, Mary Logan (widow), James and William Ridings, Jr.
[Source: Surry Cty., NC - Will Abstracts Vol. 1-3 1771 to 1827]

Secondly, to prove and document the legal children of Benjamin Pettit by his first wife, Polly (Mary) Logan; and the children from his second wife, Rebecca Larrimore. It is not clear which of Benjamin's ten children belong to his first wife, Polly, or to the second wife, Rebecca, whom he married after the death of his first wife.
Editor's note: Contrary to oral tradition, I believe that Benjamin and Rebecca did not marry until the early 1790s and that Rebecca may only be the mother of William McDowell Pettit, born 1799 in Danville, KY. According to land documents and court references in my possession and research there is no prior evidence linking Benjamin and Rebecca.