Family and Education

b. c.1546,1 4th s. of John Pitt (d.1587) of Causeway, nr. Weymouth, Dorset and Margaret, da. of Isaac Lawse of Sherborne, Dorset.2 m. Agnes (bur. 25 May 1613), da. of John Davidge of Bridport, s.p.3 d. 12 Mar. 1626.4

Offices Held

Churchwarden, Bridport 1580-2,5 bailiff 1586-7, 1589-90, 1592-3, 1598-9, 1602-3, 1607-8, 1613-14, 1621-2,6 constable 1587-8, 1590-1, 1595-6, 1599-1600, 1603-4, cofferer 1608-10.7

Biography

Pitt belonged to a long line of Weymouth merchants that also included his nephew Matthew Pitt*. However, he settled in Bridport, where he married into a prominent local family. His eight terms as bailiff there reflected both his longevity and his high local standing.8 The first of his family to enter Parliament, he was returned for Bridport in 1604. Both the corporation and commonalty contributed to his wages, but he left no mark on the Commons’ records.9 As bailiff he helped preside over the 1614 parliamentary election, and was therefore ineligible to stand himself. Presumably a critic of the borough’s religious radicals, he failed to suppress the anti-puritan libels that circulated there at around the same time.10 ‘He died of age, and of the stone’ in March 1626, ‘being 80 years old’, and was buried at Bridport.11

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. William Whiteway of Dorchester (Dorset Rec. Soc. xii), 88.
• 2. Hutchins, Dorset, ii. 480.
• 3. Soc. Gen., Bridport par. reg.; Hutchins, ii. 480.
• 4. William Whiteway of Dorchester, 88.
• 5. Dorset RO, B3/H1, ff. 305, 313.
• 6. Hutchins, ii. 10.
• 7. Dorset RO, B3/H1, ff. 329, 330v, 345, 357, 365, 381, 385.
• 8. Hutchins, ii. 10, 480.
• 9. CD 1628, ii. 428.
• 10. STAC 8/214/2.
• 11. William Whiteway of Dorchester, 88; Soc. Gen., Bridport par. reg.