Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/395

 land,' apparently not extant, but examined and partly defended by Charles Leslie [q. v.] in 'The Case of the Church of England's Memorial fairly stated' (in 'Collection of Tracts,' 1730). On 3 Dec. 1714 he was again in custody for writing ‘Reasons for a War with France.’ He died at his chambers in the Inner Temple, over the crown office, in November 1724. He was author of an epistolary poem ‘To John Dryden on the death of James, Earl of Abingdon,’ 1699; an elegy ‘On the death of Sir Cloudesley Shovel’ (1708) is in manuscript (Addit. MS. 23904, f. 516). He also wrote: 1. ‘The History of the present Parliament and Convocation, with the Debates on the conduct of the War abroad,’ &c., London, 1711, 8vo. 2. ‘The History of the Proceedings of the Second Session of Parliament,’ London [1712?], 8vo. 3. ‘The History of the Third Session’ [1713]. 4. ‘Memoirs of the Life of John Radcliffe, M.D.’ [q. v.], 1715, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1716; 4th edit. 1736. 5. ‘The Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament … upon the Bill to prevent Occasional Conformity,’ London, 1710, 8vo, signed ‘W. P.’

[For the father see Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Hearne's Collections, i. 100; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 220; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, ii. 192, 214, 282, 320; Kennett's Register, pp. 920, 925; Newcourt's Repert. i. 313–14; Westminster Abbey Registers (Harl. Soc.), 279; Registers of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, published in Hallen's London City Church Registers, pt. i. pp. 499–502, pt. ii. p. 271; Nichols's Collections for Leicestershire, pp. 494, 1141; Woodward's Hist. of Hampshire, Suppl. (Isle of Wight), pp. 59, 67n, 68n. For the son, Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 208; Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble, i. 235, 237.] 

PITTMAN, JOSIAH (1816–1886), musician and author, the son of a musician, was born on 3 Sept. 1816. He studied the organ under Goodman and S. S. Wesley. Subsequently he took lessons in the pianoforte from Moscheles and in composition from Schnyder von Wartensee at Frankfort. In 1831 he was appointed organist at the parish church of Sydenham, and in 1833 he obtained a like office at Tooting; from 1835 to 1847 he was organist at Spitalfields, and from 1852 to 1864 at Lincoln's Inn. He composed many services and much sacred music, some of which he published in 1859. A close study of the requirements of the established church with regard to congregational singing or chanting led him to the conclusion that the Book of Common Prayer was made ‘for song and naught else.’ He deplored the absence of music from the psalter as originally framed, and the consequent discouragement of the people from active participation in church services. In 1858 he set forth these views in ‘The People in Church.’ This was followed in 1859 by ‘The People in the Cathedral,’ mainly an historical treatise.

In 1865 he became accompanist at Her Majesty's Opera, and from 1868 until his death he filled the same office at Covent Garden. The value of his musical work at the opera was best understood by those behind the scenes, while his literary abilities fitted him to assist in the translation of libretti. The series of operas in pianoforte score published as ‘The Royal Edition’ by Messrs. Boosey, ranging from Auber through the alphabet to Weber, were edited by Pittman, who again, in co-operation with Sullivan, selected the operatic songs for the popular ‘Royal Edition’ albums issued by the same publishers. Pittman also edited a volume of Bach's Fugues, and the musical portions of theoretical works by Cherubini, Marx, Callcott, and others. ‘Songs of Scotland,’ compiled by Colin Brown and Pittman, was published in 1873.

Pittman died suddenly, in his seventieth year, at 228 Piccadilly, on Good Friday, 23 April 1886.

[Grove's Dict. ii. 759, iv. 749; Musical Standard, 1886, p. 279; Musical Times, 1886, p. 228; Times, 29 April 1886; Pittman's compilations in the Brit. Museum Library.] 

PITTS, JOSEPH (1663–1735?), traveller, was born at Exeter in 1663, and in the spring of 1678 sailed as an apprentice on board the Speedwell, a merchantman bound for the West Indies, ‘Newfoundland, Bilboa, the Canaries, and so home.’ On her return journey the vessel was captured off the Spanish coast by an Algerine pirate, commanded by a Dutch renegado. Pitts was taken to Algiers and sold to a merchant, by whom he was treated with great barbarity. Beyond a formal summons to change his faith, however, no attempt was made to convert him to Islamism. In 1680 Pitts changed hands, and his second master, or ‘patroon,’ was of a different mind. He tortured the unfortunate Pitts by belabouring his feet with a cudgel until they were suffused with blood, and choking his cries by ramming his heel into his mouth, until his victim repeated the required formula of submission to Mahomet. A few months afterwards, in attendance upon this patroon, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca, sailing to Alexandria, thence by caravan to Cairo (of which he gives a very graphic account) and Suez, and so by ship to Jeddah, the port of