Joshua Pettit, Richard Pearis and the acquisition of Cherokee land

My compliments to Brandon on an excellent web-site. After eight years of research on Richard Pearis, I will soon release my book, "A Biographical Study of Richard Pearis and Jacob Hite (2 vols.). The following quote from Vol. 1, p. 599, documents Joshua's purchase of land from Richard Pearis adds another piece to your well researched puzzle on Joshua Pettit.

"Under the terms of the 1784 Land Act, settlers were allowed to purchase a maximum of 640 acres for the sum of £10 per one hundred acres. Revolutionary soldiers who held treasury indents, which had been issued by the State in lieu of payment for service in the militia, could use them to purchase land. As a result, many of those who settled on the Pearis-Hite Tract in what was to become Greenville County (in 1786), were war veterans. However, the 1784 Land Act specifically nullified “all grants and surveys passed or made for lands lying beyond the Indian boundary…before the passing of this Act, shall, and are hereby declared to, be null and void.” Under the terms of this Act Baylis Earle and Anne Armstrong were able to recover their rights to land purchased from Richard Pearis by petitioning the Legislature, which issued confirming grants."

The petition of Anne Armstrong, 23 February 1784:

A Petition was presented to the House from Anne Armstrong Widow respecting Lands purchased from the Cherokee Indians Setting forth That John Armstrong, Your Petitioners late Husband, having in the year 1775 Purchased of Joshua Pettit, a Certain tract of 500 acres of Land, Situate on Saluda river, about two Miles below the fork of the same—which Said tract of 500 acres, is Part of a tract of twelve miles square, which Richard Pearis late of this State, purchased of the Cherokee Indians. That your Petitioners late husband, being in possession of said tract of five hundred acres of land, and living thereon with his Numerous family of Small Children, in the year 1776, being the time when the said Cherokee Indians broke out in Open war with this State—At which time your Petitioners late Husband Unfortunately fell into their hands, was taken Captive to their Towns, and Most inhumanly Butcher’d by the Aforesaid Savages who also took the whole of his Stock, and every other Necessary Support of life, leaving your Petitioner in these distressing Circumstances, to Struggle for a support for her helpless Offspring, through the Calamities occasioned by the late war—and with the greatest difficulty have Supported them hitherto. Your Petitioner therefore Prays, that the said five hundred Acres of land, Purchased by her late husband, May be Vested in your Petitioner & her Children, free from any other Claim, Or grant your Petitioner such other relief as your Honourable house shall think Propper…"

The twelve-mile-square tract of Cherokee land referred to above was first conveyed to Pearis's Indian son, George, in a deed dated 21 Dec. 1773, which was witnessed by John Prince, Jas. Beale, Abraham Hite, Joshua Pettit, George Sammon (Salmon), John Lean, Sam’l Bath-lean[?], William Caine, James Hite [son of Jacob Hite].

Citations:

Cherokee Chiefs to George Pearis, 21 Dec 1773. SCDAH, ser. S363001, microfilm, Cherokee Deeds, Bk. 5–E, pp. 502–503.

SC Act No. 1075, Article III, Cooper and McCord, SC Statutes, vol. 4:425–426

SC Act No. 1206, Ibid, vol. 4:590–593.

Petition of Anne Armstrong, 23 Feb. 1784, South Carolina General Assembly House of Representatives, Theodora J. Thompson and Rosa S. Lumpkin, eds., Journals of the House of Representatives. 1783-1784 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1977), pp. 486, 560, 568, 571. On 12 June 1784, James Seaborn surveyed 500 acres for Anne Armstrong, on Armstrong Creek a branch of Saluda River near the present Greenville-Pickens county line, about nine miles northwest of Richard Pearis’s old settlement. SCDAH, Colonial Plat Bks., S213190, reel 13:190.

An excellent discussion of the creation and settlement of Greenville County is found in Archie Vernon Huff, Greenville, The History of the City and County in the South Carolina Piedmont (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995), 36–22.

Hope this helps.