12. PETTY-PETTY

Riley Tree

WILLIAM PETTY and MARY PETTY (12)

 

WILLIAM PETTY. The complexity of the Petty families of Skipton and the surrounding area is shown by the marriage of William Petty to Mary Petty in 1632. Jack Priestley is descended from three families of this name: the Pettys of Storiths, Embsay and Kildwick. Here we have marriage uniting the Storiths and Embsay families.

Though he ended his life in Skipton, William was the eldest son of Christopher and Jane Petty of Storiths, a hamlet above Bolton Abbey.[1]

His age of 70 when he died gives him a birth date of 1588-9.

He was of yeoman stock, rather than gentry. When arms were granted to his son William in 1658, he was described as ‘being borne of good and honest parentage’. He was also a lawyer. [2]

He had at least two younger brothers, perhaps three. One of them, Anthony, is also an ancestor.

Gillian Waters thinks he may be the William Petty who married Alice Holmes in Addingham in 1616.

There are no known children of that marriage.

More certainly, William Petty married Mary Holmes about 1627 at Bolton-in-Skipton. This is Bolton Abbey, which was then within Skipton parish. A deal had been struck at the Dissolution of the Monasteries for the priory church to remain a public place of worship. It was the nearest church to William’s home in Storiths.

There was at least one child from this marriage, Elizabeth.

It is likely that this first Mary died in 1631, when there is a gap in the parish registers and the Bishops Transcripts.

 

In 1632, William Petty married Mary Catterson at Bolton Abbey. Mary was a widow whose maiden name was also Petty.

We do not have a record of the wedding, but Paver’s Marriage Licences has the following:
1632 William Petty and Mary Catterson, widow, Skipton, there.

The same licence is recorded in Boyd’s 1st miscellaneous marriage index, 1415-1808.

Evidently, the wedding took place in Mary’s parish of Skipton.

 

MARY PETTY was the daughter of Thomas Petty of Embsay Kirk, a rural township of Skipton, which lay between Skipton and Storiths. Her father was a well-to-do yeoman farmer. [3]
Baptism. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1599 Jun 3  Marie daughter of Thomas Pettie of Embsay Kyrke.

Her mother was Agnes, but we do not know her maiden name.

Mary had at least one younger brother. There may have been other siblings whose baptisms are now illegible.

In 1615, when Mary was about 16, she married Stephen Catterson of Skipton, one of several marriages between these two families.

The following year, Stephen took over the lease of the Red Lion inn and farm, which had passed down in the Catterson family.

Two children were baptised at Holy Trinity, Skipton: Margaret on 24 Nov 1620 and Thomas on 15 Sept 1624. It is possible that there were others who have not been found.

Stephen died in 1625 and was buried on 30 Dec. The lease of the Red Lion passed to Mary’s step-daughter Margaret Cookson, but Mary may have continued to live there with her young children.

Mary then had a child out of wedlock. She was engaged to marry Lancelot Dodsworth of Londesborough. A licence was issued for their marriage in 1626.

Sir Francis Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, had homes at both Londesborough Hall in the East Riding of Yorkshire and Skipton Castle. Shakespeare’s company, The King’s Men, performed at Londesborough Hall on several occasions. In 1619-20, after Shakespeare’s death, they were paid £5 for performing five plays.

If Lancelot Dodsworth was engaged in the service of Francis Clifford, this would provide an opportunity for him to visit Skipton and become acquainted with Mary Catterson.

But the wedding never took place. The likelihood is that Lancelot died in the days between the issuing of the licence and the date set for the couple to marry, though we have found no record of his burial, then or later.

The couple had clearly anticipated the marriage. A daughter Ann was born the following year.

Baptism. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1627 May 14   Ann the daugh of Lanclat Dodsworth begoten in fornication uppon the bodie of Mary Catterson widdow.

Mary would probably have had to do public penance, appearing in church in a white sheet and confessing her sin before the congregation.

This did not prevent her from marrying again. In 1632, when Ann was five, Mary Catterson née Petty married the widower William Petty.

On 13 Oct in the same year, and again in 1634, we have a lease to William Pettie of Storiths, yeoman, of a messuage, 2 barns, one stable and garth at the Red Lion, heretofore in the possession of Stephen Catterson deceased. Premium £60, for 21 years at 43/-.[4]

It appears that the couple first set up house at William’s ancestral home of Storiths, above Bolton Abbey.

Their first son William was buried as an infant at Bolton Abbey in 1633. They had nine more children. We do not have their baptisms, but these are likely also to have been at the priory church, now used as a public place of worship.

William Dawson, in his History of Skipton, lists the children. He gives the birth dates of only two, and even these appear to be approximate.[5]

Elizabeth, Henry (died young), Mariana (married Thomas Battersby), Margaret (married a Cookson) [This appears to be an error. Margaret Cookson was Stephen and Mary Catterson’s daughter] , Christopher (married Susanna Pepper of Kent), William (1637), Henry (married a Briscoe). Sylvester (1640). Isabella (married Francis Catterson).

The family lived through the Civil War, in which Skipton was strongly Royalist.

Around 1647, they moved from Storiths to the Red Lion in Skipton, which had been in the possession of Mary’s first husband Stephen Catterson. In 1649, William and Mary Petty were paying rent on behalf of her son Thomas Catterson. Thomas was Mary’s eldest son from her first marriage to Stephen.

The move to Skipton enabled their sons to attend Skipton Free Grammar School.

We find a similar lease for the Red Lion in 1647, this time for William Pettie and Mary his wife for Thomas Catterson her son, “1 burgage with stables barn & garden worth £7”.[6]

Thomas Catterson had inherited the lease of the Red Lion from his father Stephen. He agreed to share this with his mother Mary and stepfather William Petty.

