Mellowes, Christian

Mellowes, Christian

Female 1611 - 1665  (54 years)

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  • Name Mellowes, Christian  [1, 2, 3
    Born 1611  Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 3
    Gender Female 
    Died 2 Sep 1665  Newton, NY Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Person ID I31171  My Genealogy
    Last Modified 21 Jan 2022 

    Family Pettit, Thomas,   b. Jun 1609, Saffron Walden, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Oct 1688, Newton, Queens County, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years) 
    Married Nov 1629  Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 5
    Children 
     1. Pettit, Thomas,   b. 1630, Salem Harbor, MA Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     2. Pettit, Sarah,   b. 1634, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     3. Pettit, Elizabeth,   b. 1637, Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     4. Pettit, John,   b. 1638, Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     5. Pettit, Mary,   b. 1640, Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
     6. Pettit, Nathaniel,   b. 1645, Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Bef 25 Jun 1718, Hopewell, Hunterdon, New Jersey, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age < 73 years)  [natural]
     7. Pettit, Hannah,   b. Feb 1647/48, Exeter, New Hampshire Find all individuals with events at this location  [natural]
    Last Modified 21 Jan 2022 
    Family ID F11509  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 1611 - Lincolnshire, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - Nov 1629 - Essex, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 2 Sep 1665 - Newton, NY Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Histories
    Christian Mellowes Story
    Christian Mellowes Story

  • Notes 
    • Note: Accounts of the the parents of Christian Mellowes being Abraham Mellowes and Martha Bulkeley have been largely disproven. One of the best newer sources for the family of Abraham Mellowes and Martha Bulkely is "Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition, 2011", page 419, which accounts for the six documented children of Abraham and Martha. Many genealogists believe that Christian is possibly the niece of Abraham Mellowes. Unfortunately, that family is largely undocumented.
    • ________________________________________________________________
      Pettit Peregrinations, 654 to 1961, page 16:

      Abrahzm Mellowes, father of Christian Mellows, was born aboct 1569, He invested fifty pounds In the Massachusetts Bay Company and came to New England on August 99, 1633, He died in May 1639,

      Christian Mellowes was born about 1649. Her mother wz,s Martha Bulkeley, born about 1572. She descended from King Edward Knights of the Garter and f rom eight Sureties of the Magna Charta of A, D. 1215.

      ______________________________________________________________
      https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/4254562

      History of Thomas Pettit and Christian Mellowes (from Pettit Peregrinations)
      · 3 January 2014 ·

      Thomas Pettit married Christian Mellowes in County Essex, England, in November 1629, five months before they sailed on the Ship "Talbot" which left England in March 1629-30. After three months at sea, they landed at Charleston (Cambridge) July 2, 1630. It was just twenty days after Winthrop's Flag Ship the "Arabella" landed at Salem.

      In 1630, Winthrop's First Fleet of seventeen vessels brought about one thousand Puritans to America. Most of these were from the vicinity of Saffron Walden. Two hundred of them died before December of that year. They brought with them horses, cows, goats, and materials for planting, fishing and building. The Arabella sailed March 1629-30 and berthed sixty days later at Salem, New England on June 12, 1630, before proceeding to Charlestown. Governor John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley were on the Arabella.

      Anna Pettit was baptized as "daughter of Henry Pettit" at Saffron Walden April 9, 1610, according to the Cathedral records. She was a passenger on the Arabella. On August 9, 1630, she (Anna Pettit-Peters) transferred her membership from the Salem Church to the Boston Church, being entered as Member No. 104. Later she joined Roger Williams in Rhode Island.

      John Pettit I, born in England about 1608, came to America on the Talbot, the same ship that carried Thomas Pettit and his wife Christian Mellowes. The Talbot carried Thomas Pettit and his wife Christian Mellowes and her brother Oliver Mellowes, a widower born in 1597.

      Oliver Mellowes was a manufacturer of "says and pays". "Says" was a coarse woolen serge and "pays" a cotton cloth with extra long nap. Thomas Pettit worked for his brother-in-law three and a half years to pay for the passage money advanced for himself and his wife. John Pettit worked one and a half years to pay for his passage.
      Abraham Mellowes, father of Christian Mellowes, was born about 1569. He invested fifty pounds in the Massachusetts Bay Company and came to New England on August 19, 1633. He died in May 1639.

