Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/355

 Nourse of Wood Eaton, Oxfordshire, in 1686, and died on 13 Jan. 1712–3.

[Works; Munk's College of Physicians, i. 445; manuscript minute-books of St. Bartholomew's Hospital; Foster's Alumni Oxon.]  PITT, THOMAS (1653–1726), East India merchant and governor at Madras, often called ‘Diamond Pitt,’ born at Blandford, Dorset, on 5 July 1653, was second son of John Pitt, rector of Blandford St. Mary, and of Sarah, daughter of John Jay. In youth he appears to have been at sea, and he is repeatedly styled ‘captain’ in his earlier days; even before he was twenty-one he engaged in the East India trade as an interloper, i.e. as a merchant not authorised to trade by the East India Company.

In 1674 Pitt settled at Balasore, and began a long struggle with the company. On 24 Feb. 1675 the court sent directions that he should be seized: ‘wee do require you to take care to send them [Pitt and his party] to the fort, to remain there till next yeares shipping, and then to be sent to England.’ When this order reached India (in June 1676), Pitt seems to have left India on a trading expedition in Persia. On 19 Dec. 1676 the court again repeated their orders for his arrest, and Pitt is said to have been brought before the Madras council, and to have promised compliance with the company's orders; but he made no change in his methods of business. He paid further visits to Persia during 1677 and 1679–80, and he trafficked in very various commodities, including sugar and horses. His ventures proved successful. During 1681 he returned to England. On 15 Feb. 1682 the court of the East India Company gave instructions for a writ ne exeat regno against Pitt and one Taylor, ‘untill the suit depending in chancery against them by the Company be heard and determined.’ Nevertheless, Pitt left England in the Crown on 20 Feb. 1682, and reached Balasore about 8 July, immediately resuming, in the most open manner, his old modes of trading. ‘We would have you,’ the court writes to Hedges, ‘secure his person whatever it cost to the government … Be sure to secure him, he being a desperate fellow and one that we fear will not stick at doing any mischief that lies in his power.’ Accordingly Hedges obtained the consent of the nawab of Bengal, as the territorial sovereign, to the arrest of Pitt, who, however, after obtaining a permit from the nawab to build a factory on the Hooghly, left for England on 5 Feb. 1683. He was arrested on his arrival at the suit of the company, and was bound over in recognisances to the amount of 40,000l.

The litigation seems to have detained Pitt in England for many years. In 1687 he was fined 1,000l. for interloping, but the court reduced the penalty to 400l. Settling down for the time in Dorset, he purchased and laid out land there, and in both 1689 and 1690 was returned to parliament as member for New Sarum, or Salisbury. In 1690 he bought the manor of Stratford (and Old Sarum) from James Cecil, fourth earl of Salisbury. Without vacating his seat in parliament, he undertook in 1693 his last interloping voyage in the Seymour, in company with one Catchpoole. He arrived at Balasore on 1 Oct. The court and their agents in Bengal made vain efforts to stay his progress. ‘Notwithstanding all our endeavours with the nabob and Duān to frustrate and oppose the interlopers in their designs, they are rather countenanced and encouraged by the whole country in generall.’ Consequently in January 1694 the court, recognising their inability to resist Pitt, decided to come to terms with the interlopers, and to admit them to the company. Pitt received offers of help from the company, and early in 1695 returned to England, where he was temporarily engaged as agent for the company in the recovery of certain ships from Brest. On 28 Oct. 1695 he was elected M.P. for Old Sarum.

The court of the East India Company quickly recognised Pitt's capacity, and on 26 Nov. 1697 he was appointed president of Fort St. George. His commission, dated 5 Jan. 1698, gave him for twelve months special power to suspend any officer; enjoined strict retrenchment, including, if possible, reduction of the number of officers; and directed Pitt's particular attention to the prevention of interloping, ‘he having engaged to us,’ as remarked in a despatch to Bengal, ‘to signalise himself therein.’ His term of appointment was for five years, and his salary and allowances 300l. a year, with 100l. for outfit. According to Sir Josiah Child, ‘the adventurers’ resented Pitt's appointment to ‘such a degree as to turn out eighteen of that committee, whereas I never before knew above eight removed.’ On 12 Jan. Robert Pitt, ‘son of the president,’ was granted permission to reside at Fort St. George as a free merchant.

Pitt arrived in Madras on 7 July 1698. On the 11th he entertained all the company's servants and freedmen, by way of celebrating the reading of his commission. Settling down to business, both on the company's account and his own, he was subjected to much hos-