Captain John PIGOTT of Antigua, Dublin & Stradbally

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For 30 years of research life, I have continued to believe, as I had been led to by others who went before me, that my Irish ancestor was Captain John PIGOTT, of Queen's County, and that he had a son named John PIGOTT who was born in Dublin about 1759.

Indeed, my great-grandfather's first cousin, William Jackson PIGOTT (1842-1921), wrote the following two notes, in several signed letters that are now lodged in the Society of Genealogists Library in London, one of them dated 23 February 1921, shortly before his death:
     "... from genealogical notes by my father, it would seem that we are descended from Col. John PIGOTT, M.P. for Banagher, King's County, circa 1758 to 1763. He was of Ballynonty, Co Tipperary, Prospect and Mounteagle (which he purchased from Thomas PIGOTT), Queen's Co, married three times. First to Constantia Maria, daughter of Sir Roger BURGOYNE, Bt, only issue this marriage."
     "... I have an idea that he was the John PIGOTT, son of Capt John PIGOTT of Kilcromin, Queen's Co, who was killed in Antigua in 1710, leaving issue Thomas, Robert, Benjamin and John."

However, a recent discovery in Ireland (in December 2011) suggests that some of these speculative "conclusions" which I have accumulated over these 30 years, and laid out below, may be in doubt.

In 1808, Robert PIGOTT, late one of the Inspectors-General of the Excise in Dublin, petitioned the Principal Secretary of the Lord Deputy of Ireland for restitution of his losses incurred in his being forcibly retired.
In his petition, reproduced in full at the bottom of this article, Robert, well aware of the military service already undertaken by the occupant of that position (the then Sir Arthur WELLESLEY), sought to "lubricate" his petition through the early stages by mentioning the military connections of some of his PIGOTT antecedents - not so much name-dropping, as "rank"-dropping!
These included his late uncle, Captain John PIGOTT, whom he states was brother-in-law of the Earl of Halifax (George MONTAGU - his sister Frances was the wife of Sir Roger BURGOYNE, the brother of Constantia Maria BURGOYNE who married Captain John PIGOTT in London in 1730).
But he records that "...his grandfather" (viz't Captain John's father) had been killed in the West Indies during the Reign of King George II (1727-1760), which is clearly not 1710 (Reign of Queen Anne - see below).
And his uncle Robert, alleged to have died in America in 1759, as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, is nowhere to be found in British newspapers of the time.

What is becoming increasingly clear to me is that I (and I am certainly not alone) may have been talking about (i.e., "conflating" the details of) two different John PIGOTTs, probably first cousins, who at some time in their careers were both accorded the rank of Captain; and Captains of vessels engaged in the West India trade, no less.

And it suggests a possibility that the subject of the following blog may have been instead the son of Major Walter PIGOTT, who died about 1758 (give or take a year), and was a younger brother of the Captain John PIGOTT Senior who was killed in Antigua in 1710.

Separating the two Captain John PIGOTTs may prove difficult.

COGITATUS INTERRUPTUS - Up until May 2016, I had been assimilating newly discovered research details into the following article. As the "flow" of it was starting to get a bit lumpy, I decided that it was time that I rewrote the whole thing from scratch. But that has proved to be a difficult task. I have now decided to retain this article intact, as compromised as it has become in its flow or "style," and insert into it, from time to time, cogitations on certain details, as "interruptions" to that flow, looking at the pros and cons of certain pieces of "evidence" and whether there is any hierarchy in the value of the given pieces of evidence, especially where they appear to conflict with other details. These will appear, where appropriate, and in this particular format.

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[Brockley Park, in Stradbally Parish, Queen's County, John PIGOTT's home in the 1750s,

was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by new owners in the 1760s. The above may

have been part of the original coach-house, or part of the later re-construction.]

Vital statistics can be hard to come by in Irish genealogical research.
Such is the case with the family of John PIGOTT, Senior, of Kilcromin, Queen's County, Ireland, and of New North Sound, St John's Division, Antigua, Army Captain and Planter, by his spouse Frances PROCTOR, of Rendezvous Bay, Antigua.
The possibility of the elder members of their family being born instead in Antigua in no way enhances the prospect of finding any records remaining intact, especially in that climate.
One of that family was a younger son, apparently the fourth but third surviving, and named for his father.
He, John PIGOTT, was born in 1704 (he recorded his age as 25 on the Allegations of Intention for his first marriage in January 1729-30), probably at Kilcromin, in the Queen's County, and is the subject of this article.

COGIT. INT. I. - I have not yet found any conclusive evidence that the Captain John PIGOTT who was married in London in January 1730 was actually this younger son of John PIGOTT of Kilcromin and Frances PROCTOR. The presumption that he was is not new, and was made by others before I joined them - but I believe that presumption is now questionable.

Some few details of his existence appear in published sources, but not the usual "Landed Gentry" publications by BURKE and the like. "Notes and Queries" proved very useful - one entry led me to the only published pedigree I have yet discovered of John PIGOTT's family, in Vere Langford OLIVER's "History of Antigua" (which also contained a 1578 Inquisition P.M., and abstracts of two PIGOTT wills, all held in the P.R.O., Four Courts, Dublin, and destroyed in 1922).

Fortunately, additional information is now appearing in on-line resources. The Google Book Search facility is particularly useful, and especially for older journals which were originally published without index; and Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), both accessed through N.S.W. Public Library Subscriptions, have turned up several additional points of interest in this documentary journey through the life of our John PIGOTT.


HIS (?) FATHER, JOHN PIGOTT SENIOR, IN ANTIGUA.

The father, John PIGOTT Senior, was himself a younger son of Thomas PIGOTT (born about 1640; died in 1702) of Dysart, Queen's County, Ireland, by his spouse Elizabeth WELDON (they were married in Dublin in 1663).

John Senior sailed from Plymouth, 9 March 1690, for the West Indies, as a young officer in the Duke of Bolton's Regiment (later Henry HOLT's); their ship formed part of the West Indies Squadron, under command of Commodore Lawrence WRIGHT, sent to address security issues arising from hostile French activity in the neighbourhood, including Antigua, where the Squadron arrived on 30 May 1690.
He came to the notice of the Antiguan authorities:
"...I beg also to recommend Captain John PIGOTT for a military command, who has served well in the late as in former expeditions. He is returning to Europe in hopes of serving the King there. His father is, I believe, a gentleman of considerable interests in Ireland, and has suffered greatly by the late rebellion there. I will engage for his loyalty and courage."
[General Christopher CODRINGTON, Antigua - letter dated 3 July 1691, to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, London; "Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1689-92," H.M.S.O., 1901.]

But John Senior did not leave Antigua so soon; he instead appears to have "settled" in Antigua, and perhaps eventually on a Plantation in New North Sound, St John's Division, perhaps as a "Guardian Uncle" to his new wife's step-nephews John and William GUNTHORPE; but he was part of the Army Reductions in 1695, and may well have taken his wife and young children to the family estate of his father in Ireland - Dysart, between Stradbally and Maryborough; he was probably the John PIGOTT, Tithe-taker under Andrew NESBITT, Priest of the Parish of Dysart, in 1699 [see Henry RIDGWAY's tithe assessment and confiscations, Quaker Congregational records, Sufferings, on findmypast.co.uk]; by 1701, he appears to have invested some considerable capital he had probably accumulated in Antigua, and "purchased" Kilcromin, a detached part of his father's estate, with the intention of improving it and settling his family there; again, he was probably named in Quaker records as Warden, 1706, when as Church Warden, he confiscated 3 large bullocks from Henry RIDGWAY in lieu of payment for repairs to the Parish Church of Dysart and Warden's wages; by early 1709, and possibly as the result of an impending Suit in Chancery being prosecuted by or on behalf of his wife's children, he returned to Antigua, making his will as he was about to set out on his voyage out; an abstract of this will constitutes our first known document to mention the young John PIGOTT, then apparently only a very young boy:
"John PIGOTT of Kilcromin. Will dated 2 March 1708(-09); proved in Ireland 1711. Bound on a voyage to the West Indyes. To my 3 youngest sons, Rob't, Benj'n, and John, £200 each. My daughter Elizabeth £400. My 3 other daughters £300 each. My 1st son to have one-half my real and personal estate. My wife Frances shall live in ye house of Kilcromin during her widowhood. My brother Rob't PIGOTT, Lanc't SANDES, Esq, Kilcavan, and Major John LYONS and my wife Ex'ors. Witnessed by Thomas PIGOTT, Samuel BOWKER, Ann BARRINGTON. Recorded in the P.R.O. of Ireland, Four Courts, Dublin."
[Abstract of the will of John PIGOTT of Kilcromin and Antigua, reproduced in Vere Langford OLIVER's "History of the Island of Antigua," 1895, Volume 3, page 25.]

