of the name, "Petts"
name, "Petts" originates from East Kent in England. At the
end of Roman occupation of the British Isles in around 400AD, the inhabitants
of Great Britain below Hadrian's wall on the border of Scotland were
a mixture of tribes present before the arrival of the Romans in 43AD,
retired Romans, and tribes moved to Britain by the Romans.
These people, now denuded of military support, became prey
to Marauders, Saxon Pirates, Settlers, and Migrating Tribes. It is reported
that the Romano-British leader, Vortigern, in 449 invited Saxon Mercenaries
lead by Hengist and Horsa, to fend off incursions from raiders such
as the Picts from Scotland and Scotii from Ireland. Their fee was the
settlement of the Isle of Thanet in East Kent.
mercenaries, known as foederati by the Romans, probably served
as laeti under the Romans on the continent of Europe. It is reputed
that once the mercenaries had completed their task and were given their
land, they invited further people from their own tribes to join them.
These people were generically known as, "Saxons", but were
in fact more likely to have been Feresians, Jutes or Franks.
Some time after this, knowing that they now held the balance
of power in the island, they attacked their previous paymasters, and
took more land for themselves, carving out a "Kingdom" in an area formerly
occupied by the Celtic tribe of the Cantiaci east of the river Medway.
The final battle between the Ramano-British and the "Saxons"
was fought at Aylesford. Although it has always been reported that the
newcomers were Saxon, or, by later writers, Jutes, it is more probable
that they were Friesian or Frankish. This can be detected in their racial
types, their language and customs, which differed from that of the Saxons.
Later, when the Middle Saxons were extending their territory, the invaded
the "Kingdom" of Kent and occupied the Western half, and even today
the citizens of Kent are either Kentish Men or Men of Kent. The Men
of Kent were the Middle Saxons of Kent, whereas the Kentish Men were
the original invaders.
A distinctive class of pottery is found in the Eastern half of
Kent from the middle of the fifth century. This is the so called Anglo-Frisian
pottery, a grey ware with a burnished outside and a grooved or twisted-cable
decoration. This pottery has been found at Canterbury, Lullington and
These new settlers occupied huts that they built with sunken
floors, were of the type known as Grubenhaus. A group of six
Grubenhaus huts were found in Canterbury within the Roman City,
aligned to fit into an insulae. It is thought likely that the
new invaders did not put to flight the original inhabitants, but subjugated
them to their rule.
It is this special small area of Kent, and in the "Kentish" language,
from which the name Pett emerged, meaning, "the dweller of the
hollows". The equivalent person, dwelling in a hollow in West Kent
would have the name "Pitt", derived from the "Saxon" language.
Other variations of other areas include Pitts, Putt and Pytt.
Early Kentish, and all the family of Anglo-Saxon languages of
the earliest times, were an oral languages, all information being passed
on by word of mouth. It was not written down until literacy was introduced
by the Christian church, both from the monks of Ireland and Priests
from the continent. The north of Britain saw the introduction of learning
from Ireland, whereas the south was from Gaul, (France). Because names
were passed on by word of mouth, even after the introduction of writing,
the spelling of the name varies greatly, and even now changes occur
for various reasons.