      Christian Mellowes was born about 1611. Her mother was Martha Bulkeley, born about 1572. She descended from King Edward Knights of the Garter and from eight Sureties of the Magna Charta of A. D. 1215.

      Thomas Pettit, born in Widford, England about 1609, died in Newtown, Long Island, before October 1668. He was granted a house plot on January 8, 1637-8 in Boston where the Capitol now stands (1961). John Hancock later built the finest mansion in New England on a lot between Oliver Mellowes and Thomas Pettit's lots. This house was torn down in 1856, but a bronze plate marks the location.

      Crossing the Atlantic in 1629 was not a "Luxury Cruise". The Talbot carried about sixty passengers together with their livestock and supplies. The passage took sixty days (from March to June) a turbulent season on the North Atlantic. Through all the hardships of a sail crossing, Thomas Pettit's wife, Christian Mellowes, waited her fateful day of confinement, hoping that her new son would be born in the new land of freedom. Her desires were almost attained, or were they actually realized? Her son Thomas Pettit 2nd was born in Salem harbor while his shipmates were waiting the thrill of taking their first steps on the hallowed soil of America. Hardships of the past and fears of the future were forgotten in the wails of the new born boy to whom thousands of descendants today spread throughout the United States and Canada, owe their gratitude and pay homage for his staunch defense of the principles of liberty so firmly ingrained in his character by that illustrious father, Thomas Pettit, 1st.

      Life in New England was by no means easy or even peaceful. The arduous job of building houses from native materials and providing food from the earth and sea left no time for idleness. Two hundred of the first one thousand arriving in Winthrop's Fleet died by the following December. Although the original incentive for the migration was to obtain religious and personal liberty, intolerance soon became an accepted public policy.

      Thomas Hooker who was driven out of Essex in 1630 went to Delft, Holland. He came to Boston in 1633 and became Pastor of the Church in Newton (Cambridge). Dissatisfied with the lack of liberty among the Puritans of Massachusetts he led a party of one hundred persons on foot, driving their cattle with them, to found Hartford, Connecticut.

      Roger Williams was driven from Boston because he preached the principles that one hundred and fifty years later were to form the basis of the Constitution of the United States. He found sanctuary among the Indians across the Bay. The Indian Chief gave him a tract of land to live on where he later attracted the dissidents of Boston and established the town of Essex.

      Mrs. Anne Hutchinson with her brother-in-law, the Reverend John Wheelright, were arrested in April 1638 for non-conformity. Thomas Pettit who sympathized with Mrs. Hutchinson was arrested on suspicion of "slander, insubordination, and inciting to riot". He was convicted and sentenced "to receive thirty lashes and be held in goal". The Church and State were one at that time. Later the Hutchinson group were released on agreeing to leave the Colony within ten days. Mrs. Hutchinson with about twenty followers joined Roger Williams at his "Rhode Island Plantation". Thomas Pettit went to the Falls of the Piscataqua in New Hampshire with the Reverend John Wheelright where they settled on a tract of land obtained from the Indians. There they founded the town of Exeter and in 1638 established the Congregational Church. Thomas Pettit received six acres and thirty poles as his share of Exeter Uplands. On July 4, 1637, they joined in signing "The Exeter Combination", a Declaration of Independence. Half of the signers made their 'mark', but Thomas Pettit's signature is seen in excellent handwriting. Each letter is printed separately in his signature.

      In 1647 Thomas became Chief Military Man and Inspector of the staves. He served as Selectman of Exeter from 1652 to 1655. He and Christian, his wife, had a daughter, Hannah, born in Exeter in early February 1647/8. His son Thomas Pettit, Junior, received a grant of thirty acres of land in 1649 (Bell's History of the Town of Exeter p-18-32) Los Angeles Library Gen. R. 974.22.E 96 Be.).

