As for Peter’s ancestry, there is convincing circumstantial evidence that he may have descended from French Huguenot protestants emigrating from France to Germany to escape Catholic oppression. He almost certainly came to America in the late 1740s to the Pennsylvania colony. Much of my information is borrowed liberally from the Peter Kivett Family Association which has conducted many years of research.

An immigrant named Peter Küwit (Kivett) arrived at the port of Philadelphia in 1749. Cited in Pennsylvania German Pioneers: “On the 15th Sep 1749, in the Ship Edinburgh, from Rotterdam but last from Portsmouth in England…from the Palatinate: Peter Küwit.” Although there are immigration records of individuals with similar names, a signature associated with this 1749 arrival is consistent with the signature on Peter’s will in 1793.

Peter married 20 year old Anna Barbary (Staley) the same year in Bern, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Anna was the daughter of a Swiss German couple that changed their surname from Staehli to Staley after immigrating to Pennsylvania. Peter and Anna most likely became part of the German community in Lancaster, the location of many German families migrating to Colonial North Carolina in the mid 1750s. Daughter Charity’s birth in 1750 is recorded in Berks County, and second child Peter Kivett II’s birth is recorded in Orange County, NC in 1755, so the timeline fits.

Much like my English Cox and Moody ancestors, German immigrants were induced to leave the more crowded Pennsylvania colony with hopes to secure land grants from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. This accounts for the fact that almost every family name now found in certain counties of eastern Pennsylvania. That’s why today’s Orange, Alamance, Chatham, Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, and Randolph counties of central North Carolina have so many descendants of these people.

Peter’s naturalization is recorded in Rowan County, North Carolina documents. On September 22, 1763, Peter, along with 33 others, appeared in Salisbury District Court of Colonial Rowan County, to swear their allegiance to the British Crown.

“This day came into Open Court the following persons Natives of Germany and were Naturalized according to Law by the Oaths appointed for that purpose…to wit…Peter Kevett.”

Peter and Anna had eight children: Charity 1750-1835, Peter II (Sarah York) 1755-1835, Barbara (John Scotten) 1756 – 1773, John (Rosannah Aldridge) 1757-1843, Jacob (Barbara York) 1759-1810, Henry (Sarah Aldridge) 1760 1806, Mary (George Foust) 1761-1837, and Anna (William Wolfe) 1763-1835.

Peter and his sons signed petitions supporting the Regulator Movement in Colonial North Carolina. No Kivett names are on the roster of participants in the actual battle, but names of neighbors are found on the lists of battle participants. Peter later provided material support to the revolution and is listed in the official roster of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Peter died in 1794. His last will and testament is in the State of North Carolina archives in Raleigh. Anna died three years later.

The Kivett Family Association says Peter was a Lutheran, and a Dutch Bible printed in 1643 is supposedly in the possession of Kivett descendants. Peter and Anna are buried at a private cemetery known as the Old McMasters Cemetery. Nearby Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church annually hosts the Peter Kivett Family Association meeting and reunion. Land for the original church building and graveyard was once a part of Peter’s land grants.

Sources of note:

• Peter Kivett Family Association
• They Came and Brought Their Faiths
• Findagrave
• Peter Kivett Will