From Coldred Court Farm

George Pettit married Sarah Jenkin on 16 January 1632 at Ringwould. Following their wedding they moved to Coldred Court Farm which had been built in 1620. The farm remained in family until 1733, when Robert Pettit died and the family moved to St Peters/Margate.
    Information provided by other researchers suggests that the line goes back to Richard Pettit of Ringwould circa 1550.

The Isle of Thanet

I have been able to positively trace my Pettit line back to Joseph George Pettit of Reading Street Thanet circa 1803 and Sarah Solly of Margate. Joseph George Pettit and Sarah Solly married at St Johns Margate on 15 September 1827 had 11 children:
» James George Pettit
» Joseph Thomas Pettit
» Mercy Anne Pettit
» Sarah Pettit
» Elizabeth Jane Pettit
» Richard Edward Pettit
» John Pettit
» Maria Elizabeth Pettit
» William John Pettit
» Mercy Solloy Pettit
» Jane Beal Pettit
    There are records of many Pettit's from the Thanet area with occupations of fishermen, pilots and mariner.

To Gippsland Victoria - Australia

James George Pettit married Elizabeth Jarman Cock on 14 October 1854 at the Parish Church of St Leonards, Shoreditch. After their marriage James and Elizabeth immigrated to Victoria, Australia as assisted passengers aboard "Omega", arriving on May 10 1855.
    James was employed by Rev. M. Logan then started the trade of bricklaying, making as much as £26 per week building chimneys. Later he took on brewing at Sale and Walhalla. James George Pettit became a councilor of Sale in January 1894 and was Mayor of Sale 1895-96 and resigned as councilor July 1898. James and Elizabeth eventually had 10 children.
      One son of James and Elizabeth, Walter Henry Pettit was a watchmaker in Sale, moving to Warragul in 1890. On 30 November 1892 Walter Henry married Hannah Louise Stone of Geelong. Hannah’s family originally came from Langford Budville, Somerset. One of the five children of Walter and Hannah, Ida May Myrtle Pettit (my grandmother) married James William Walsh.

Other Pettits in Victoria

I have identified at least two other linked lines of Pettit that immigrated to Victoria.
    The first is a surveyor J H W Pettit who selected 47Ha of prime river flat near Lindenow as well as at Moormurng near Bairnsdale. It has been recorded that Christ Church, Tarraville was built in 1856 to a design by J. H. W. Pettit and George Hastings. In 1863, with a population of 1800, Sale was declared a borough and a council elected. J.H. Pettit designed the Borough Offices. I believe that this Pettit to be John Heathfield Wroth Pettit who was born circa 1828 in Ipswich Suffolk circa and sailed in 1852 from Gravesend London aboard "Atre Vida" arriving at Melbourne on 5 December 1852.
    The other line commences with William Holton Pettit who immigrated in 1855, arriving at the Port of Melbourne on board "George Marshall" a 1.361 ton ship from London. William Holton Pettit was a ship's pilot of Deal Kent. William Holton Pettit married Mary Sheedy in Bendigo on 27 June 1859, and before the end of the year was living at Kingower near Inglewood, Victoria. William Holton Pettit was recorded as a civil engineer in 1859, then progressively as a miner, engineer and in 1861, 1862 and 1863 as an innkeeper.