PET 
PET 
Simpfon, efq. of Sittingbourne, and Sarah Hopper his wife, 
(who were lifters’ children, i. e. couftns ;) and accor¬ 
dingly the arms of Pettit (Ermine, a chevron gules be¬ 
tween three pheafant-cocks’ heads couped azure) will be 
feen quartered with thofe of Simpfon in our article He¬ 
raldry, vol- ix. p. 784, Plate CVIII. 
He wrote, The Villons of Purgatory, Thorough Refor¬ 
mations, and The Four Vifions of Government, final! 8vo. 
1686. 
PET'TITOES, f. The feet of a fucking pig.—Cheap 
fallads, diced beef, giblets, and pettitoes, to fill up room. 
Beaiiin. and FI. Woman-hater. —Feet in contempt.—My 
good clown grew fo in love with the wenches fong, that 
he would not ftir his pettitoes till he had both tune and 
words. Sliakefpeare's Wint. Tale. 
PET'TO, f. [Italian.] The breaft; figuratively privacy : 
as, in petto, i. e. in referve, in fecrecy.—The employments 
of treafurer of the navy, and fecretary at war, were to be 
kept in petto till the diflolution of parliament. Ld. Chejler- 
Jiehl. —This Italian phrafe has been adopted into the 
French language as well as the Englifti: “ Je me referve 
in petto ” is a fentence in Les Mceurs. Mafon's Siippl. 
PETTORA'NO, a town of Naples, in Abruzzo Citra : 
five miles fouth of Sulmona. 
PETT'STATT, a town of Bavaria, in the bifhopric of 
Bamberg: three miles fouth of Bamberg. 
PET'TUS (Sir John), a native of Suffolk, was member 
of parliament for Dunwich in the reign of Charles II. 
and one of the deputy-governors of the royal mines. He 
died about the year 1690. He was the author of, 1. Hif- 
tory, Laws, and Places, of the chief Mines and Mineral 
Works in England and Wales, a. England’s Indepen¬ 
dency of the Papal Power. 3. Fleta Minor; or, the 
Laws of Art and Nature in knowing, judging, allaying, 
&c. of Metals, tranftated from the German ; which he ex¬ 
ecuted While he was in the Fleet prifon. 
PET'TY, adj. [petit, Fr.] Small; inconfiderable; 
inferior; little. — They beiieve one only chief and 
great God, which hath been from all eternity; who, 
when he propofed to make the world, made firft other 
gods of a principal order ; and after, the fun, moon, and 
ftars, as petty gods. Stillingflect. 
From thence a thoufand lefler poets fprung, 
Like petty princes from the fall of Rome. Denham. 
PET'TY (Sir William), a perfon remarkable for his 
inventive talents, and for the fuccefs of his febemes for 
his own benefit and that of the public, was the eldeft fon 
of a clothier at Rtimfey in Hampfhire, where he was 
born in 1623. From his boyhood he was fond of attend¬ 
ing to the performancesof artificers, fuch as fmiths, join¬ 
ers, &c. and copying them. He was educated at the 
grammar-fehool of his native place, and at the age of 15 
went to the univerfity of Caen in Normandy, for further 
improvement in mathematical ftudies and the French 
language. As a proof of his early attention to pecuniary 
profit, it is faid that he maintained himfelf there by means 
of a fmall flock of merchandife. On his return, he entered 
into the royal navy, but in what capacity does not appear. 
His fervice there, however, muft have been fhort, fince, 
upon the breaking out of the civil war in 1643, be again 
went abroad, and palled three years in France and the 
Low-Countries. His ftudies appear at this time to have 
been chiefly medical ; and at Paris he dilfedted in com¬ 
pany with the celebrated Hobbes. He muft alfo have 
followed fome gainful traffic, fince he has recorded that 
he returned ten pounds richer than he went out. In 
1647 he obtained a patent from the parliament for an in¬ 
vention of the art of double writing, which appears to 
have been by means of a copying-inftrument. In the 
following year he publifhed a piece of four fheets, 4to. 
entitled “Advice to Mr. Samuel Hartlib for the Ad¬ 
vancement of fome particular Parts of Learning;” the 
general fcope of which was to extend education to a 
variety of objedts of utility in common life. Having no 
Vol. XX. No. 1347. 