The first named executor, Robert PIGOTT, young John's uncle, had succeeded to the family estate at Dysart in late 1702. This estate, of 772 acres plantation measure, was originally granted in 1562 to John PIGOTT (who died in 1570); livery was granted in 1586 to his younger son Robert, later Sir Robert (born in 1565; died about 1642); briefly held by his son and heir John and repossessed at the Cessation of 1643 after a short-lived seizure by the Earl of Castlehaven (John was killed in the storm and sack of Dysart, on 6 October 1646, aged in his late 50's); restored in 1663 to his grandson Thomas (son of the heir apparent Robert who was killed at Fort Maryborough a week before his father in September 1646), who died, as recorded, in 1702. See separate entries on this blog.site for Sir Robert PIGOTT and his son Sergeant-Major John PIGOTT.

Young John's father was himself to die in violent circumstances, not two years after he made his will.
Antigua had been placed by Queen Anne under the governorship of Daniel PARKE, a controversial and divisive man, who fomented great turmoil among the somewhat "self-serving" community of Proprietary Planters in Antigua. By 1710, much energy had been spent by those Planters in trying to rid themselves of PARKE, who had been impeached, but refused to leave the Island. On 10 December, Captain PIGOTT, now a member of the Assembly, led one of two groups of armed citizenry against PARKE, who had barricaded himself , under protection of "loyal" troops, in Government House in St John's.
PIGOTT and PARKE both died in the ensuing affray.
Captain John was aged in his early forties; his son John was only about 6 years old.

Although there may be another angle to the story of John PIGOTT Senior's final days.

In 1719, George FRENCH published in London his "The History of Colonel PARKE's Administration," now made accessible courtesy of JSTor, and in which FRENCH, at pages 59-60, writes about:
"...Capt. PIGGOT, a rash man, very fit to be made a Tool of on such an Occasion, who had been but lately arriv'd on the Island, and whom the General [PARKE] was so far from giving the least Offence to, that he had no manner of Acquaintance with him, but was drawn into that [rebel] Faction by the Artifice of that Party, and in the Apprehension of a Suit in Chancery to be commenc'd against him by his Wife's Children, in which they should not fail of having Justice done them..."

I had presumed that John and Frances raised their children in Antigua; but here is a suggestion that John had been absent from the Island for long enough for him to have fallen off the memory map (probably from before PARKE's arrival in Antigua in July 1706, judging by FRENCH's remarks, and perhaps well before); and to have made some property transactions that may have impinged on the perceived hereditary rights of his children (if the children so referred were his wife's PIGOTT children, and not instead some children she may have had before she married PIGOTT).

Daniel PARKE, Governor of Antigua; appointed 25 April 1705, arrived 14 July 1706, killed 7 December 1710.

FRENCH goes further, as we find in his second book, published in London in 1719, as "An Answer to a Scurrilous Libel, etc," in which he addresses an anonymous letter, published in response to his "History" in 1717, claiming that Captain PIGOTT had not been killed by PARKE, but was instead shot in the back by Michael AYON, and where, at page 41, FRENCH concludes:
"...And tho' I have no Reason at present to give it up [his view that PIGOTT was shot by PARKE], as my Correspondent wou'd have it; yet I take it to be of no great Consequence, by whose Hands the unfortunate Man fell, since he had his Desert, for being made the Tool [fn] of that [rebel] Party."
"[Fn] He [PIGOTT] was kept continually Drunk in Town for three Days, to get him to head the Rebellion; and had made a Vow, which he bound with Oaths, never to go to his House 'till he had done Col. PARKE's Business."

So, it would appear that the whole of the success of the so-called rebellion depended therefore, on the rash and intemperate John PIGOTT, in the midst of a domestic crisis which had brought him to the brink of an imminent but unwinnable legal stoush in the Court of Chancery!
Now that's beginning to look very much like a case of "scurrilous libel"!

Either way, John's widow Frances was left with eight children, and apparently a ninth born after their father had made his will. The eldest was not yet born when their maternal grandmother, Frances STOUGHTON alias PROCTOR, dated her will on 9 September 1693 (proved Antigua, 8 February 1694), in which she made bequests to three grandchildren living (Frances KERR, and John and William GUNTHORPE), and to the next, perhaps already on the way:
"...to the first child my daughter Frances PIGOTT has, £5 for a piece of Plate..."
[Vere Langford OLIVER, Ibid.]

A Deed Poll, dated 15 March 1727, was deposited in the Deeds Registry, Henrietta Street, Dublin, citing the:
"...last Will and Testament of our father, John PIGOTT, Esq'r, deceased, bearing date the 2nd day of March 1708, the sum of £200 sterling was left to me John PIGOTT as a portion, and the sum of £300 stg was left to me Ann PIGOTT as my portion, also a dividend to each of us of £30 more, our shares of our sister Frances PIGOOTT's portion, deceased..."
The Deed was witnessed by Pigott SANDES of Dysart in the Queen's County, Esq, Warner WESTENRA of Rathleague in the Queen's County, Esq, and Patrick DALY, a servant to Richard, Earl of Cavan (by whom the monetary shares had been delivered to John and Ann). But Ann PIGOTT alone signed and sealed it.


HIS (?) GRAND-MOTHER'S FAMILY ORIGINS IN ENGLAND.

There is now more than a distinct possibility that this maternal grandmother, Frances Senior, was born Frances BARROW, and was the widow of John COOKE, Solicitor-General for the Commonwealth when he prosecuted the case against Charles I, and subsequently executed as a Regicide.
Vere OLIVER provides compelling evidence for this connection in his GUNTHORPE pedigree notes, but Geoffrey ROBERTSON, Q.C., in his book "The Tyrannicide Brief," suggests that Frances, to whom he attributed the maiden surname of CUTLER, may have died of a consumptive disease before her husband's trial and execution, although thisthis'll detail has yet to be formally corroborated.
However, further research has revealed that Frances COOKE did in fact survive her husband; in her husband's Prayer on the Traitor's Scaffold, on 16 October 1660, he spoke, concerning his wife, that "...when we were in the Storm, we took Leaves each of the other" (which appears to refer to an incident at sea off the coast of Ireland in January 1650, with wife Frances); and in about 1664, Frances COOKE, widow, petitioned Charles II for some restitution, for her and her daughter, out of her late husband's estates in Ireland, due to her under the terms of her 1645 marriage settlements.
Further, John COOKE, wrote from his condemned cell, 15 October 1660, a letter addressed to his daughter Freelove, urging her obedience "...to thy dear mother, and good grandmother, and thy loving uncle and aunt MASSEY" - and Mrs Elizabeth MASSEY, widow, of Northampton, made her will in 1680, about to set out on a voyage to Antigua, in which she made provision for her niece Freelove "...now the wife of John GUNTHORPE" (Freelove and John were married at St Mary's, Newington, Surrey, on 13 June 1675), and in the event of her death then to their young son Robert GUNTHORPE.
Which further corroborates the statements made by Mrs HENDERSON, concerning the transfer of ownership of Buck's Plantation (formerly owned by her late brother-in-law Archibald HENDERSON) to John GUNTHORPE, whom she identified as the son-in-law to that "...egregious traitor" John COOKE who had prosecuted the case against King Charles I.

See her separate blog on this blog-page, at this link:

http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/mrs-frances-stoughton-of-antigua-1693.html


HIS (?) MOTHER CONTINUES TO RAISE THE FAMILY.

Frances Junior continued to raise the children until her death two years later; but whether she returned to Antigua, or stayed on at Kilcromin, as provided for in her late husband's will, is unclear; but probably the latter.
Thereafter, the young family of orphans was raised at Dysart by their uncle Robert, as exemplified in an extract from our second important document:
"UPON the Death of John, the said Frances his Widow, one of the said Executors, acted alone in Execution of said Trust, 'till she died in the Year 1712. Then the Respondent, being Uncle to the Infants, by Consent of the other Executors, took upon him the same; and having no Child of his own, took the Appellant Thomas and his 8 brothers and sisters home to his House, esteeming them as his own; and designing the said Appellant should inherit Respondent's Real Estate, subject to such Provision for his Brothers and Sisters, as Respondent should think fit..."
[Robert PIGOTT, Esq. The Respondent's Case. To be heard at the Bar of the House of Lords, 3 March 1724-25. British Library, Press marks 5151.15/12, 19h.z./131-132. Also now available in part at ECCO.]


HIS (?) ELDER BROTHER THOMAS PIGOTT.

Thomas, young John's eldest brother, fell rather seriously foul of their uncle after their mother's death in 1712, due, it appears, to his dissolute nature and profligate lifestyle, with the result that Robert sought to limit his rights of inheritance. The House of Lords litigation over Kilcromin provides further clues:
"... But the Appellant, Thomas, from the death of Frances, taking to a Course of Life highly injurious to himself, and, as such, offensive to the Respondent, all Intimacy and Correspondence was broke off between them, till about the year 1716."
[Robert PIGOTT, Esq. Respondent's Case. Ibidem.]

