[1] But Skipton is in Yorkshire, and, though some of his kin may have settled in the north, it is more probable that he belonged to the family of the name which early in the fifteenth century owned property at Pett in the parish of Stockbury in Kent.
Pett himself was certainly in the service of the Crown from an early age; he was already master-shipwright at Deptford in the reign of Edward VI, and there he continued till his death on or about 6 September 1589.
In 1587 he and Baker accused Sir John Hawkyns, then Treasurer of the Navy, of malpractices in connection with the repair of the Queen's ships.
In 1583 he was granted arms, or, on a fess gules between three ogresses, a lion passant of the field; and the crest, out of a ducal coronet, a demi-pelican with wings expanded.
By his first wife he had at least two sons: Joseph, who succeeded him at Deptford as master-shipwright, and died on 15 November 1605; and Peter, who carried on business as a shipbuilder at Wapping.