Deep Waters

The Petyts of Yorkshire and Cornwall

The Petyts of Yorkshire claimed descent from a long line of landowners who benefited from the dissolution of the monasteries in the early sixteenth century.

They were first given a coat of arms in the middle of the seventeenth century and it is highly likely that this was the invention of Wiiliam Petyt of Chelsea. He was the keeper of records at the Tower of London and it is likely that he created a lineage based on his research at the Tower.

William Petyt claimed descent through the Petyts of Cornwall to the Carminows of Cornwall, an ancient family who had held lands in Cornwall since the twelfth century. They claimed descent from King Arthur in the fourteenth century!

The following represents an attempt to investigate the alleged lines of inheritance and try to establish whether these lines are credible or not.

Isabella Petyt's line continued in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the Cattersons and Heelis's of Skipton. To follow the line down or backwards view the details of her child Stephen Catterson.