Thomas, upon coming of age in that year, managed to assuage his uncle's distaste sufficiently to secure a loan against his inheritance, which enabled him to return to Antigua and settle his father's affairs there; and, according to his uncle, he there spent almost the whole of the estate left by his father. Whereupon Robert insisted that young Thomas make the necessary arrangements, against his Irish property, to honour the father's will and pay off his brothers' and sisters' portions.
The end result was twofold - Thomas borrowed heavily against Kilcromin, with the consequence that he "sold" it to his creditor and relation, Richard LAMBERT, the Earl of Cavan - and Robert determined that Thomas would not get his hands on Dysart.
After earlier court decisions, the case ended up on Appeal before the House of Lords in 1725 - Robert claimed there never had been a Deed of Sale for Kilcromin from his father to his late brother, and that it was therefor still part of the main family estate - Thomas claimed there had been a deed, but that his uncle had probably destroyed it. The Lords found against Robert, implying that he had a "duty of care" for the family deeds, and acknowledging that the Earl of Cavan had invested in the property heavily, and on trust.
And Robert sold Dysart to his second cousin, Emanuel PIGOTT of Chetwynd, County Cork, reserving a right of residence.
In his summing up before the Law Lords, he provided a further clue to the fortunes of young John:
"The Respondent humbly begs leave to observe to your Lordships that he has maintain'd and educated the Appellant Thomas's Brothers and Sisters in as handsome a manner as if they were his own, from their Mother's death; and provided for several of them in the Army, and otherwise, at very great Expence, and designs one of them to inherit his real Estate, and some Provision for the rest."
[Robert PIGOTT, Esq. Respondent's Case. Ibidem.]


AN EARLY MARITIME CAREER IN THE ATLANTIC TRADE.

I had inferred two things from the above extract - that it was another of Thomas's brothers, perhaps John, that Robert designed to inherit his real estate - and that young John had been provided for in the Army.
But it transpires that his Captaincy was of a very different kind altogether.
By the end of 1729, he was in England, and perhaps a "debtor" in the Fleet Prison, or more likely being married by a "Minister" who was, when, at age 25 years, he was married, on Wednesday:
"January 20th, 1729-30. John PIGOTT, of St Martin Orgars, London, Captain of a West Indian Merchant, Bach'l'r, and Constantia Maria BURGOYNE, of the P'sh of St Martin's in ye fields, in ye County of Mdd'x, married at Justice WEBSTER's, in Castle Street, over ye Mews, in St Martin's afores'd."
[Number 118. A short narrow file in "The Fleet Registers, etc," Edited John Sotherden BURN, London, 1833, page 60. Extract obtained from ECCO.]

Actual register images accessed on-line reveal that there were two separate register entries, one in a register of [Dr] GAY[NAM], and another by Minister [Dr] WYATT, both referring to "... Castell Street near ye Muse" or "... ye Mews in St Martin's af's'd." See image of one of the entries below.

Remember the name WEBSTER, and the address Castle Street, because we will come across them again, about a year later on.

COGIT. INT. II - I have long wondered why John and Constantia Maria were not married in a church, and specifically in the very recently re-built parish church of St Martin in the Fields. This was her parish, and given that she was the only daughter of a deceased Baronet, and the sister of the then present Sir Roger BURGOYNE, the 6th Baronet, I am thinking that a wedding in a charming and chimed church, by a virtuous Vicar or a pious Parson or a righteous Rector, under the watchful eye of her bedamed and debaroneted mother sitting in one of the posher and posied pews, would have been par for the course. Did the bride's mother, Dame Constance WREN, attend the room above the mews of the Castle Coffee House? Or would it have taken her too far out of her comfort zone? And did that rankle? Might, perchance, Constantia have been showing some physical evidence that the wedding was a rushed job? But I do need to exercise some caution here - the cogitation is already beginning to deteriorate!

John being the Captain of a West Indies Merchant ship may have dark shadows - most, if not all of the West Indies sea trade would have found themselves in the triangle of trade winds, which took them southwards to Africa; then to the West Indies, more likely than not with a cargo of African slaves; and then on the return voyage to England with cargoes of sugar, spices and tobacco. Back in English ports, many a Captain would find himself lodged in prison, usually under quite comfortable circumstances, until their cargoes were sold, costs recovered, and customs and excise duties associated with those cargoes were discharged.
On 10 January 1749-50, the Board of Trade and Plantations met to discuss issues relating to the African Trade; at this meeting, Mr WHITAKER, an agent for several gentlemen in England whose estates in the Caribbean were greatly understocked "... for want of Gold Coast and Whydah slaves that used to be imported 25 years since," observed that "... the supply of these... had continued to decrease for twenty years," and remembered:
"... a ship of Captain PIGOTT, belonging to Mr LASCELLES, that did bring, he believed, 500 Gold Coast slaves, which were all sold in one day..."
[Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, from January 1749-50 to December 1753, H.M.S.O., London, 1932, page 7.]

If WHITAKER was remembering back the full 25 years, this Captain PIGOTT may well have been our John.

But it appears that John PIGOTT's career as a Sea Captain may have been short-lived.
The Frigate Chester, Captain PIGOTT, sailed from Deal for Barbados, 20 July 1728 [The Daily Journal, London, Monday 22 July]; arrived at Barbados from London, 21 September 1728 [Daily Journal, Saturday 9 November]; arrived at Falmouth from Barbados, 23 December 1728 [Daily Journal, 1 January 1729]; sailed from Plymouth for London, 12 January 1729 [Daily Journal, Thursday 16 January]; and arrived at Deal, from Barbados, 15 January 1729 [Daily Journal, Friday 17 January].
On 23 May 1729, the Chester, Frigat, with 6 guns, Square sterned, Boston built, Burden 230 tons or thereabouts, now lying in Mr WELLS's Dry Dock near the great wet dock, Rotherhithe, John PIGOTT Commander, was advertised to be sold at LLOYD's Coffee House, Lombard Street.
And on her next voyage, departing Deal for Antigua, 28 June 1729, the Chester was under the command of Captain CURTIS.

And it brings a real sense of horror to see how relatively easy it was for men of that time to engage in what is now rightly seen to be one of the most abominable of trades; and of how "matter-of-factly" they discussed "mere statistics" relating to it.

COGIT. INT. III - There is no hard evidence that this John PIGOTT, Captain of the frigate "Chester," was actually the spouse of Constantia Maria BURGOYNE. The presumption is mine, and I may be wrong. But it is supported in a circumstantial way by the character evidence provided by one of his fellow sailors at his murder trial at the Old Bailey in 1731, identifying a voyage that matches that of the frigate Chester. If that Captain John PIGOTT being tried at the Old Bailey (see below) was indeed the same man!

HIS FIRST WIFE CONSTANCE BURGOYNE.

Constantia Maria (Constance) BURGOYNE was born in 1705, the only daughter of Sir Roger BURGOYNE, 4th Baronet of Sutton Park, Beds, and of Wroxall, Warwickshire (his aunt Judith BURGOYNE just happened to be the childless wife of Robert PIGOTT of Dysart), and a first cousin of General John BURGOYNE (he led the English Armies to defeat in the American "Revolutionary" War of Independence).
The 4th Baronet made a generous provision for his daughter Constance in his will (proved P.C.C., 29 March 1716) - she was to share £6,000 equally with her younger brother Roger, and she would get the whole £6,000 if it happened that the eldest son and heir John died, and Roger inherited the Baronetcy. This did actually happen, but not until several months after the father died, and perhaps after the terms of his will had already been settled.
But at the time of her marriage, the London Daily Post [Thursday 22 January 1730], reported that her fortune had grown somewhat:
"LONDON. We hear that Capt. PIGGOT, lately commander of a Ship in the West India Trade, was married a few days ago to Miss BURGOIGNE (Daughter to the Hon Lady BURGOIGNE of Broadstreet, and Sister to the present Sir Roger BURGOIGNE, Bart.) a young Lady of great Merit and £10,000 fortune."

[Hand-written and Pro-forma Allegations of Intention to Marriage for the purposes of obtaining

a Marriage Licence. Images obtained from the ancestry.Library edition.]

[Image of part of the page for January 1729-30, in Gaynam's Fleet Register. Courtesy of the P.R.P., London, 

by arrangement with Ancestry.Library edition.]

Captain John PIGOTT had indeed married very well! And he was probably now financially able to forgo his career at sea.

Word appears to have got around that Robert PIGOTT had intended another nephew other than Thomas to inherit, perhaps our John, as I had inferred earlier (see above), and as the London Newspaper gossips appear to have done likewise:
"On Thursday, Capt PICKET and his newly married Lady, Daughter of Sir Roger BURGOINE, set out together for Ireland, to take possession of a great Estate in Ireland, left him by an Uncle lately deceased in that Kingdom."
[London Daily Post, Friday 22 May 1730.]

And that word quickly spread to Ireland, where an identical item appeared in Faulkner's Dublin Journal of Saturday 30 May.
But the London Press was clearly not aware that the present Baronet was instead her brother - and, more importantly, they were unaware that the "great estate" in Ireland had already been sold off.

