Phineas Pett

Phineas Pett (1 November 1570 – August 1647) was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was published in 1918.

Born at "Deptford Strond", he was the second son of Peter Pett of Deptford, his elder brother being named Joseph.

Thomas Fuller, in his Worthies of England states: "I am credibly informed that the mystery of Shipwrights for some descents hath been preserved successfully in families, of whom the Petts about Chatham are of singular regard."

It is likely that Robert Holborn, cited as working with Peter Pett of Deptford at this time was a relative of Richard Hoborn, 'Cousin of Commissioner Pett'. Peter Pett of Deptford was the son of Peter of Harwich (d.1554). His sister married John Chapman, Master Shipwright, whose own son Richard was born in 1620 and Master Shipwright of Woolwich and Deptford dockyards. the shipwright who was to build the Ark, raised in the Pett household, "as in all probability was Mathew Baker" with whom, from 1570, Peter Pett was associated in the works at Dover.’

Phineas's father's first wife, Elizabeth Paynter, had given him a daughter, Lydia, and four sons; their mother died around 1543. Peter Pett of Deptford married his second wife Elizabeth Thornton, the sister of Naval Captain Thornton, and they had eight further children. The three sons were Phineas, Peter and Noah. Elizabeth died, the widow of Peter, in 1597.

Phineas had been sent to the Free School at Rochester for three years and then moved to a private school in Greenwich, until in 1586 aged 16 he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge. On his father's death in 1589, Phineas was left destitute. Yet by 1601 Phineas had been appointed assistant to the Master Shipwright at Chatham; over the years his good services, particularly in fitting out the Fleet in six weeks, won support for him at court.

Phineas Pett first met the young Prince Henry in 1604, through the good graces of the Earl of Nottingham, William Howard, the Lord High Admiral. Pett made a miniature ship for the Prince at Chatham. The keel was 28 feet and the breadth 12 feet, and was finished "battlement-wise" like the Ark Royal. On 22 March Pett presented the ship to Prince Henry, who named it the Disdain and "entertained it with great joy, being purposely made to disport himself withal." On 26 April 1604, James I of England gave Phineas, described as a servant of Prince Henry, a grant of a shilling a day. The grant also mentions Phineas's elder brother, Joseph. Phineas and Joseph were named in the royal charter for the incorporation of masters and wardens of the "Art and Mystery of Shipbuilding in England" in April 1605.

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