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A Downhome Perspective on All Things Southern

Good evidence has come to light in the past few years that immigrant ancestor, Thomas Pettus, married Ka-Okee, daughter of Pocahontas by her first husband, Kocoum, an Indian brave who died in a battle with the Susquehanna tribe!

Although Thomas remarried after Ka-Okee died c1637, the line of descent from his second wife, Elizabeth (Freeman) Duirrent, (Question here one source says that Elizabeth was originally a Richards information below) apparently ended before 1700, when his only known granddaughter, Elizabeth Pettus, died underage and unmarried.

According to this source, living Pettuses who descend from the immigrant Thomas also descend from Pocahontas's daughter, Ka-Okee! He expresses surprise that this connection, which is "sacred tradition" for three distinct native American tribes in Virginia, is also known by certain members of the Pettus family who had heard it from their grandparents!

There is a question over which Pettus married Ka-Okee, but circumstantial evidence makes Thomas the most likely of the Pettus immigrants to have married her.

For example, Thomas held a large tract of land in what is now Stafford County, Virginia. According to tribal historians, his land adjoined a tract held by Chief Wahaganoche and another by his daughter Christian Pettus who married John Martin. Christian was the name of Thomas's sister and grandmother (Norwich records).

Thomas sold his land to Mr. Henry Meese, who was married to another native American woman related to Ka-Okee. More extensive DNA tests would be helpful.

The key question is whether Stephen Pettus who was a landholder in New Kent County, Virginia, in 1662, was Thomas's son by Ka-Okee.

The line through Thomas Pettus, Virginia immigrant, probably goes as follows:

1. Thomas Pettus II, who had been married to Mourning Burgh, died in 1687.

2. An inventory of Thomas's estate shows that it belonged to his "Orphand." Unfortunately the orphan was not named in the inventory.

3. A York County record shows that Maj. Lewis Burwell was the executor of Thomas's will (now lost).

4. According to Burwell's attorney, some tobacco claimed by Mourning Pettus, widow of Thomas Pettus II, was the "proper estate" of Stephen Pettus. This led me to the conclusion that Thomas had left the tobacco to Stephen and that Stephen--not Elizabeth--was the orphan heir. Apparently, Burwell was holding the tobacco until Stephen came of age.

4. Stephen was a grantor in the sale of the Pettus estates in 1700 (see his signature on the deed) to James Bray, Jr. I concluded that the sale took place after Stephen came of age. BTW Elizabeth had already died.

The most logical explanation of the above evidence is that Thomas II was Stephen's father. Since there was no other evidence to the contrary, the available evidence met the so-called Genealogical Proof Standard adopted some years ago by professional genealogists.

An online query by a tribal historian regarding the identity of Christian Pettus's father led this source to do some last-minute research. That research led to the discovery of new evidence that Christian was the daughter of the immigrant Thomas and Ka-Okee, daughter of Pocahontas.

Because the above-mentioned Stephen's male line of descent carries the same Y-DNA as that of Thomas's other known male descendants from Ka-Okee, that means that Stephen was descended from Ka-Okee and not from Mourning. Most likely, Stephen II was the son of Stephen I and Stephen I was the son of Thomas I and Ka-Okee. This explains why Stephen II got that name.

Thomas Pettus, immigrant, did marry Elizabeth Durrent, widow of Richard Durrent sometime before 1643. They had a son Thomas Pettus II who was a minor when his father died c1661. Thomas II was the father of Elizabeth Pettus , who was also left an orphan when Thomas died abroad in 1687. Elizabeth died unmarried and still a minor sometime before 1700.

 

The preceding statements are confirmed by extant records.

 

The new theory, which is based upon good evidence, both oral and written, has Thomas Pettus, immigrant, marrying Ka-Okee, daughter of Pocahontas and Kocoum, as his first wife about 1631. Thus, Elizabeth Durrent was Thomas's second wife. Also, Thomas and Ka-Okee were the parents of Christian Pettus of Stafford County, Virginia. Thomas and Ka-Okee also had other children, including Stephen Pettus I, who settled in New Kent County, Virginia. I now believe that he was the father of Stephen Pettus II, who was a grantor in the sale of the Pettus estates in 1700.