COGIT. INT. IV - The mis-understanding concerning the ownership of Dysart may not have been down to the London Press - Captain John PIGOTT himself may not have been aware. I have to say that it would surprise me if John had lost contact so comprehensively with the uncle who had raised him - but I also have to admit that it is a possibility. Perhaps he spent all of his time at sea, from as young as 14 or 15 years, first as a young midshipman, then up through the ranks of Mate, until he was made a Captain in his own right, probably in or before 1727-28. This might also help to explain why he was not mentioned in his uncle Robert PIGOTT's 1728 will (see next below).

COGIT. INT. V - We cannot be certain as to how John PIGOTT learned of his uncle Robert's death. Perhaps a notice of the event appeared in a London newspaper, which paper has either not survived, or has not yet been digitalised? But there may be another answer, which I suspect is more likely - that he was advised by letter from Ireland, and if so, probably by one of Robert's four executors. And if any one of them knew where John was holed up in London with his new bride, then his uncle Robert would probably also have had that information shortly before his death. If this scenario turns out to be appropriate, then another question arises as to John's apparent "lack of awareness" of the sale of Dysart - could this be because Robert PIGOTT did not widely advertise the fact that the estate had been sold? He did, after all, continue to reside there (under the terms of the sale to his second cousin Emanuel PIGOTT), and he was still recognised in Quaker Tythe Confiscation records as being the Impropriator of Dysart and Kilteale until 1730 (Emanuel's name did not appear there until after Robert's death). Perhaps Robert kept it close to his chest so that his litigant nephew Thomas PIGOTT, with whom Robert almost certainly would have again "ceased all dealings" (as he had already done, even before he came of age in 1716), was not fore-warned?

COGIT. INT. VI - However, as we shall see next below, Robert's estate had already been settled, with a grant of Probate in Dublin on 30 April 1730, some three weeks before John and his wife set out from London. If the news of his uncle's death came from one of Robert's executors, then surely they would have made it clear to John what he might expect to inherit. I am assuming here that, even in adverse weather conditions, travel times between Dublin and London would have been quicker than 3 weeks? Indeed, we do find a report published in the Grub Street Journal (London) on Thursday 29 January 1730, concerning the granting of the Freedom of the City of Dublin to the Very Rev Dean SWIFT, datelined at Dublin on January 20 - and that is only 9 days.

HIS UNCLE ROBERT PIGOTT OF DYSART.

The uncle, Robert PIGOTT of Dysart, and widower of Judith BURGOYNE, had died at Dysart on 10 April 1730. He was buried in the family vault in Dysart Church.

[The ruins of Dysart Church, built in the early 1700s over the ruins of a much older church, half a mile

south of Dysart Castle, and unroofed in a gale in 1847. This photograph was taken in 2004.]

But Robert's will, proved 30 April 1730, made no mention of our young John:
"Robert PIGOTT of Disart, Queen's County, Esq. Will dated 5 January 1728. To be buried in the vault in Disart Church near my father, mother and wife. £1400 is due by bond from Richard WARBURTON of Garryhinch, Esq, and Capt John WARBURTON his brother; £600 from Richard WARBURTON of Donycarney, Councellor; £100 from Capt John WHEATLEY of Mountmelic; £50 from Sir Thos SLADE of Dublin; £50 from Dudley COSBY and Pole COSBY, Esq; £900 due on my death by deed of sale of Disart, etc; which altogether amount to £3,100.
"I give £1000 to Pigott SANDES and Capt Richard SANDES his brother, in Trust, for my nephew Thos PIGOTT, 1st son of my brother John PIGOTT, to pay the interest towards discharging the rent of the farm he holds of Warner WESTENRA, Esq.
"I give them also £350 to pay the rent of the farm of Coulereth held by my sister Martha BOWKER, and at her death, £100 to her 1st son John BOWKER, £100 to her daughter Frances BOWKER, and £150 each to her youngest sons Sam'l and Rob't BOWKER. To my nephew Robert PIGOTT, 2nd son of my brother John, £700. To my nephews Pigott and Richard SANDES, £300 in trust for my brother Walter PIGOTT. To my niece Judith PIGOTT, youngest daughter of my brother John, £300. For my sister PHELLIPE £100, and at her death to go to her daughters Mary and Eliz. My niece Eliz PIGOTT, daughter of my brother Alex'r, £100, and to his 2nd son John PIGOTT £50, and to his youngest son Starkey PIGOTT £50, and to his 1st son Robert PIGOTT £50. To my cousin Judith PIGOTT, wife of Emanuel PIGOTT, Esq, all my furniture. My brother Samuel BOWKER. All residue to my nephew Thos PIGOTT, son of my brother John.
"My said nephew Tho PIGOTT, Pigott SANDES, Richard SANDES, and Sam'l BOWKER my brother-in-law, Executors. Witnessed by Warner WESTENRA and William CAULFIELD. Seal affixed bears 'Ermine, Three fusils Argent'."
[Vere Langford OLIVER, Op. Cit., Volume 3, page 25, with footnote - "For the extracts from the Irish Wills... the author is indebted to Mr William Jackson PIGOTT of Dundrum Manor House, County Down." The PIGOTT Arms have been misread - the correct blazon is "Ermine, Three fusils conjoined in fess, Sable, on the centre one a crescent, Or, for difference."]

I have given the full abstract text of this will, not because it mentions young John, but because it doesn't. And judging by Deeds evidence of young John's later property dealings, it probably should have, raising the question as to whether the last bequest of "...all residue to my nephew" should have been instead to Jno PIGOTT, and that Tho. was perhaps a misreading of the original. And whether this might account for the absence of the phrase "the said" before the second mention. But the extract does show it as "Tho." and the original is now almost certainly destroyed.

COGIT. INT. VII - Perhaps it does mention him - and as John PIGOTT, the son of Alexander PIGOTT?

Further, there are three Deeds of Assignment, dated 30 September 1730, and lodged at the Deeds Registry, Henrietta Street, Dublin, which identify the person who was granted probate:
"Whereas the said Robert PIGOTT, by his late Will and testament, in Writing by him duly made, published in his lifetime, and dated the 5th Day of January 1728... the said will, remaining as of record in his Majesty's Prerogative Court of this Kingdom may more at large appear, a probate of which Will and Administration cum Testamento Annexo by the said Court, Granted and committed to Thos PIGOTT, nephew of the said Testator..."
[Abstracted from Memorials Numbered 44374, 44375 and 44376.]

COGIT. INT. VIII - After all of the trouble that his nephew Thomas put him to over the ownership of Kilcromin, which is, I believe, likely to have been one of the main reasons why Robert sold Dysart (so that Thomas could not get his hands on any part of it), then I find it hard to believe that Robert granted him the residue and made him an executor.

COGIT. INT. IX - The value of "residue" of the estate remains unknown. Robert sold Dysart to his second cousin Emanuel in 1725 for the "princely" sum of about £4,000. The total of all the individual bequests in his 1728 will amounted to £3,600, which would, presumably, in due course be largely offset by the debts owing to the estate, calculated by Robert as being £3,100. Assuming that Robert did not, in the meantime, spend all of the sale price he was "paid" for Dysart, this still leaves potentially a substantial residue - perhaps in the vicinity of £2,000 or more?

COGIT. INT. X - Further, it appears to me that the first entry, addressing Thomas's rental debt owing to Warner WESTENRA, would probably have been thereby rendered redundant. What I do see, and quite clearly, is that the first provision was not made out of any sense of Robert's goodwill towards Thomas (which had well and truly evaporated), but was there to ensure WESTENRA was paid in full. In 1730, Warner WESTENRA would fill Robert PIGOTT's vacant Parliamentary seat for the Borough of Maryborough.

COGIT. INT. XI - It does now occur to me that Robert PIGOTT may not have mentioned his nephew John, son of his late brother John, because he had lost contact with him. Which would fit with the notion discussed above that Captain John PIGOTT, with the BURGOYNE spouse, was not aware of his uncle having sold Dysart. If that Captain John was indeed the son of John PIGOTT of Kilcromin? But would he not have been alerted to the recent nuptials in London by his late wife's family? Had that happened, Robert may have inserted a Codicil - but there was no Codicil, so, if the wording of the abstract is exactly as Robert willed, he evidently could not have known.

COGIT. INT. XII - However, we see above that Captain John PIGOTT and his new wife "...set out together for Ireland" on 21 May 1730, three weeks AFTER Robert's will had already been proved in Prerogative Court in Dublin. Perhaps Captain John was the John PIGOTT who WAS named in the will, but instead as the son of Alexander PIGOTT. And that, I suspect, would turn this into an entirely different story.

