The Pettyjohn
family originally came from France. In
France, the surname was spelled quite differently; the original name was Petit-jean, which means "Little
John" (WSV – 153-154). It is
believed that the Petit-jeans lived in what today would be known as
Alsace-Lorraine, which is located in the northeastern region of France near
Germany (HP). At some point of time,
the Petit-jeans left France and settled in England.
It
has been theorized by a leading genealogist Brian Pettyjohn of Port Angeles,
Washington that the Petit-jeans came over from France with the famous William
the Conqueror (BP). William the
Conqueror, who was the Duke of Normandy and was the great-grandson of the
famous Viking ‘Rollo’, crossed the English Channel with 7000 men and became the
great Norman conqueror of England. In
1066, at the battlefield of Hastings in Sussex County, William defeated the
Anglo-Saxon claimant, thus uniting the country into a feudal monarch and ending
Saxon rule forever (McKay – 352-353, 359 & 361.) Consequently, French, which was William the Conqueror’s native
language and the language of Normandy, became the language of the English court
(Wright – 6-7). The Petit-jeans lived
peacefully in England for centuries.
During this time period, the Petit-jeans anglicized their name to Pettyjohn.
I
have checked some of the many records available on England and have found
several that date back to the fourteenth century; therefore, these new finding
tend to support Brian Pettyjohn’s theory and will be the premise of our
investigations. The Pettyjohns settled
around Hastings, Sussex County. There
was a record of a John Petijohan in 1327 on the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex; a John
Petyjohn in 1386 in Essex; a John Petyjon in 1443 in Highworth Hundred, Wilts;
and a record of the baptism of a John Petijohn on Oct. 16, 1559 in Saint
Clements Church, Hastings, Sussex County.
Later, a branch of the Pettyjohn family left Hastings and settled near
Plymouth in Brixham, Devonshire. The
earliest record is of a John Pettijohn that married Isabell on June 8, 1558 in
Brixham, Devonshire, England. This John
may have been the great-great grandfather of our immigrant ancestor James
Pettyjohn.
The
Pettyjohns lived happily in England, free from religious persecution to the
time of King Henry VIII. Then, sometime
after the death of King Henry VIII, his daughter the famous Queen "Bloody
Mary", took over the crown and turned the nation back over to a Catholic
country. Once again the persecution
against them began, so many of them left England and went to Wales. After the death of Bloody Mary, Elizabeth
took over the crown as Queen of England and once again restored England back to
a Protestant nation. This was the time
period known as the English Renaissance.
The population of England was about five million people. The Pettyjohns surely took pleasure from
partaking in activities of the time such as sports, entertainment, diversion
and merrymaking--the very things that were so greatly discouraged upon under
the rule of Queen Bloody Mary.
Furthermore, in the early 1600s economic times soon hit hard for the
common farmers, serfs and peasants, who had become restricted from the lands
that their grandfathers had farmed centuries before. The lords of the lands sought after larger and quicker profits
from the grazing of sheep for wool.
These poor yeoman left their homes and sought refuge in large cities
where industry thrived. Moreover, many
formed trading companies and left England seeking to start a new life in the
New World. This was probably the case
with the Pettyjohn family. James
Pettyjohn, who was born about 1617 in Brixham, Devonshire, England, came to
America and settled on the Eastern shore of Virginia around 1635.
The first child of James and Isabell
Pettyjohn was James Pettyjohn, Jr. James must have lived his whole life on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia for his son and grandson’s births were recorded in
the Hungars Parish records[1]. His descendant, James Pettyjohn, IV, evidently
moved to Sussex Co., Delaware and on Apr. 1, 1773 married a Patience Marvel[2]. It is thought that their son, James
Pettyjohn, V, fought in the War of 1812 and served in Captain John Kollock’s
Company, Delaware Militia. The second
child of James and Isabell Pettyjohn was William Pettyjohn. William was recorded living in Accomac
County, Virginia between 1684 and 1702 (Tithables - 33, 50.) William died in Prince Anne County, Virginia
in 1712 and nothing more is known about William. However, it has been speculated by Jack Pettijohn of Rockville,
Maryland, that William’s descendants settled in Chowan County, North
Carolina. It is interesting because a
Thomas Pettijohn made a will in 1767 in Chowan Co., and his heirs were Frances,
John, Thomas, Abraham and Sarah (Hathaway).
Two of Thomas children, Thomas, Jr. and John, fought in the American
Revolution in North Carolina.
The
third child of James and Isabell Pettyjohn was Isabell Pettyjohn. Isabell was recorded as being baptized on
May 16, 1660 in Hungars Parish, Northampton Co., Virginia (VVR – 390). On Dec. 11, 1678, Isabell married Richard
Lester. Richard Lester died in 1694
and, by 1702, Isabell remarried, to John Oakman (EJP – 9). The fourth and last child of James and
Isabell Pettyjohn was John Pettyjohn.
John was recorded living in Accomac Co. from 1682 until 1692. About 1685, John married Sara Virginia
Willson[3]. The Pettyjohns had two children, who were
born in Accomac Co., Virginia. About
1692, the Pettyjohns resettled to Sussex Co., Delaware. The Pettyjohns had six more children, all of
which were born in Sussex County.
Moreover, all of John and Sara’s children owned land in Sussex Co., and
had children and farms of their own. To
this day, many of the Pettyjohn descendants can still be found living in the
same area of Sussex County, Delaware.
Most
of the Pettyjohn families stayed in Delaware and Virginia up until the American
Revolution. After that, the Pettyjohns
began their trek through America. Some
of the Pettyjohns went to West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, others went to
North Carolina and Georgia, while still others went to Ohio, Indiana and
Missouri. During this period, the
Pettyjohn surname had changed in some families to Pettijohn. In some cases, people were illiterate and
weren't sure how to spell their name and in other cases people just preferred
the “i” to the “y”. Also, there is a
natural tendency for most people to write Pettyjohn as Pettijohn. In spite of the differences in the surname,
there is a good chance that most of all the Pettyjohn (Pettijohn) families in
the United States are probably related and probably all came from the original
James Pettyjohn who immigrated to America from England. Furthermore, there has been evidence that
states that some families like Peregen,
Pettingil, Paragon and others, actually stem off our very own Pettyjohn
branches (BP & JP).
In this book, I try to present an
accurate genealogy of all the descendants of the original James Pettyjohn to
the Pettyjohns of present day. As more
information is known about the ancestors of James Pettyjohn, I will continue to
investigate as far back into our ancestry as possible. The format in which I use in this book is
comparable to that of The Thorpe Family book written by M. L. Thorpe, Ph.D. Moreover, Mr. Thorpe has done extensive
research on a branch of Pettyjohns that are descendants of Nide and Elizabeth
(Tharp) Pettyjohn [gen. 6]. This book is divided into generations ranging from
-1 to 12, where I am in generation 0.
Furthermore, Through land records, deeds, birth, marriage and death
records, wills, war records and photographs, I attempt to sketch an accurate
and chronological picture of each of the Pettyjohns (Pettijohns) and their
lives.
Pettyjohn
Revolutionary War Soldiers
James
Pettyjohn Virginia Lieutenant #
5247
James
Pettyjohn Virginia Private #
5271
Thomas
Pettyjohn North Carolina Corporal 1st N.C. Regt. # 5272
John
Pettijohn North
Carolina Private
John
Pettyjohn Virginia Private R
8163
Amos
Pettyjohn Virginia Private
William
Pettijohn Virginia Private Capt. Wm Haymond’s Co.
John
Pettyjohn Virginia Private
Hiram
Pettyjohn Virginia Private
Molliston
Pettyjohn Virginia Private