In 1773, he was master of a school in Edenton and about that time decided to devote his life to the ministry. In the winter of 1774-75, he went to England to be admitted to Holy Order and was duly ordained by the bishop of London and Rochester. He returned to America on the last ship, which sailed before the Revolution and took up his work as a rector of a church in Edenton, where he was located from 1778 to 1784. He was an active Whig during the Revolution and at times accompanied the North Carolina Militia on some of the campaigns. After the close of the war, he and other clergymen vainly endeavored to form a diocese in NC. He died, however, before he could be consecrated, as ill health prevented his travelling to Philadelphia, where the ceremony was to take place. In his Lives of the Bishops of North Carolina, Marshall D. Haywood says: Of all the zealous clergymen of the church of England in North Carolina about the time of the Revolution, none reaked than the Rev. Charles Pettigrew, who built Pettigrews chapel at his own expense and for many years ministered there, as well as Edenton and elsewhere throughout the province.