William Jackson PIGOTT (WJP) died in 1921, just a few months before the disastrous Four Courts fires. He was a grandson of John (although he thought another generation intervened, which he "invented"); he was also a first cousin of my own great-grandfather (Henry Robert PIGOTT, born in Dublin in 1838). WJP's abundant research into our family origins has shed much light on the genealogy of this branch of PIGOTTs, and his pedigree construction of it is published in HOWARD and CRISPS's "Modern Visitation of Ireland," 1895, Volume 2, page 95.


JOHN PIGOTT REMAINS FOR A WHILE IN LONDON.

But it appears that John had not yet finished with London.

On 14 July 1731, Captain John PIGOTT, of St Martin-in-the-Fields, was tried in thek  Old Bailey for the murder of Matthew MORRIS, a boy, who died after being struck a blow to the head by Captain PIGOTTII wielding a billiard cue, during a game at the Castle Coffee house in Castle Street, Leicester Fields, of which Mr WEBSTER was the Proprietor.
One of Captain PIGOTT's character witnesses, Captain MAYNE, deposed that he had known PIGOTT for five years, and had sailed with him as Mate to Barbados. The jury brought in a lesser charge of Manslaughter, for which PIGOTT was branded (or burnt in the hand) and discharged.

The full account of the trial can be found at the www.oldbaileyonline.org web-site, makes interesting reading, and is as follows:
"John PIGGOT, of St. Martins in the Fields, was indicted for the Murther of Matthew MORRICE by giving him one mortal Wound with a Billiard Stick on the Head, of which he instantly died.
"He was also indicted a second time for the feloniously slaying of the said Person.
"Captain LITTLER depos'd, That he was sitting in the Room, where were several Gentlemen, and the Prisoner and Mr BARON were playing a Game at Billiards, and Capt COLT and the Prisoner had laid a Bett of 4 or 5 s. upon the Game, and a piece that had been glued into the Billiard-stick dropped out, and the Deceased was sent out to get it mended, that there happening to be a Dispute about the Bett while the Boy was gone, when he came in again, the Prisoner said to him, you young Rogue, this is all along of you, if you had been here this Dispute had not happened, and gave him a Blow on the Head with the Billiard-stick, which he did not apprehend could have been of so bad consequence, that the Boy falling down, and he perceiving his Head to bleed, he himself took him out, and supposing it to have been no more than a common broken Head, told him, he should have something to make him amends, and called for Water and a Cloth, and a Pair of Scissors to cut the Hair off, and to wash his Head, he bleeding very much; and in a little time, while he was doing it, the Boy fell a trembling, and fell as he thought into a Fit, upon which he sent immediately for a Surgeon; that Mr BARON came in, and said, he will come out of his Fit anon; and an Apothecary came, and the Prisoner came in, and sent immediately for Mr WILKS, a Surgeon, and was very much concern'd that he had injured the Boy, for he lov'd the Boy, as did all the Gentlemen that us'd the House, he behaving himself very well, so that the Gentlemen would play at Billiards with him, and that at the time the Prisoner struck the Boy, he did not seem to be in a Passion.
"Captain COLT depos'd, That he was present, and saw the Blow given, but did not think it could have done the Boy any hurt.
"James FERGUSON depos'd, That he saw the Blow given, and the Prisoner said to him, you little Rogue, if you had not staid so long, this Dispute had not happened; that he did not apprehend the Blow to be such, that could have done the Boy any Injury, nor the Prisoner to be in any Passion, or angry with him when the Blow was given, nor that he gave it with any Intent to hurt him, nor did he repeat the Blow.
"Mr BAKER depos'd, That he did not perceive that the Blow was given with any Violence, and when the Prisoner found the Boy was hurt, though he nor any of them could in the least apprehend it could be mortal, he was very much concern'd.
"Mr BARON depos'd as the other Evidences had done, and that he had given much greater Blows to his own Son, to his thinking, without doing him any Injury, that the Blow did not seem to him to be given with any Violence; that tho' a Surgeon was sent for, it about 3 Quarters of an Hour before he was came, that when he came, he said, he believ'd he could have saved the Boy's Life if he had been sent for sooner, but now it was too late.
"James WILKS, the Surgeon, depos'd, That he opened the Deceased's Head, that the Wound was upon the middle of the Coronal Suture, an Inch and a Quarter long, but had not divided the Pericrarium, nor was there any Fracture, but he apprehends that the Concussion had wounded an Artery of the Brain, and he could hardly have thought it could have been done by the Blow of such an Instrument had he not seen it; and that he found in the Head about three Ounces of extravasated Blood, that the Depth of the Wound was but a third part of an Inch, and was of Opinion, that if he had been trepanned immediately, it might have saved his Life, by preventing the Blood from pressing upon the Vessels.
"Mr TAST, a Surgeon, depos'd, That when he came he found the Boy in strong Convulsions, and was surpriz'd his Wound being so very slight to see such Symptoms; that at the first, he did not think that Wound could have been the Cause of his Death; but seeing the Symptoms, he sent for Instruments to trepan him, but before they came he was dead.
"Mr BARNET, the Apothecary, depos'd, That when he came the Boy was in strong Convulsions, and he let him Blood, and he bled freely, that he prob'd his Wound, but could not find that it was fractur'd, and the Surgeon said, it was not, and that at first he thought the Boy had been only frighted, and he did not think such a Blow could have put him into Convulsion-Fits.
"The Prisoner call'd several Persons to his Character.
"Capt MAYNE depos'd, That he had known the Prisoner 5 Years, and was his Mate to Barbadoes , and he never saw him in a Passion, or strike a Man a Blow all the Voyage.
"Slingsby BETHEL depos'd, That he had known him 5 or 6 Years, and had been very Conversant with him, and had never seen him in a Passion, or Guilty of any Misbehaviour.
"Several other Gentlemen appear'd, who gave him the Character of a good-natur'd, Honerable, and inoffensive Man.
"After a full hearing of the Evidence, the Jury acquitted him of the Murther, and found him Guilty upon the Coroner's-Inquest of Manslaughter only .
"[Branding. See summary.]"
[Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.2, 23 June 2016), July 1731, trial of John Piggot (t17310714-27).]

Here we see again the name WEBSTER, and his address in Castle Street, presumably with the mews above which Captain John had been married, in January 1730.

COGIT. INT. XIII - Once again, there is no definitive evidence that this was Captain John PIGOTT with the BURGOYNE spouse. But there are so many coincidences here that they are beginning to look like something other than coincidences! It is highly tempting to "join the dots," as I have been doing here, but perhaps this does not furnish us with the right answer. However, if this was our Captain John PIGOTT, and his marriage to Constantia Maria had not been fully approved by his mother-in-law, then it is highly likely that this further "fall from grace" might have tipped her over the edge, and she may have started putting obstacles in his way, specifically in connection with what John may have seen as his rights to Constantia's property as her husband, which may be the reason for his quick departure to Ballynonty, and the legal actions which took place between them.

And on 4 November 1731, John and Constantia Maria baptised their daughter Constance PIGOT, at St James's, Westminster, having been born 29 October [I.G.I.].
So it certainly appears that the PIGOTTs did not make their home in Ireland, at least not on their first return visit in May 1730.
And it suggests that Frances, the elder daughter, was probably therefor born around October 1730 - which just works date-wise, without her necessarily having been conceived before the wedding.

On Wednesday 30 August 1732, the London Daily Post carried the following advertisement:
"To be sold at AUCTION. This day, the 30th inst, and the following Days, in Great Poultney Street near Golden Square. The entire Household Furniture of Capt. John PIGOTT, lately gone abroad; consisting of standing beds and good bedding, very fine Dier and Chimney Glasses, Sconces, Wallnut Tree book-cases, Buroes and Chests for clothes, with Kitchen and other furniture, little the worse for wear; a likewise valuable collection of Pictures, Plates, Jewels, China and other curiosities. The Goods to be viewed this day till the time of sale which will begin each day at 11 o'clock."

It would appear that Captain John PIGOTT may have gone abroad in a bit of a hurry! And, as we shall see below, probably gone off to County Tipperary, in Ireland.

COGIT. INT. XIV - What made John PIGOTT decamp to Ireland? Could he have found himself in some financial difficulties, associated perhaps with his new-found status as a Merchant in London (see next below)? And might one reasonably expect that his Mercantile interests, and those of any partners involved, would be concentrated in the West Indies trade, either as a trader in goods imported from the West Indies colonies, or perhaps even as a joint ship-owner engaged in the Maritime side of that trade? We do not yet know.

A CHAIN OF CHANCERY COURT LITIGATION.

In 1731, John PIGOTT and his wife Constantia Maria were plaintiffs in Pleadings heard in the Court of Chancery, against Christopher WREN, Esq, and Robert KENDALL, Fishmonger of London, the defendants [TNA - Ref C 11/2041/17] - and in the index to this record, John is recorded as being a "Merchant of London."

COGIT. INT. XV - Christopher WREN, Esq (his portrait above), a son of the great church-building architect, had married in Cople, Bedfordshire, on 8 November 1715, as his second wife, Constantia's widowed mother, Dame Constance (MIDDLETON), the widow of Sir Roger BURGOYNE the 4th Baronet. Dame Constance (her portrait below) died at Sutton, Bedfordshire, on 23 Apr 1734. Robert KENDALL's connection remains unknown.

