Again, according to Whittaker, this William Petyt was the younger son of Sir John Petyt, Lord Ardevora, in Cornwall, who died in 1432 [1] . There is a John Petyt, who died on 23 July 1430 in Cornwall [2] . This John Petyt was Lord of Ardevora by right of his wife Margaret Resoryk. Margaret was the daughter and heir of John Resoryk and Isabel, daughter and heir of Thomas Goviley of Goviley and Margaret brought the manors of Resteck, Ardevora and Govely to her marriage to John Petyt [3] . This John Petyt was therefore the only John Petyt of the right generation to be the father of William Petyt, and furthermore, he was the first Petyt Lord of Ardevora. John not only extended the Petyt patrimony through marriage, he also asserted his rights to inherits lands in Trewerys and St Maudit in 1427 [4] . In the deposition John had to prove his lineage and right to these lands, and name his heir, another John. John Petyt, Lord of Ardevora was aged about sixty in 1427, and was therefore probably born about 1367.

John Petyt’s eldest son John was aged about thirty in 1430 when his father died. If Whittakers genealogy is correct, this John would be the elder brother of our William Petyt [5] . This John Petyt died on 10 June 1456 and left at least two sons, John Petit his son and heir, aged 28, and Michael Petit, his second son. The eldest son, John Petyt, had only four daughters, and no sons at all [6] . His eldest daughter, Jane Petyt, married John Killigrew, a landed Cornish family. The second eldest, Eleanor, married John Bevil [7] . Of the two youngest daughters, little is known apart from their names, Elizabeth and Ellen [8] .

 John’s younger brother Michael Petyt, was given the manors of Trelowyth, Trelonk and Goviley by gift of his father by the fealty and service of one red rose a year [9] . On the death of his brother John he also inherited the majority of the lands and titles of the Petyt family in Cornwall and these descended through his son, Thomas, and his grandson, another Thomas, to his great-grandson Michael Petyt [10] . Michael Petyt died unmarried and his sister, Alice, inherited all his estates on his death as his sole heir. She was also proved to be the sole heir, through her great-grandfather Michael Petyt, to ‘part of the heritage of Sir John Petyt’ [11] . Alice Petyt clearly enjoyed the profits of her inheritance during her lifetime, for after her death her first husband, John Tresahar, her second husband claimed the lands. On the death of her second husband, the estates were finally inherited by Alice’s son, Michael Tresahar, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). The other parts of John Petyts ‘heritage’ descended to the descendants of his four daughters.

It is interesting to note that a John Petyt held lands in Carleton in Nottingham called Petevynpalet from Henry le Scrope for a payment of 12 pence yearly in 1393 [12] . A John Petyt in Lincoln held a thirty-third part of a knights fee at Redemald from Mary the wife of John Roos of Hamlake in 1395. An Edmund Petyt held a quarter of a knight’s fee from William brother of Thomas late earl of Stafford.