      Thomas senior was one of the signers of a petition sent to the General Court in behalf of Exeter in October 1651 and signed a contract with three others in behalf of the town agreeing to make fair payment to Mr. Dudley the town Minister.

      John Pettit, brother of Thomas Pettit Senior, with his family settled in Stamford Connecticut where their names appear frequently on the town records as receiving allotments of land, on birth and death records and on the official papers as public officers.

      Thomas Pettit Junior's name appears on the town Register for May 20, 1652.
      In 1654 the Duke of York (brother of Charles II) granted all of the land east of the earlier Connecticut grant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This enabled the Bay Colony to surround the settlements of Exeter and in order to survive, Exeter was forced to be reinstated with the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Thomas Pettit was unwilling to again be under that jurisdiction so he with eight children (Thomas Junior born in Salem Harbor in 1630, Sarah born in Boston in 1634, Joseph born in Boston in 1636, Elizabeth born in Exeter in 1637, John born in Exeter in 1638, Mary born in Exeter in 1640, Nathaniel born in Exeter in 1645, and Hannah born in Exeter in 1647) and other settlers sold his property and moved to Long Island. They petitioned Governor Stuyvesant and were granted the right to settle in Queens County where they named their settlement Newtown. It was later changed to Elmhurst. The Dutch had settled this general area as early as 1644 and called it Mittleburg. It was south of Hempstead on the coast.

      Soon after their arrival in Newtown the Town Marshall was voted out of office for exercising his duties in an objectionab1e manner. Thomas Pettit, Senior, was elected to that office on May 8, 1657. This developed family complications since Nathaniel Pettit, his son, had fallen in love with Mary Bailey the deposed Marshall's daughter.

      Thomas Pettit's name was on the list of Freeholders in 1666. Thomas Pettit, Senior (1st), died before October 1668. He was fifty nine years old.

      SOURCE:
      William Alfred Pettit Sr. Pettit Peregrinations 654 to 1961. J. Grant Stevenson, B. Y. U., Provo, Utah. 1961. Pages 15-19.

      Pedigree of author: William Alfred Pettit, Sr.-Edwin Pettit-Jesse and Mary Pettit-William Pettit-Increase Pettit-Joshua Pettit-Thomas Pettit III-Thomas Pettit II-Thomas Pettit I and Christian Mellowes

      Biography re-typed by Lucille Layton Davidson in approximately 1990 (Mary Lucille Layton Davidson-Mary Leone Green Layton-Mary Isabell Pettit Green-Edwin Pettit); scanned and converted to electronic text by Richard H. Thornton on 04 January 2007

      _______________________________________________
      From Long Island Surnames, http://www.longislandsurnames.com/getperson.php?personID=I5855&tree=VanVelsor:

      "I have found information stating that Christian was the daughter of Oliver Mellowes, and other information that states she was
      the daughter of Abraham and Martha Mellowes, and sister to Oliver.

      The fact that she was married in Essex, England in Nov. 1629, proves that she could not be the daughter of Oliver Mellowes. Oliver was not born until 1598 and was first married to Marie James on Aug 13, 1620 in Boston, England. Christian would only be 9 years old at the time she was married.

      The Wurtz Magna Charta does list Christian Mellowes as the daughter of Abraham and Martha Bulkeley Mellowes. She was born about 1611, and this would make her 18 years of age when she was married. I wrestled with this for some time, and could not find evidence that would support the claim of Oliver being her father."

      Jim Pettit
      jpet@ascenture.net

  • Sources 
    1. [S760] FindAGrave.com, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;).
      Record for Nathaniel Pettit

    2. [S1198] Family Data Collection - Marriages, Edmund West, comp., (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2001;).
      Record for Christian Mellowes

    3. [S760] FindAGrave.com, Ancestry.com, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;).
      Record for Thomas Pettit

    4. [S775] Family Data Collection - Deaths, Edmund West, comp., (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001.;).
      Record for Christian Mellows

    5. [S1117] Settlers of the Beekman Patent, Dutchess County, New York: Paine to Rogers, Frank J. Doherty, (Name: F.J. Doherty; Date: 2010;), page 362 - 364.