Another pair of records also exists at Kew, dated 1733 [TNA - Refs C 11/2053/39, a Bill and Answer; and C 11/2056/19, an Answer only], in which John PIGOTT is recorded as one of the Orators, and "...late of the parish of St James's Westminster, in the Liberty of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, Esquire, but now of Tipperary in the Kingdom of Ireland" - his co-plaintiffs (identified as the Oratrix and Orators) were his wife Constantia Maria (described in full details as the daughter of the late Baronet of Wraxall); Ambrose HARDING, Esq, late of the Middle Temple, and now of Kildalton, Limerick, Ireland; and Pigott SANDES, Esq, of Queen's County, Leitrim, Ireland - and the defendants were Christopher WREN, Esq, and Dame Constance WREN his wife, and Sir Roger BURGOYNE (the 6th Baronet).
This complaint recited at some length the details in Sir Roger BURGOYNE's will, dated 2 November 1710, concerning the provisions he made for his only daughter Constantia Maria, and mentioned "...Indentures of Lease and Release inrolled in Chancery and bearing date on or about the 3rd of May then last past" by which Henry NEALE, Esq, and Thomas HALFEHIDE, Gent, were appointed trustees of the estate of his late father Sir John BURGOYNE, and to further act as Trustees in the event of his own death, and to make provisions for the paying of his bequests, which would amount to £3,000 for his daughter, and another £3,000 to her from his younger son Roger if, as happened, he was to inherit the Baronetcy and his real estate.
After mentioning the marriage of her mother, Dame Constance BURGOYNE, to Christopher WREN, Esq, and of his own marriage to Constantia Maria BURGOYNE, John PIGOTT stated that he thereby:
"...became intitled to the said £6,000 and interest thereof, and thereupon £3,000, part of the said £6,000 was paid to your Orator and Oratrix, John PIGOTT and Constantia his wife, or for their use. And your Orators and Oratrix show that £1,000, part of the £3,000 was paid as aforesaid being in cash and notes, and £2,000 the residue being placed out in South Sea Stock, and the other 3,000 remaining charged upon the said Sir Roger BURGYONE's estate."
Shortly after the marriage, John PIGOTT of London, Merchant, and his wife Constantia, made an Indenture, dated 10 February 1729-30, with Christopher WREN, Esq, and Robert KENDAL, Citizen and Fishmonger of London, as the other joint party, by which it was agreed that:
"...for the better enabling your Orator John PIGOTT to carry on his trade as a Merchant, and for making some provision for himself and his wife and their children, they, the said John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria did bargain, sell, assign and make over unto the said Christopher WREN and Robert KENDAL, their executors, administrators and assigns, the sum of £6,000 and all their right and interest therein upon the Trusts and to the intents and purposes therein and hereinafter mentioned and declared; that is to say upon trust that they should pay to your Orator John PIGOTT or his assigns the sum of £2,000, part of the said sum of £6,000, for his present occasions; and as to the remaining £4,000 upon trust, that they should, with the approbation and consent of the said John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria his wife, or the survivor of them, and after their deaths, should, with their own good liking, place out the said £4,000 upon Securities or invest the same in a purchase of lands in fee simple and the interest of the money and profits of the lands should be paid to the said John PIGOTT for his life, and after his death to the said Constantia Maria for her life, and after their deaths to such of their children if more than one, as they or their survivor should direct..."
John then advised the Judge hearing the case:
"...that the said Trustees accepted this trust, and paid your Orator John PIGOTT the sum of £2,000 according to the agreement in the said Indenture, and that £1,000 South Sea Stock, part of the £2,000 South Sea Stock, was transferred to into the names of the Trustees and has not yet paid out in a purchase, nor has the remaining £3,000 been paid by the said Sir Roger BURGOYNE, but still remains charged on his estate as aforesaid.
"And your Orators and Oratrix further show that your Orator John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria his wife, going to reside in Ireland, and it being much to their advantage that the said £4,000 should be vested in lands or be placed out on security in that Kingdom; and the said trustees being unwilling to act further in the said Trust, a Bill was Exhibited in this Honourable Court by your Orator John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria his wife, praying that the trustees might either act in the said Trust or assign the same as that Court should direct; To which they put in their answer, and the Cause was heard on the 25th of March 1732; and it appears that the trustees declined to act in the trust, and were desirous to be discharged therefrom.
"It was ordered that it should be referred to Francis ELDE, Esqs, one of the Masters of this Honourable Court, to appoint two new Trustees in the Room of the former Trustees, and that such former trustees should assign their trusts to them, subject to ye trusts in ye said deed of Settlement, and that the £4,000 should be laid out in a purchase of lands in Ireland with the consent of eh new Trustees, with the approbation of your Orator John PIGOTT and his wife, to be settled according to ye limitations of the said deed of settlement; And until such purchases, that the £4,000 should be placed out on good security in Ireland in ye names of such new Trustees, and with ye approbation of your Orator and Oratrix John PIGOTT and his wife, the Trustees declaring the Trust accordingly..
"And you Orator and Oratrix further show that the said Master ELDE, by his report dated the 24th of May 1732, approved of and appointed your Orators Ambrose HARDING and Pigott SANDES to be trustees..."
So John PIGOTT was re-settled in Ireland, with his wife, and her fortune, with his own appointed Trustees, ready to begin investing in Irish property.
Although it became increasing evident in the Orator's case that the half-share that Sir Roger BURGOYNE owed his sister was going to be a problem - Sir Roger, and his mother and stepfather, as well as some un-named "confederates" of theirs, had begun to deny that part of Sir Roger the father's will, and made claims that the estates could not bear the financial imposts anyway.

COGIT. INT. XVI - It is beginning to look like Captain John PIGOTT had indeed departed the London scene before 1733, and settled in County Tipperary in Ireland. I cannot be sure whether Constantia Maria took the children with him, or stayed behind in London at her mother's house - but her inclusion in the Plaintiffs list does suggest she went with John - and perhaps she returned later, before her death. It appears that were no further children born after Constantia Maria Junior in 1731, or if there were, they evidently did not survive. I had wondered whether this absence of further children may be an indication that there was some sort of separation at about this time. But the fact that John later has possession of his late wife's trunk with clothing for her two daughters when they grew up, and the plethora of BURGOYNE Plate that John had in Dublin when it was "stolen" during the 1740's, does suggest otherwise.

COGIT. INT. XVII - The third co-plaintiff, Ambrose HARDING, appears later in Captain John PIGOTT's story as his Attorney, to whom he entrusted his personal papers when his second wife was busy rifling his escritoire in the house in Abbey Street, Dublin (see John's 1749 Broadside below). Ambrose was admitted to the Middle Temple, London, on 24 January 1720-21, as the son and heir of the late William HARDING of Cloghdalton, near Limerick, Ireland. He was executor of his probable relation Robert HARDING, and in April 1748 he proved the 1731 will of Robert's wife Amy HARDING, formerly HALES, of Cloghdalton, County Limerick. Ambrose was living in Dublin in 1766-68, at Little Longford Street, a Barrister, having been admitted to the Bar in 1728, in Michaelmas term [WILSON's Directory]. It appears that he married Margaret BAILLIE, by whom he had a daughter Frances Catherine HARDING, the wife of William RYVES (they were married by M.L.B., Diocese of Dublin, in 1787), who, as Mrs RYVES of Ryves Castle, published a book of poems entitled "Cumbrian Legends and Tales of Other Times" in 1812; she had a daughter Margracia RYVES, who died at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 30 July 1860, aged 72, the widow of Dr Charles LOUDON, having published a number of novels, as Mrs LOUDOUN, including "First Love" in 3 Volumes in 1830, "Fortune Hunting" in 3 Volumes in 1832, "Dilemmas of Pride" in 3 Volumes in 1833, "Maternal Love" in 3 Volumes in 1849, and "The Fortunes of Women" in 1849.

COGIT. INT. XVIII - The fourth co-complainant, Pigott SANDES, was a son of Lancelot SANDES of Kilcavan, Queen's County, by his wife Elizabeth PIGOTT, and was thereby a first cousin of Captain John PIGOTT - and in 1730, he had proved Robert PIGOTT of Dysart's will as one of the executors. He would have known John well enough as they grew up in the Queen's County, probably in occasional contact at their uncle's house at Dysart. It will be fascinating if his presence here means there is any connection to that will. Perhaps Pigott SANDES had temporarily settled in Ballynonty? Perhaps he had visited John PIGOTT in London about the time of his marriage? If Captain John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria BURGOYNE did make Marriage Settlements before their nuptials, Pigott SANDES may have been there, and may have been a party, possibly as an executor of the will which might have brought John PIGOTT a handy windfall?