17 
objection to compliance with the exifting powers, he went 
to Oxford, whence the parliamentary vifitors had ejedted 
the royalifts, and gave inftrudtions in anatomy and che- 
miftry to the younger Undents. He was appointed deputy 
to the profeffor of anatomy, who unfortunately “ had an 
infurmountable averfion to the fight of a mangled corpfe;” 
and in 1(149 he was created a dodtor of phyfic by difpen- 
fation from the delegates of the univerfity. About the 
fame time he was eledted a fellow' of Brazen-nofe college ; 
and he was a member of that Oxford Society for cultiva¬ 
ting natural knowledge, which was the parent of the 
Royal Society. He fucceeded in 1650 to the anatomical 
profefforfhip in Oxford ; and foon after, employed his 
intereft fo eftedtually as to be chofen profeflor of mufic at 
Grefhatn-college, alinecure place. 
The chief fource of his fortune was his appointment 
in 1652 to be phyfician to the army in Ireland. Befides 
his pay and private practice, he made a large fum by con¬ 
tracting to effedt the admeafurements of lands in Ireland, 
forfeited by the rebellion, and intended for recompences 
to the foldiery. By his ftcill in mathematics he performed 
this work with great exadtnefs; and it gave him that 
knowledge of the llate and value of property there which 
enabled him to lay out to great advantage, in purchafes 
of land, the favings of his economy. It is not to the pur- 
pofe of this work to trace all the fteps by which he at 
length realized a fortune which has fince been the balls 
of a fplendid peerage; and it will be fuflicient biographi¬ 
cally to notice the principal employments that were con¬ 
ferred upon him. He was made one of the commiifioners 
for dividing the lands he had furveyed among the army ; 
clerk of the council; and fecretary to Henry Cromwell 
when lord lieutenant of Ireland. In Richard’s parlia¬ 
ment of 1658 he ferved as burgefs for Weft Looe in 
Cornwall; and in the next year he was impeached by fir 
Hierome Sankey for malpractices in his diftribution of the 
Irilh lands. He was at that time in Ireland, but returned 
to anfwer the charge in his place 5 and, the parliament 
being adjourned, the matter was not brought to iifue. 
He was afterwards removed from all public employments, 
though the lord-lieutenant continued his friend, and 
fpoke handfomely of him. When the Reftoration took 
place, he was in Ireland. Upon his return he was graci- 
oufly received by Charles IL and made one of the com- 
milfioners of the court of claims. In 1661 he received the 
honour of knighthood, and obtained a patent conftituting 
him furveyor-general of Ireland. What was of more im¬ 
portance, all the forfeited lands which had been allotted 
to him were confirmed by new grants to himfelf and his 
wife. 
Such is a brief Iketch of the political character of fir 
William Petty. We come now more particularly to his 
claims on public notice as a man of fcience. He had 
been made a fellow of the College of Phyficians ; and, 
when the Royal Society was firft incorporated, he was in 
the lift of the council. In 1663 heengaged the public at¬ 
tention by his invention ofa double-bottomed fliip, to fail 
againft wind and tide. His trial-veflel went very well in 
a voyage from Dublin to Holyhead, and back ; but on a 
fecond voyage it was loft in a great ftorm, and no further 
experiment was made. He prefented a model of this 
fhip to the Royal Society, to which body he, in 1665, 
communicated a paper on (hip-building, which was kept 
by the prefident, lord Brownlow, as an important ftate- 
fecret. It feems not to be well afeertained whether it 
was this or another work that was printed after his 
death under the title of “A Treatife on Naval Philo- 
fophy.” . 
The principal and rnoft valuable of the writings of this 
author, were on the fubjedt of political arithmetic. Of 
thefe he publifhed a number of feparate tradts, which 
were reprinted collectively in 1699. Some of them re¬ 
late to the growth and population of London, and com- 
parifons between that city and Paris, and other capitals. 
In one of them, entitled “ Political Arithmetic,” he dif- 
F cuffes 
