Second Generation – William Pettypool
(m. Elizabeth ??)
Early 1660’s- circa 1726
Charles City County and Prince George County Virginia
Monk's Neck (now Rowanty) Creek
photographed from Monk's Neck Bridge
William Pettypool, only known child of William and Ann (Smith) Pettypool, reappears in 17th century colonial Chesapeake records in a Charles City County, Virginia grand jury list of 3 August 16941. Because of record losses during the Civil War for Charles City County and its descendant county, Prince George, the lives of William, his wife, Elizabeth, and their connections to others are only sporadically documented.
The area around Petersburg saw some of the last action during the American Civil War. To learn about the role of Monk’s Neck Bridge in the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, one of a series of Union offensives during the Siege of Petersburg, see Timelines: Battle of Hatcher's Run.
Monk’s Neck Creek
The family of William and Elizabeth Pettypool patented properties along stretches of Monk’s Neck Creek, south of Petersburg, Virginia during the first quarter of the 18th century. 
Although relatively short and somewhat difficult to find on contemporary maps, the creek can be most easily viewed from Monk's Neck Bridge on Old Stage Road (Virginia State Route 605) near where Monk’s Neck Road joins Old Stage Road. It is a tranquil setting now, but one can imagine the effort it would have taken to first clear and ready the land for cultivation.
Land patents registered in 1717 and 1724 along Moccosoneck Creek (later called Monk’s Neck Creek) in Prince George County and references to Indian trade in South Carolina2 suggest that William relied on multiple sources of livelihood. In Virginia’s single staple tobacco economy, he may have needed to do so during this era of Virginia’s history. Tobacco agriculture outside the immediate Tidewater area likely did not return consistently high returns for small planters like William3.
Children
Even though not wealthy, William fared better as compared to previous generations of colonial Virginians. Unlike his father, he apparently lived well into his seventh decade and was able to leave more than one descendant. A will probated on 14 March 1726 in Prince George County names William’s four known children:4
- William, born before 1701,
- Seth, born before 1701,
- Ann, married Richard Massey,
- Mary, married Edward Broadway.
For more information...
Please see The William Pettypool Family of Southside Virginia: Lineage Reconstruction Based on Current Review of Evidence, The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 4, No. 1 (January-March, 2003) for more information about this family. The complete text of the article is available for download here.
1. Charles City Co., Va., Order Bk. 1687-1695, p. 521.
2. Alan Vance Briceland, Westward from Virginia: The Exploration of the Virginia-Carolina Frontier 1650-1710 (Charlottesville, Va., 1987), p. 190.
3. Lorena S. Walsh, “An Era of Hard Times: Virginia, 1680-1729” in Lorena S. Walsh, Motives of Honor, Pleasure and Profit: Plantation Management in the Colonial Chesapeake, 1607-1763 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2010), pp. 194-292.
4. Prince George Co., Va., Deeds & Wills 1713-1728, pp. 972-73.
5. The creek called Moccosoneck in the early 18th century (and corrupted to Mock’s Neck at some point) came to be known as Rowanty Creek by the 19th century. An undated “Map of Bristol Parish in Prince George and Dinwiddie counties” available at the Virginia Historical Society under the call number Mss10: no. 242-132 clearly labels the watercourse now designated Rowanty as Monksneck Creek.