Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Petit
Petit. — From the ancient Norman family of Petit des Etans descended Louis Petit, lieutenant in La Caillemotte’s (afterwards Belcastel’s) Foot, who rose to be a Brigadier in our army, and died in 1720. His son was John Petit, Esq., who, with his family, and with a brother, Captain Peter Petit, an officer in the army, inhabited the mansion of Little Aston, in the parish of Shenstone, Staffordshire, from 1743 to 1762. This family’s munificence is glowingly described by Rev. Henry Sanders in his History of Shenstone. John Petit married Mary, daughter of Mr. John Hayes of Wolverhampton, and had a daughter, Mary-Anne, and a son. The son was John Lewis Petit, B.A. of Cambridge, and M.D., Physician of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, who died 27th May 1780, leaving by his wife (Katherine Letitia, daughter of Rev. James Serces of Hounslow) three sons: (1st) Rev. John Hayes Petit, M.A. of Cambridge, Perpetual Curate of Shareshill, Staffordshire, who died at Coton Hall, parish of Aveley, Shropshire, 26th July 1822; (2nd) Lieut.-Colonel Peter Hayes Petit of the 35th Foot, who died in 1809 (aged thirty-six) of a wound he received before Flushing, and was interred in the burial ground at Deal, with military honours, “a brave and much-lamented officer;” (3rd) Louis Hayes Petit, barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, M.P. for Ripon (born 1774, died 1849). Neither the second nor the third left descendants; but the first was the father of the (1) Rev. John Louis Petit, M.A., F.S.A., member of the British Archaeological Institute, &c, author and illustrator of “Remarks on Church Architecture,” 2 vols., 1841; “Architectural Studies in France,” 1854; “Notes on Circular Churches,” 1861; “Sketches made during a Tour in the East and on the Nile,” 1864-65, &c, &c, &c, born 1801,died 1869. (2) Lieut.-Colonel Peter John Petit, C.B., of the 59th Foot, died 1852. (3) Louis Peter Petit, Esq., barrister-at-law, died 1848. The Rev. J.L. Petit was the last male representative of his family. — (Gentleman’s Magazine [1822], and The Register for 1869, vol. i., pp. 220 and 525.)