{"id":496,"date":"2020-12-14T04:54:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T04:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pettitresearch.com\/familyhistory\/?p=496"},"modified":"2025-03-25T02:06:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T02:06:57","slug":"the-two-bible-records-of-benjamin-pettit-1769-of-spartanburg-co-sc-and-their-whereabouts-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pettitresearch.com\/familyhistory\/2020\/12\/14\/the-two-bible-records-of-benjamin-pettit-1769-of-spartanburg-co-sc-and-their-whereabouts-today\/","title":{"rendered":"The TWO Bible Records of Benjamin Pettit (1769) of Spartanburg Co., SC and Their Whereabouts Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Two Bibles<\/h3>\n

The story of how copies of the Benjamin Pettit (1769) family bible records have come down to us through the ages is one of intrigue. There are actually two distinct bible records in circulation among researchers which contain similar lists of the births of Benjamin and Elizabeth Pettit’s children. There is one slight variance between the two but that error will become less significant once the origin of these two records is understood.\u00a0 So let’s look at both documents.<\/p>\n

The first we will call Exhibit 1.\u00a0 It is two pages and they are both shown below:<\/p>\n

\"Benjamin<\/a>

Click for high resolution photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Benjamin<\/a>

Click for high resolution photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

The second we will call Exhibit 2. It is also two pages and shown below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Click for high resolution photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Click for high resolution photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

It has been definitively proven, in court no less, that Exhibit 1 is the copy that belonged to Benjamin Pettit (b.1769) and Elizabeth (Hindman) Pettit.\u00a0 Benjamin was the son of Joshua and Rachel Pettit of Spartanburg Co., SC. This record consists of the front and back side of a single leaf which was torn from Benjamin’s family bible and submitted along with the Revolutionary War Pension application of the family of Archibald McCravy.[1]<\/a><\/sup> It is the older of the two bible records. Though this was without a doubt Benjamin’s bible, the record of the children that Benjamin kept was not penned by his own hand. In this paper we will determine who wrote the original Benjamin Pettit bible record, where the other record came from and where both records can be found today.<\/p>\n

The Story<\/h3>\n

In 1794 Archibald McCravy and his wife Jane were living near Benjamin and Elizabeth Pettit on Cane Creek on the north side of the Tiger River in Spartanburg Co., SC. The families were close neighbors and both attended Friendship Baptist Church together.[2]<\/a><\/sup> Jane McCravy was expecting her first child but the McCravy household was far from empty. Archibald and his former wife, who is said to have been a Hembree, had brought eleven children into the world.[3]<\/a><\/sup> Archibald\u2019s previous wife had died leaving the widower scrambling for help and so it would seem he quickly tied the knot with Jane Cathcart in the fall of 1793. Archibald and Jane \u201crun off and got married.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/sup> The running off part was necessitated by the fact that the marriage was against Jane\u2019s father\u2019s will.[5]<\/a><\/sup> It is not known why he opposed the marriage but it may have had something to do with the fact that Archibald was 26 years Jane\u2019s senior and even 4 years older than Jane\u2019s father. Archibald came calling for Jane after she had been sent off to a neighbor\u2019s house to learn to \u201cspin wool\u201d.[6]<\/a><\/sup> Her father heard of Archibald’s intentions and brought her back home to his house in an attempt to prevent the marriage. She was 26 years old at the time and fear of being an unmarried \u201cold spinster\u201d may have possibly been a factor in what seemed like a hasty marriage. Though done without the father\u2019s blessing, it was a legal marriage performed by Thomas Farrow in the presence of William Chesney who was a friend of both Archibald and Jane.[7]<\/a><\/sup> It would also prove to be a fruitful one as Jane was said to have eventually brought 11 children of her own into the family.[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

By the time summer of 1794 arrived they were married and expecting. The McCravys weren\u2019t the only ones awaiting a new baby though. The Pettits were too. History tells us on the evening of July 18, 1794, the midwife for the area was a very busy woman. Just after she aided Jane McCravy in delivering a baby girl they named Nancy, a friend of the Pettits by the name of Sarah Clark arrived with an urgent message. Before the midwife had time to even dress the newborn her presence was demanded at the Pettit place.[9]<\/a><\/sup> Elizabeth Pettit had gone into labor as well. Thankfully the houses were not far from each other (according to the deposition of Sarah Clark) and the midwife made the dark trip from the McCravy\u2019s to the Pettit\u2019s under some scant moonlight.[10]<\/a><\/sup> A daughter was also safely born to the Pettits that summer night. They named her Rachel, possibly after Benjamin Pettit\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

