Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/286

 student in London. A portrait of him appeared in the ‘Dublin University Magazine’ in 1874.

[Metropolitan Magazine, London, 1842; Nation Newspaper, Dublin, 1873; Men of the Reign; Official Return of Members of Parliament; personal information.] 

PIGOT, ELIZABETH BRIDGET (1783–1866), friend and correspondent of Lord Byron, born in 1783, probably in Derbyshire, was daughter of J. Pigot, M.D., of Derby, by his wife Margaret Becher (d. 1833) (cf., History of Nottinghamshire, p. 16). She had two brothers, Captain R. H. H. Pigot, who fought at the battle of the Nile, and Dr. John Pigot, a correspondent of Byron (cf. Letters, Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7). Miss Pigot lived at Southwell, with which place her mother's family was connected, nearly all her life. In 1804, when sixteen years old, Byron and his mother arrived there, and occupied a house, Burgage Manor, opposite her mother's on Burgage Green. The Pigots ‘received Byron within their circle as one of themselves.’ The first of Byron's letters which Moore prints was written to Miss Pigot. Byron, whom she described as a ‘fat, bashful boy,’ was ‘perfectly at home’ with her (, ed. 1832, i. 99), and of an evening would listen to her playing and sing with her. In 1805 Byron left Southwell for Cambridge, but paid Miss Pigot occasional visits till 1807, and regularly corresponded with her till 1811. When he was at Southwell she acted as his amanuensis (, i. 132). Byron addressed her in his letters at first as ‘My dear Bridget,’ and afterwards as ‘Dear Queen Bess.’ She nicknamed him her ‘Tony Lumpkin.’ To her Byron addressed the poem beginning ‘Eliza, what fools are the Mussulman sect!’ About 1807 Miss Pigot was engaged to be married; but on the same day she happened to write two letters, one to her lover and the other to Lord Byron. By some mischance she enclosed them in the wrong covers, and the lover, receiving the letter intended for Lord Byron, broke off the engagement. During the rest of her long life Miss Pigot amused herself and her friends with narrating the minute incidents of her intimacy with the poet, and presented to his admirers many scraps of his writing. A competent amateur artist, she decorated the panels of her doors with landscapes; and long before the Christmas card was invented used to send to friends cards which she had painted. Miss Pigot died at her house in Easthorpe, at Southwell, 11 Dec. 1866, and was buried, aged 83, on the 15th. A packet of Byron's letters was said to have been buried with her. Much of her correspondence with Byron appears in Moore's ‘Life.’ In 1892 a manuscript parody by Miss Pigot, entitled ‘The Wonderful History of Lord Byron and his Dog Bosen,’ was sold by a London bookseller to Professor Kolbing of Breslau.

[Private information; Dickenson's History of Southwell; Moore's Life and Poetical Works of Lord Byron, vol. i.] 

PIGOT, GEORGE, (1719–1777), governor of Madras, born on 4 March 1719, was the eldest son of Richard Pigot of Westminster, by his wife Frances, daughter of Peter Goode, tirewoman to Queen Caroline. His brothers, Hugh (1721?–1792) [q. v.] and Sir Robert [q. v.], are noticed separately. George entered the service of the East India Company in 1736 as a writer, and arrived at Madras on 26 July 1737. When a member of council at Fort St. David, Pigot was sent with Clive to Trichinopoly in charge of some recruits and stores. On their return with a small escort of sepoys they were attacked by a large body of polýgars, and narrowly escaped with their lives (, Life of Clive, 1836, i. 71). Pigot succeeded Thomas Saunders as governor and commander-in-chief of Madras on 14 Jan. 1755. He conducted the defence of the city, when besieged by Lally in the winter of 1758–9, with considerable skill and spirit. On the capture of Pondicherry by Lieutenant-colonel (afterwards Sir) Eyre Coote (1726–1783) [q. v.] in January 1761, Pigot demanded that it should be given up to the presidency of Madras as the property of the East India Company. This Coote refused after consulting his chief officers, who were of opinion that the place ought to be held for the crown. Pigot thereupon declared that unless his demand was complied with he would not furnish any money for the subsistence of the king's troops or the French prisoners. Upon this Coote gave way, and Pigot took possession of Pondicherry, and destroyed all the fortifications in obedience to the orders previously received from England. Pigot resigned office on 14 Nov. 1763, and forthwith returned to England. He was created a baronet on 5 Dec. 1764, with remainder in default of male issue to his brothers Robert and Hugh, and their heirs male. He represented Wallingford in the House of Commons from January 1765 to the dissolution in March 1768. At the general election in March 1768 he was returned for Bridgnorth, and continued to sit for that borough until his death. On 18 Jan. 1766 he was created an Irish peer with the title of Baron Pigot of Patshul in the county of Dublin. 