While researching Nathaniel Pettit with the Grimsby Historical Society, they indicated that sometime after Nanthaniel was buried, there was a flood which caused the river to change its course and quite a few of the burials were swept away never to be found. Nathaniel's was one of the burials swept away.
Deborah Glover
2018
UNITED EMPIRE LOYALIST
Nathaniel Pettit and Margaret McFarland (Macfarland) were married on February 26, 1747 in Trenton, Sussex Co., New Jersey USA.
Children of Nathaniel Pettit and Margaret McFarland born in Trenton, Sussex Co., New Jersey, USA were:
- Andrew Pettit born February 2, 1748.
- Elizabeth Pettit born December 6, 1750.
- Catherine Pettit bon April 17, 1753.
- Mary Pettit born February 27, 1756.
- Rachel Pettit born June 20, 1758.
- Abigail Pettit born May 8, 1764.
Below is a transcription of the article on Judge Pettit in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography-
"Pettit (Petit), Nathaniel, office holder and politician; b. 12 June 1724 in Sussex County, N.J., son of Nathaniel Pettit and Elizabeth Heath; m. 26 Feb. 1747 Margaret McFarland, and they had one son and six daughters; d. 9 March 1803 in Ancaster, Upper Canada.
Nathaniel Pettit's forebears emigrated in 1630 from Essex, England, to the area around Boston, Mass. The family eventually dispersed, some members settling in New Jersey where in Sussex county Nathaniel achieved financial security and legal prominent prior to the American revolution. He owned two valuable mills and in 1766 was appointed judge in the county Court of Common Pleas.
In 1768 his personal standing in the community rose further with his election as one of the two members returned from the county to the provincial legislature. But his success, at a time when officials appointed by Britain came to be feared and distrusted, ultimately worked against him.
Initially Pettit was sympathetic to colonial grievances; in 1774 he was appointed at a county meeting to a ten-man committee to oppose taxation without representation and to support the suspension of imports from Britain.
But on 12 Jan. 1776 he was brought before the provincial committee of safety for refusing to pay taxes levied by the revolutionary congress. He was fined and stripped of his judicial appointment, which precipitated and open declaration of his loyalty.
Approaching his mid fifties, he was not physically able to join a loyalist corps, but with the aid of a former fellow member of the legislature, Joseph Barton, in late 1776 he raised a battalion of 500 men. Pettit, "lame and infirm," remained in Sussex County where his assistance to "the friends of Government ... exposed him to the worst treatment" from the rebels.
Imprisoned from 4 April 1777 to 28 May 1778, he obtained his liberty only by paying heavy fines and taking out large bonds for his future behaviour. Pettit estimated these losses "at a very moderate computation" to be in excess of £1000. Moreover, when he left the United States he had to sell his mills and lands for less than half their value. Although he pressed his "well attested" case before loyalist claims commission, it "was attended with no effect."
With several friends he left his home and arrived in the Niagara area of Quebec in 1787 "to solicit a settlement where he may enjoy that liberty and comfort so amply secured by the British constitution." He received a grand of 700 acres, and in 1794 another 1,300. His land were located in Saltfleet, Grimsby (North and South Grimsby), Burford, Ancaster, and Aldborough townships.
On 24 July 1788 Lord Dorchester [Guy Carleton] established four new administrative districts in what was to become Upper Canada. The chief institutions in the new districts were the land board and the Court of Common Pleas; Pettit's appointment to both on 24 Oct. 1788 in the Nassau District reflected his pre-revolutionary prominence.
He served on the land board with john Butler, Robert Hamilton, Benjamin Pawling, and John Warren, and also was a member of its successor, the land board of Lincoln County, established on 20 Oct. 1792. The other officials sitting in the district court wee Hamilton, Pawling and Peter Ten Broeck.
The board settled matters of land title and the court handled questions of debt. Neither concern was crucial to Pettit's interests and his attendance was sporadic; he was present at only 9 of 36 sessions of the land board between 26 Oct. 1789 and March 1792 and 4 of 23 sessions of the court between 28 Oct 1788 and 10 April 1794.
