John Pettit was born in Easton Pennsylvania in 1761 and during the Revolution he served with the New Jersey volunteers. After the war the family trekked to Canada crossing at Niagara and settled near the Forty. John was known as “Squire John”. He was a devoted member of the Episcopal Church and a member of the Masonic Lodge. According to a history of the Lodge: “On 3 July 1800 a motion was passed that brother Pettit pay one shilling each night instead of two shillings as he took no refreshment”. John died in 1851 and is buried in St.Andrew’s churchyard in Grimsby.