COGIT. INT. XIX - A copy of this Bill and two Answers was ordered from TNA on 28 June 2016. It puts me in an interesting position - of being able to speculate in some detail what I might expect to find here, and very soon able to mark my own exam paper, as it were! It will not surprise me if the nub of the issue revolves around Constantia Maria's large cash bequest in her father's will, and possible activity by her step-father Christopher WREN to limit John PIGOTT's access to whatever part of that bequest which may not yet been fully paid out. We shall see (next below) that the size of the bequest was expected to strain the BURGOYNE family's finances, and the executors were required to look for a buyer for part of the estate or estates. This is evidently where Sir Christopher WREN stepped in, all cashed up from his successes as the rebuilder of London's churches, and looking for a suitable estate for his only son and recently widowered heir apparent - and that was to be the Warwickshire estate of Wroxall. The Marriage Settlements for his 1715 nuptials with the widowed guardian of the new Sir Roger BURGOYNE, 6th Baronet, and his elder sister Constantia Maria, would make interesting reading, and almost certainly would have made some mention of the sale of the Wraxall part of the BURGOYNE estates to Sir Christopher WREN - and if so, making a provision within it for the share allocated to Constantia Maria to be assured. Whether Captain John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria made Marriage Settlements before their marriage in 1730 is unkown, but possible - indeed, I would have thought that the BURGOYNE's might have expected Captain John PIGOTT to bring some sort of financial contribution into the marriage, and to make that secure in a pre-nuptial Settlement, nothwithstanding the possibility that that event may have been the subject of "fast-tracking" pressures. The legal cases presented here will no doubt make it clear what legal obligations flowed from either or both of these Marriage Settlements, if they were ever made, and whether they had been observed, or had been violated. I can hardly wait!

COGIT. INT. XX - Indeed, Sir Roger BURGOYNE, the 4th Baronet, made his will on 2 November 1710, and appointed his wife Dame Constance as his executrix, and conditionally as the guardian of their three young children. She, and her heirs, executors and assigns, were instructed to "...immediately after my death, by sale or otherwise out of my said lands and real estate, or such part thereof only as she sees fit, raise so much money as shall with my personal estate be sufficient to pay all of my debts and funeral expenses, and after they shall be all paid, then it is my will and I do hereby direct that my said wife and her heirs, executors and assigns respectively, shall by the means aforesaid raise the full sum of six thousand pounds and pay the same unto and amongst my two younger children Constance and Roger BURGOYNE share and share alike, to my son at his age of one and twenty years and to my daughter at that age or marriage which shall first happen..." He further requested that the interest of these amounts should be applied by the Guardian or Guardians to the maintenance of the said children; that any overplus thereof should go to his wife Constance; and that in the event that his elder son John died and the younger son Roger inherited the Baronetcy and the residue of his estates, then he should pay his half share of that £6000 to Constance (Junior), if she be then still living. But, he made a detailed proviso that Dame Constance could only remain as the Guardian if she continued as his widow until the bequests matured, and if not (either by her death or re-marriage), then the Guardians were to be instead his brother-in-law Thomas MIDDLETON, John CATER, Esq, and his cousin William SOMERFIELD, Esq. The will was not proved until 29 March 1716, and then on the oath of the Executrix, Dame Constance BURGOYNE, despite this being nearly 5 months AFTER she had become the wife of Christopher WREN. This all appears to be very specific, and unlikely to present any interpretation difficulties in a Court of law. There was a burial recorded in the Sutton parish register of All Saints church in Bedfordshire, for a Roger BURGOYNE, on 25 June 1711. This was probably the 4th Baronet, as the History of Parliament on-line biography records that his elder son died in July 1711 (and we know that this occurred some six weeks after the death of Sir Roger, which very nearly fits with the June burial). It appears, therefore, that Dame Constance did take some years to prove the will - and by the time she did, she has lost the right to be the legal Guardian of her two surviving children. The same History of Parliament biography (for Sir Roger, the 6th Bart) records that Dame Constance sold Wraxall in 1713, and in accordance with her late husband's will (Bryan D.G. LITTLE, in his "Sir Christopher WREN: a historical biography," 1975, at page 246, records that this sale took place in August 1713). The second alternate guardian was inevitably John CATER of Kempstone, Bedfordshire, aged 23, Bachelor, with a Marriage License Bond (Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury), dated 6 July 1695, for his marriage at St Christopher's, London, to Mary MIDDLETON, aged 17, Spinster, daughter of Sir Thomas MIDDLETON of Stanstead Mont Figett (Mountfitchett), Co Essex, Knt, who consents. Mary CATER was evidently Dame Constance WREN alias BURGOYNE's sister.

And there was yet another, dated 22 November 1735 [TNA - Ref C 11/863/39], for a Bill only, in which John PIGOTT Esq is recorded as co-Plaintiff,  being of Bally Nouty (Ballynonty), Tipperary, together with his wife Constantia Maria (described here as the only daughter of Sir Roger BURGYONE, Bart, deceased, late of Wraxall, Warwickshire, and his wife Dame Constance BURGOYNE, also now deceased) - the Defendants were listed as Christopher WREN, Vigerius EDWARDS, Robert KENDALL and Stephen WREN.

COGIT. INT. XXI - This last action may have been the direct result of death removing one of the Parties to the earlier actions - in the form of Dame Constance WREN, Constantia Maria PIGOTT's mother.

COGIT. INT. XXII - The timing of this event ties in very nicely with the date of John PIGOTT's admission into the Middle Temple, on 10 December 1735. We cannot be entirely certain that this was our Captain John PIGOTT, although it does appear likely from some aspects of his and his brother Thomas's deeds making in Ireland over the next 30 years. But if our Captain John did return to London to appear himself in these latter Chancery Court proceedings, then he may just have decided to get himself a little bit of a helping hand from the Honourable Society of Barristers otherwise known as Middle Templars.

JOHN PIGOTT IN IRELAND.

The punitive provisions of post Battle-of-the-Boyne property law required all property transactions in Ireland to be Registered, the machinery for this being in place by 1708.
The earliest deed yet found in the Deeds Registry in Henrietta Street, Dublin, which names our John PIGOTT, was a Deed Poll dated 15 March 1727, in which John and his sister Ann acknowledge receipt of all due to them under their father's will, cited in the deed as follows:
"...a last Will and Testament of Our father John PIGOTT, Esq'r, Dece'd, bearing date the Second of March (1708-09), the sum of £200 sterling was left to me John PIGOTT as a portion, and the sum of £300 to me Ann PIGOTT as my portion, also a dividend to each of us of £30 more, our shares of our Sister Frances PIGOTT's portion, dec'd, all of which said sums were and each of us do acknowledge to have been received from our uncle Robert PIGOTT, Lancelot SANDES, and John LYONS, Esq, Ex'ors of our said father's will..."
[Extract from Memorial Number 37417, page 164.]

The memorial indicates that the deed was signed by Ann, but not by John, who may well have been absent, probably somewhere in the "Triangle of Trade" (although he was identified as "Esquire" and not as Captain). Three other Deeds, dated 30 September 1730, pertaining to the provisions of the will of Robert PIGOTT of Dysart, and citing an earlier Deed dated 1725 (concerning the sale of Dysart by Robert to his cousin Emanuel), named the nephews and nieces Thomas, Judith and Robert, but not our John!

John's next mention is a deed of Lease dated 23 February 1735, John now of Ballynonty, County Tipperary, Esq'r, together with his brother Thomas, of Mounteagle, Queen's County, concerning the Town and Lands of Bawnaghera (alias Banachrie), Parish of Erke, Barony of Ossory (which Thomas had acquired by bequest of their distant cousin, Thomas PIGOTT of Gurteen, in 1729), although it is not clear from the wording who was the lessee (undoubtedly John). These same lands were sold by Thomas to John by an Indented Deed dated 16 December 1738, which confirmed the "absolute purchase" of the same property by John, for the sum of £1,150 (see further below).

COGIT. INT. XXIII - I have to wonder, quite seriously, what it was in Ballynonty that drew John PIGOTT away from London, or offered him sanctuary, perhaps from a rampantly antagonistic and possibly obstructive mother-in-law?

COGIT. INT. XXIV - In June 1732, a three day racing festival was held at a new race track in County Tipperary, near Thurles. This was a £15 Plate event, run in three heats, each run over 4 miles, and with an "...entrance fee of one pistole to be paid to Mr NEALE" [PUE's Occurrences, 19 June 1732]. The Racecourse is still in use. Now it just happens that Ballynonty lies about 15 kilometres to the south-east of this Racecourse. I wonder...? The timing is just about perfect. And if John PIGOTT himself was not yet ready to run a horse in this event, his eldest brother Thomas may well have been - he was probably the Thomas PIGOTT, Esq, who, seven year later, in September 1739, ran his grey mare "Infanta" in the first heat of the Irish Plate event which was eventually won by the horse "Plaistow" at the Curragh in Kildare. Indeed, the London Evening Post of 23 October 1736 reported in its Ireland News, that "...Capt PIGGOT's Horse won the £20 Plate" at the races on the County of Kildare. The Curragh Course was considerably older, and a lot closer to PIGOTT of Dysart family territory, being located only about 35 kms from Maryborough (Portlaoise) towards Dublin - there are reports of King's Plate events being run at the Curragh as early as September 1699, and after a pause during the Reign of Queen Anne (probably due to the engagement of her Army in the War of the Spanish Succession), again regularly from 1719. The Curragh had long been the site of an Army camp, and inevitably the Horse Regiments garrisoned there would have exercised their steeds in competitions amongst each other in organised races (with the nod of approval from their Commander-in-Chief, the reigning Monarch).