The court was abolished by act of the provincial legislature in July 1794 and the land board by Order-in-Council the following November. Pettit was a justice of the peace from 19 June 1789; his last commission was dated 1 April 1803, several weeks after his death.
He was named to the first Heir and Devisee Commission for the Home District on 19 Oct. 1797 and reappointed on 21 July 1800 for Lincoln County.
He did not attend any of the three meetings between 1 Oct. 1800 and his death. Pettit's stature is perhaps best reflected by Dorchester's recommendation of him on 15 March 1790, on the advice of Sir John Johnson, as one of eight legislative councilors for the intended province of Upper Canada.
Of those commissioned on 12 July 1792, five were selected from this 1790 list. For whatever reason, possibly because of advanced age, Pettit was rejected on the suggestion of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. However, on 27 Aug. 1792 he was elected for the riding of Durham, York, and 1st Lincoln to the first parliament of the new province. The records for this period are fragmentary and it is not known how he participated in the affairs of the assembly. He was succeeded in the second parliament by Richard Beasley.
Pettit did not live long enough to accumulate much more than the land he had been granted. In fact, between 1800 and 1802 he sold off substantial portions of it, mostly to his sons-in-law. In his will he left the remainder to his five surviving daughters and £80 to his son-in-law Lawrence Lawrason, a successful London merchant. In some ways the British government had compensated Pettit for his losses; however, his advancing years did not allow him to rebuild his life to its former eminence.
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From Ivan Smith;
"The Pettit family were divided in their loyalties during the Revolutionary War. Nathaniel Pettit was a true Loyalist. He was appointed by Governor Franklin of New Jersey to a county judgeship in the court of Common Pleas. He was among the first four to be so honoured during the reign of George III. He held this judicial office until the royal authority was suspended in New Jersey by the adoption of the U.S. constitution. Two years before this (1774) a meeting of Sussex County freeholders was held and resolutions were passed opposing taxation without representation and favoring the suspension of imports from Great Britain. In this committee was Judge Pettit.
"However, when peaceable protest was abandoned and rebellion began to rear its ugly head, Nataniel Pettit would have none of it and openly avowed his British preference. Thereafter he found himself facing the New Jersey "Committee of Public Safety"--a revolutionary tribunal. This was on 12 January 1776, and for refusal to pay taxes levied by the rebel congress, Nataniel was fined, disarmed and deprived of his judicial office. Joseph Barton, who had sat as Pettit's fellow member of the New Jersey House of Assembly, was of like mind and he also declared for the King and took command of the first N.J. Battalion.
Unfortunately Barton was captured by the insurgents on Staten Island in 1777. Nathaniel Pettit, being lame and therefore unfit for military service, was assigned to other duty. His commission was to summon the inhabitants of Sussex County and have them renew their oath of fidelity to "their lawful sovereign, King George 111" and in company with Barton and Allison, to enroll a force of 500 Loyalists to serve during the period of the Rebellion--being careful that all Volunteers or Detached Men are Young and Healthy and Strong.
After the Americans had overturned the King's authority and their independence had been acknowledged by Great Britain, Nathaniel with other Loyalists, came to Canada. During this period of revolt Nathaniel was persecuted in many ways. His property was not confiscated but people were forbidden to have any dealings with him, consequently on leaving his property was sacrificed at half its value. His reward in Upper Canada was being given 2000 acres of land in various parts of the Niagara Peninsula.
"Nathaniel Pettit was active in public affairs in Upper Canada and his name appears on many Land Board certificates. He was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace for the District of Nassau in 1788. IN August 1792 he was elected to the first Legislative Assembly, wich convened at Newark. He was elected to represent Durham, York and First Lincoln.
"Nathaniel's last years were spent in the Ancaster district with other members of his family. His granddaughter (Nancy Gordon) married Benjamin Smith, and when the old fellow passed away Benjamin helped in taking his remains back to the Forty for burial. The plot was the first burying ground at The Forty Mile Creek (Grimsby) which was later abandoned."
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