 

If this theory is correct, then Thomas Pettus II of Littletown plantation was the half-brother of Christian Pettus and Stephen Pettus I.

 

The researcher reports that my line descends from Stephen Pettus II. The lineage discussed connects Mary (Pettus) Palmer to Stephen Pettus and Mary Dabney and is a matter of record.

 Bill Deyo is the tribal historian of the Patawomeck tribe. The researcher first learned of the Pocahontas connection from the historian of another tribe a few weeks before coming upon Deyo's posting. That historian thought that Ka-Okee had married Theodore Pettus of Norwich and Jamestown. Theodore was Thomas Pettus's younger brother.

 

Exchanges with Deyo led the anonymous source to the conclusion that Thomas--not Theodore--married Ka-Okee. His DNA matches that of your Stephen's male descendants.

 

One of the key pieces of evidence mentioned in the transcript is the fact that William Strachey, historian at Jamestown, mentioned the marriage of Pocahontas and Kocoum.

The SP who married Mary Dabney was Stephen II. Research in 2012 led him to conclude that the line of descent from Thomas Pettus, immigrant, and his second wife Elizabeth Durrent, ended with the death of his only known grandchild, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pettus II and (?). He suspects that TP II was married twice and that his second wife, Mourning Burgh, was not Elizabeth's mother. In any case, nothing on record indicates that the possible first wife was Elizabeth Dabney, as has often been claimed by early family historians.

The name of the first Stephen's wife is not mentioned in any record of him thus far discovered.

Most of the early Virginia court and church records were destroyed at one time or another. We are fortunate to have the few that have survived, so we are forced to piece together family lineages based upon fragmentary evidence. That is one reason that the genealogy of early generations in colonial Virginia is so difficult.

The anonymous source found key records in Maryland, England, and even Holland. The tribal traditions also helped solve some riddles.

Mary Pettus who married Chillian Palmer was the daughter of John Pettus and his wife Sarah Lipscomb. John was the son of Stephen Pettus and his wife Mary Dabney. John and Sarah settled on Twitty's Creek in what is now Charlotte County, where he died in 1781. He sold his property to John Pettus who married Susannah Winston (?).  John died in 1799. His home, Avondale, which was built before the Revolution, is probably the oldest standing Pettus home in Virginia, but Willie C. Pettus, who was born at Avondale, remembers seeing the ruins of your John's home and still has the loft ladder from it. The original house probably burned.

 

When another John Pettus, who was sheriff of Louisa County, Virginia, died in 1770, your John Pettus traveled from Charlotte County to Louisa County Court where he was made guardian of Barbara Overton Pettus and William Overton Pettus, who were orphans. Your John took the two children back to Charlotte County. Later, after Barbara came of age, the source John's son, Thomas, paid her bond and married her. Thomas and Barbara lived at Waverly plantation near Avondale.

 

Everything is fully documented by court and church records mentioned. The genealogical issue for you is the identity of Stephen's father. Originally the source was convinced by the evidence at hand that Stephen was the son of Thomas Pettus II of Littletown plantation. He now believes that he was the son of Stephen Pettus I. SP I apparently was the son of Thomas Pettus, immigrant, and Ka-Okee.

 

The primary basis for that conclusion is that male descendants of your SP have the DNA that matches that of the tribal historian who claims descent from Thomas and Ka-Okee. Of course, the DNA evidence does not distinguish between Thomas and one of his brothers, Theodore, who arrived in Virginia in 1623, but Theodore disappeared from the Virginia records after 1626. My guess is that he was one of the settlers who died in Virginia or, more likely, at sea, since his last appearance in court concerned a dispute over cargo brought into the colony by ship.