Is someone here looking for Joseph Pitts? Captured in 1678, Joseph Pitts, a Presbyterian fisherman of Exeter, born in 1663, was captured by Barbary corsairs at age 15 and enslaved for fifteen years. His captives told him that white people looked pink like the unclean pigs. In 1704 he wrote A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans. He was forcefully converted to Islam. He decided to escape after receiving a smuggled letter from his father. [Newfoundland references for Pitt/Pitts surname: R. Pitt was in the Newfoundland trade 1591; a John Pitt was in Dartmouth harbour c1642 in preparation for a voyage to Newfoundland when he and over eleven hundred others petitioned Cromwell for protection from the 'turks'; Thomas Pitt, a soldier in St. John's, deserted to the French pre 1690.]

Hi, there were a couple of other Pitts family from Devon that came to Newfoundland and settled here. One was James Pitts said to be born 1735 in Kennford, Devon and baptized Apr 26, 1736 at Exminister, Devon - St Martin's Church, It appears that he had at least 2 brothers John (1731 - 1830) and George (1733-1735). James relocated to Newfoundland c. 1749, he settled at Lance Cove, Bell Island and raised a family there that are still represented in this area of Newfoundland. There was some dispute that he was in fact a Joseph Pitts of Exeter but here is the inscription from his headstone on Bell Island. "Sacred to the memory of James Pitts Died 30th April 1805 Age 70 years Farewell my wife and children three Who in this life nevermore shall see Here I shall rest and ever to remain Until the day we all shall meet again When Me you left I thought of your returning Alas my hopes are fled and you are mourning So farewell friends and acquaintance all Pass by this tomb in friendship call Look on the same without grief or fear Tis my choice to be buried here. I was born at Kenford in Devon." Ed -----Original Message----- From: Gion Tobac Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 2:19 AM To: devon@rootsweb.com Subject: [DEV] Joseph Pitts, Barbary captive Is someone here looking for Joseph Pitts? Captured in 1678, Joseph Pitts, a Presbyterian fisherman of Exeter, born in 1663, was captured by Barbary corsairs at age 15 and enslaved for fifteen years. His captives told him that white people looked pink like the unclean pigs. In 1704 he wrote A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans. He was forcefully converted to Islam. He decided to escape after receiving a smuggled letter from his father. [Newfoundland references for Pitt/Pitts surname: R. Pitt was in the Newfoundland trade 1591; a John Pitt was in Dartmouth harbour c1642 in preparation for a voyage to Newfoundland when he and over eleven hundred others petitioned Cromwell for protection from the 'turks'; Thomas Pitt, a soldier in St. John's, deserted to the French pre 1690.] ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Gion It was me that mentioned Joseph Pitts on the Devon Rootsweb pages. I run a ONS for the name PITTS and have been aware of Joseph and his famous story (a good read) for probably 20+ years but I have not slotted him into the Devon Pitts structure. I am a co-admin of the PITTS FT-DNA study. Thanks for the other references to Devon Pitt. Regards John P PITTS ONS Study GOONS 1743 ======================================== Message Received: Jan 14 2014, 06:20 AM From: "Gion Tobac" To: "devon@rootsweb.com" Cc: Subject: [DEV] Joseph Pitts, Barbary captive Is someone here looking for Joseph Pitts? Captured in 1678, Joseph Pitts, a Presbyterian fisherman of Exeter, born in 1663, was captured by Barbary corsairs at age 15 and enslaved for fifteen years. His captives told him that white people looked pink like the unclean pigs. In 1704 he wrote A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans. He was forcefully converted to Islam. He decided to escape after receiving a smuggled letter from his father. [Newfoundland references for Pitt/Pitts surname: R. Pitt was in the Newfoundland trade 1591; a John Pitt was in Dartmouth harbour c1642 in preparation for a voyage to Newfoundland when he and over eleven hundred others petitioned Cromwell for protection from the 'turks'; Thomas Pitt, a soldier in St. John's, deserted to the French pre 1690.] ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message