On 25th March 1650 Thomas Catterson, the son of Stephen, with the consent of his mother Mary, applied for a Lease of a messuage or burgage, 2 stables, barn, 2 garths and a croft. This was granted subject to a moiety being reserved to Mary Catterson for her life. The application is annotated “It is reported that this Tenement hath been for exchanged with the school land that Christopher Petty enjoyeth which did Aunciently belong with this messuage; that some part of this land is … as part of the school land, whereby the school land is … and this tenement demynished”. The fine [payment] was £89.17.4.[7]

In 1650 the rent roll is for William Pettie and Thomas Catterson, for their half year’s rent due upon the rack – £9.1.0. But in 1652, it is only for William Pettye, for his house and grounds, £10. In 1655, it is again for William Petty alone.

William died in 1659 and was buried back in his home church of Bolton Abbey.

Letter from Bolton Abbey Belairs [20.2.1878]: “The old Guide to the Abbey here, who knows all about the place, thinks that the tombstone of Sylvester Petyt’s father now lies in the Abbey Porch, it is a flat stone with the following inscription “Here lieth the body of William Pettye of Storiths who was 70 years old when he died, and was buried the 19’ day of June 1659”[8]

Mary died two years later.

Burial. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1661 Sep 4. Mary Pettie of Sk. widdow. Bur ch.”

Their lives came to an end with the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell. The United Kingdom returned to a monarchy in 1660.

William and Mary left a large family, of which the most notable are their sons William and Sylvester Petyt.

Both became lawyers in London. William (1637-1707) became a Bencher of the Inner Temple, and Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, and his collection of books forms the Petyt Library now preserved in the Skipton Public Library. He was also a political writer.

Sylvester’s life (1640-1719) was less eventful. He became Principal of Barnard’s Inn and founded the Charity which bears his name.

He is better known for the many charities he endowed in his will. There is a Dole Board in Holy Trinity, Skipton, listing local charitable funds. Sylvester’s name occurs several times. He left money for the education of scholars and a fund to help Skipton residents, especially members of the extended Petyt family. This paid for many apprenticeships. He also left money to build a school in his childhood home of Hazlewood with Storiths. Today there is the Boyle and Petyt school in Hazlewood. It was founded ‘to teach children to read, and when fitting or desired, to write’. [9] It taught both boys and girls.

Neither married. Both, but particularly Sylvester, used their considerable wealth to support charities in Skipton and elsewhere.

The early generations of this family are usually known as Petty, Pettye or Pettie, but the two brothers used the spelling Petyt. Though William and Sylvester had no children of their own, this spelling was adopted by subsequent generations.

67-69 Skipton High Street is still known as Petyt’s House.

Dr Geoffrey Rowland records an anecdote about Sylvester’s boyhood.[10]

“As to Petyt’s early career: by W.H. Hitchin in “Chronicles” per Wm Leach (descendant) “It appears that he was born near Storiths, where his early days were spent and where he received a meagre education, He was there apprenticed to a stern master with a view to learning a trade, but, being an intelligent and bright boy, he did not take kindly to the life, and at the early age of 15 years he ran away and made his way as best he could to London. For several days he roamed about London without means, obtaining food as best he could and sleeping in such places as would give him shelter, and one day he wandered into an Auction Room, where, standing behind the bookkeeper, he noticed that the entries were not being correctly made. To these discrepancies he called the attention of the auctioneer, who became so interested in the boy that he took him to his own home. There he questioned him closely, with the result that he wrote to Sylvester’s former master asking permission to keep the boy in London. Permission was granted, and Sylvester Petyt settled down as the auctioneer’s clerk. He left the auctioneer during the time of the Plague of London

In his portrait, William Petyt is shown holding a copy of the Magna Carta. He had made a detailed study of this. Though his writings were often contested, they helped to make the case for the deposition of James II, in favour of his daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange.

The portrait shows William’s coat of arms. His brothers Henry and Sylvester were granted similar arms. All show a red lion rampant.

This may be a reference to the Red Lion farm and inn where they spent their teenage years. But it is also similar to the arms of John le Petit who held lands in Cornwall in 1262. In his case, it was a red lion passant. William liked to claim that the Yorkshire Petyts were of ancient Cornish stock and descended from King Arthur. He is thought to have played a significant part in devising his arms, so this similarity may be wishful thinking.

Jack Priestley and his family are descended from William and Mary’s youngest daughter Isabell. She was the nearest in age to Sylvester.

Isabell married Francys Catterson, nephew of her mother’s first husband. The following year the couple took over the Red Lion, where Isabell had grown up.

 

[1] Gillian Waters. http://www.bgwaters.co.uk/petyt2.htm
[2] www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Profile-William_Petyt.pdf
[3] Rowley Ellwood Collection, Skipton Library. Bk.1, p.94. https://rowleycollection.co.uk/notebooks/index.asp,  http://www.bgwaters.co.uk/petyt3.htm
[4] Rowley. Bk 1, p.62. Bk.3, p.113.[5] Dawson, William Harbutt, History of Skipton. 1882
[6] Rowley, Bk.1. p.62. 27 High Street, the Red Lion.
[7] Rowley,Bk. 1. p.67.
[8] Rowley, Bk.3. p,114.
[9] http://www.boyle-petyt.n-yorks.sch.uk/about-us/our-history
[10] Rowley, Bk.3, p.236.
[11] Sylvester Petyt by Richard Van Bleeck. Wikipedia Commons. William Petyt (1640-1707), Richard van Bleeck, Tower of London. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/William_Petyt_Holding_a_Copy_of_the_Magna_Carta_%28c_1690%29_by_Richard_van_Bleeck.jpg/459px-