Many years later, after Archibald and the older Pettit parents had passed on, widow Jane McCravy, in need of some support, attempted to file for a pension under Archibald\u2019s Revolutionary War Account. The courts required proof that Jane and Archibald had been married but their marriage record was strangely missing.[11]<\/a><\/sup> To overcome this lack of proof, several family friends testified on her behalf and eventually the court determined that Jane and Archibald were married the year before their first child together was born. Everyone easily remembered that this child was born on the same night as the Pettit\u2019s child but nobody had a way to prove the exact date. To corroborate the testimonies of these friends in an age before vital records, a family bible record would be required. Unfortunately, the McCravy family had no such record. The Pettits on the other hand, did. However, coaxing this precious family possession from them was not easy. Andrew Harrison was the person who would ultimately be tasked with obtaining the Pettit bible record and forwarding it on to the court. In a letter accompanying this information on October 15, 1846, he wrote:<\/p>\n

You will confer a great favor of me and Mrs. McCravy the return of the family record for it was with much difficulty that we [procured?] it. We had to bind ourselves to return the leaf that contains the recording to the family before we could get it from them and if it is not returned it will be [tendered?] with difficulty on our part.[12]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently this old bible was a prized heirloom of the Pettit family already by 1846. The Pettits did more than just fork over their family bible record though. Just three days prior, on October 12, 1846, Andrew Pettit, youngest son of Benjamin, appeared before the Magistrate in Spartanburg District Court.\u00a0 He was\u00a0 35 years old at the time.\u00a0 He testified under oath that the family record he had was:<\/p>\n

The original family record of his father and mother and that it is in the hand writing of Aaron Pettit and it has been written for many years and it had been in the possession of the family ever since it was written…[13]<\/a><\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Andrew, Arron Pettit, the oldest son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Pettit was the person who wrote the record of marriages and births in the bible for Benjamin. The last record matching Aaron’s handwriting was the birth of John Howard in 1816. Aaron Pettit died shortly thereafter in 1817 at the age of 21. After that date the recording continued but with a distinctly different hand.<\/p>\n

On page 9 of the McCravy account, Andrew Pettit further stated that he had had ownership of the bible since the death of his father Benjamin. This affidavit also included a transcript of the birth records which was made in order to assure Andrew that he would be getting his original copy back. The record was furnished to the court with the expectation that it would be examined, copied, and returned.\u00a0 Indeed two of those expectations were realized. It was examined and copied by hand but, probably much to the dismay of Andrew Pettit, it was never<\/em> returned.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the court was only interested in the record that established the facts pertinent to the case before them so Andrew was allowed to keep the rest of his family bible, minus this one very special page.\u00a0 What we see in Exhibit 1 above is a copy of the Benjamin Pettit bible record taken directly from the McCravy Revolutionary War account at the National Archives where it is located today.\u00a0 This was the page Andrew removed and forfeited.<\/p>\n

Bible Record #2<\/h3>\n

The second record we have of the children of Benjamin and Elizabeth is the one seen in Exhibit 2.\u00a0 A letter from Sam Layton Pettit that has been graciously given to this researcher indicates this record was photocopied from an actual family bible which had been handed down to Clyde Pettit, Jr.\u00a0 Like Sam Layton Pettit, Clyde was a descendant of Benjamin Pettit through his son Andrew.\u00a0 The old book had managed to stay in the Pettit family all the way down to Clyde.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, note the page numbers at the top of the record in Exhibit 1 and compare them to the page numbers at the top of Exhibit 2. It is evident these different records are in fact, sequentially numbered pages. (677, 678, 679 and 680) Also note that the word at the top of the first column on Exhibit 2 is scratched out and replaced with the hand written word “Births”.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if Andrew\u2019s bible was missing the page to records births and someone had to modify the heading on the next available page. What this obviously means is that this record (Exhibit 2) was a hand copied duplicate of the original information (Exhibit 1) and it was written on the very next set of pages in the same book.\u00a0 It probably went something like this:<\/p>\n