PIGOTT, Robert (1664-1746), of Chetwynd, Salop and Chesterton, Hunts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1713 - 1722
7 Feb. 1730 - 1741

Family and Education

b. 1664,1 1st s. of Walter Pigott of Chetwynd by his 2nd w. Anne, da. of Sir John Dryden, 2nd Bt., M.P., of Canons Ashby, Northants. and Chesterton. educ. Ch. Ch. Oxf. 5 Dec. 1681, aged 16; I. Temple 1683. m. (settlement 15 May 1695) Frances, da. of William Ward of Willingsworth, Staffs., bro. of Edward, 7th Lord Dudley and 2nd Baron Ward, 5s. 3da. suc. fa. at Chetwynd 1699 and to the Hunts. estates of his uncles John and Erasmus Dryden 1708 and 1710.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Salop 1696, Cambs. and Hunts. 1709-10.

Biography

Robert Pigott, who came of an old Shropshire family, inherited considerable estates in Huntingdonshire from his maternal uncles, John and Erasmus Dryden,2 the first of whom had sat for that county in six Parliaments.3 Returned as a Whig for the county in 1713, he was re-elected without opposition in 1715, voting for the Administration in all recorded divisions of that Parliament. He did not stand in 1722 or 1727 but came in again at a contested by-election in 1730 and unopposed in 1734, with the support of the 2nd Duke of Manchester.4 Though absent on the excise bill in 1733 and the place bill in 1740, he voted with the Government against the bill for repealing the Septennial Act in 1734 and for the Spanish convention in 1739. At a by-election in November 1739 he was reported to be giving his interest to Charles Clarke who was successful against the 3rd Duke of Manchester’s nominee.5 In June 1740 Lord Sandwich, then in opposition, informed Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that at the forthcoming general election he would be ‘obliged to side with people whom I cannot think friends to their country’, that is with Pigott and Clarke, both Government supporters, as this would ‘be an effectual means of breaking the lord lieutenant’s [Manchester’s] interest’.6 In the event he did not stand, dying in December 1746.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Salop Arch. Soc. Trans. (ser. 4), iii. 95.
  • 2. VCH Hunts. ii. 380.
  • 3. PCC 105 Barrett and 154 Smith.
  • 4. HMC 8th Rep. ii. 110.
  • 5. Newcastle to Devonshire, 30 Oct. 1739, Devonshire mss.
  • 6. Sandwich to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, 25 June 1740, Marlborough mss.