COGIT. INT. XXV - There may be another and simpler reason. William Jackson PIGOTT posted a query in Notes and Queries in March 1911, concerning the Captain JOHN PIGOTT of the 39th Regiment who is said to have been one of the few survivors of the infamous Black-Hole of Calcutta. WJP wrote that he believed John spent his boyish years in Ballynonty, County Tipperary. WJP does not give his source for this piece of "data," but he further noted that he had two sisters, the younger one named Frances PIGOTT, who married Lord POWER. If WJP was right, and young John PIGOTT was living in Ballynonty with his parents, then it is just possible that John PIGOTT of London went there to stay with this related family - indeed, if John was, as is supposed, the son of Robert PIGOTT, then he was John of London's brother.

Curiously, several years earlier, John was back in England, where his admission into the Middle Temple, dated 10 December 1735, appears to confirm his paternity:
"...3rd son of John PIGOTT late of Kilcromin Queen's Co, Ireland, deceased."
["Register of Admissions to the Honourable Society of The Middle Temple," London, 1949, Volume 1, page 319.]

COGIT. INT. XXV - I think it is beginning look like this John PIGOTT may not have been the former Ship's Captain with the BURGOYNE spouse. One might reasonably expect there to have been some prior academic achievement as a prerequisite to Temple admission, but there is no record of our John in any of the published University alumni listings - and he would have spent some years at sea before making the rank of Captain, so probably had little time for academic advancement anyway. There may have been a further impediment to Captain John PIGOTT being admitted to the Middle Temple after he was branded in the hand upon his conviction for manslaughter in 1731. But, perhaps money spoke louder than mere academic accomplishments, perhaps John had taken a cue from his recent Chancery Court actions against his mother-in-law, and perhaps he found more excessive lace at the cuff might hide the give-away branding on his hand.

John was the third surviving son - his elder brother Benjamin, the third born son, had died unmarried, in or before 1726, a Mariner.

Further, John PIGOTT of Ballynonty, Esq, purchased, by Indented Deed dated 6 January 1736[-37?], from his brother Thomas PIGOTT, for the sum of £600 sterling, the Town and Lands of Mount Eagle alias Bally Eagle (213 acres), also part of the Town and Lands of Ballyroan (79 acres, lately held by Darby DORFAN, William HANDS and others), and "...also all that Tuckmill and Corn Mill lately erected on the said lands of Mount Eagle, together with the dwelling house, stables, pidgeon house, Malt house, out houses, nurserys, plantations and other improvements, all situate in the Barony of Cullinagh and Queen's County," during the "...remainder of a term of 99 years then to come and unexpired." [Memorial Number 60865, Deeds Registry, Dublin.]

And John PIGOTT of Ballynonty, Esqr, was named as the third party to a Tripartite Indented Deed, dated 16 December 1738, by which he purchased the "...original demise of the Lands of Bonachrie" in the Queen's County, for the sum of £1,150 paid to Henry ASTON of the City of Dublin, Esq, and the additional sum of £500 paid to his brother Thomas PIGOTT, now of Ballinakill, Queen's County, Esq, all for the remainder of the term of 999 years - which lands had been inherited by his brother Thomas PIGOTT, by the will of their 2nd cousin Thomas PIGOTT. the son of Thomas PIGOTT of Rahineduff, but which property had been "...assigned and made over unto William ASTON then late of the City of Dublin, Merchant, deceased, Subject to Redemption." [Memorial Number 65359, Registry of Deeds, Dublin.]

These are the only two property deeds which John PIGOTT executed while residing at Ballynonty, in the County Tipperary. Curiously, as we see in a number of deeds which he made later, and which involved his brother Thomas PIGOTT, nowhere in the deeds is their kinship stated or otherwise indicated.

_____________________________________________________________________________

HIS FIRST WIFE DIES, LEAVING HIM WITH TWO DAUGHTERS.

John's wife Constantia Maria died in London on 26 July 1739, leaving him with two daughters, Frances and Constantia Maria Junior. Notice of her death appeared in the London Press:
"On Thursday Morning, died in Great Suffolk Street, Mrs PIGGOTT, Wife to Capt PIGGOTT, and Sister to Sir Roger BURGOINE, Bart, Knight of the Shire for Bedford."
[London Evening Post, 26-28 July 1739.]

COGIT. INT. XXVI - Here we see John PIGOTT restored to his old rank of Captain. Or was this a case of the London press-hounds simply remembering him from 10 years earlier, when he actually was one?

Details of her burial, on 29 July 1739, were recorded on the BURGOYNE family vault in All Saints, Sutton, Bedfordshire, and the register of that church records her burial there.

Despite the notice in the London Evening Post, several other London newspapers published different details for the same event, noting that she died in "...her house," but recording implausibly that Mrs PICKETT was of "...an advanced age" and was the "...sister to the Lady BURGOINE, mother of Sir Roger" [London Daily Post and General Advertiser, 27 July; and Read's Weekly Journal, 28 July].
Constantia Maria PIGOTT was aged 35 years, not what one would consider to be advanced; and she was the then Sir Roger's sister, and not his aunt.

COGIT. INT. XXVII - I had wondered briefly whether it may instead have been Judith PIGOTT alias BURGOYNE, the wife of John's uncle Robert of Dysart; but he had clearly died in 1730, and the wording of his burial instructions in his 1728 will gives clear indication that his wife had already been buried in Dysart churchyard; and she was an aunt of Sir Roger BURGOYNE, the 4th Baronet.

HE CONTINUES MAKING DEEDS IN IRELAND.

It appears likely that John PIGOTT, Esq'r, was "...made Inspector-General of his Majesty's Barracks, etc, in Ireland, in the room of Charles BUCKNALL, Esq, who hath resigned" [London Evening Post, 22-24 January 1741].
This transaction was the subject of an indented Deed, dated 26 December 1740, made between John PIGOTT of the City of Dublin, Esqu'r, and Charles BUCKNALL of the said City, Esq'r, by which John PIGOTT did covenant to pay Charles BUCKNALL £2,100 Sterling once BUCKNALL had resigned his post in favour of PIGOTT.
In the process of establishing these covenants, the Deed recited an old transaction, dated 29 May 1663, whereby Taig DUN, Isme DUN alias KAES, and Grizell KAES, did "...Set, Demise and Lett unto John BASKERVILLE of Tentore Younger, in the Queen's County, all and whole the lands of Banachrie, scituate and lying within the parish of Erk in the Barony of Upper Ossory in the Queen's County..." [Memorial Number 70405, Deeds Registry, Dublin.]
This estate is the same one that John PIGOTT of Ballynonty had purchased from his brother Thomas in 1738 (see above)

John PIGOTT made a Deed Poll or Minute, dated 10 May 1749, by which Pole COSBY of Stradbally Hall, Esq, demised unto him the leasehold of the Town and Lands of Knocknacarrol and Knocknabrahar (containing 140 acres) in the Parish of Stradbally, at the yearly rental of £53 sterling by equal half-yearly instalments, for the term of three lives - his own, and the lives of his daughters Frances PIGOTT and Constantia Maria PIGOTT - or 31 years, whichever should last the longest. This deed was witnessed by William WELDON of Portarlington, Queen's County, Esq, and Lewis JONES of the fort of the said county, Esquire; but it was not registered until 19 September 1757, when Lewis JONES and William JUSTICE of the City of Dublin, Gent, with JONES swearing on oath that he had witnessed the original Deed being signed by John PIGOTT.
This is the property which was later known as Brockley Park.

Both of their daughters were named in the will of their uncle, Roger BURGOYNE, the 6th Baronet, dated 19 February 1755 (some 25 years before his death), making provision for them, with precedence to Frances, in the succession to the family estates at Sutton in the event of the failure of his own issue:
"...Then I give and devise my said real Estates to my niece Fanny PIGOTT, eldest daughter of my late sister PIGOTT, for her life...
"And in default of such issue, my niece Constance PIGOTT..."
[British National Archives - On-line Wills, P.C.C. 22 January 1781, PROB 11/1073.]

Although by then, Constantia Maria Junior was already the wife of Captain Andrew ARMSTRONG of Gallen, King's County (they married in September 1751, with numerous issue)

COGIT. INT. XXVIII - This apparent error may not have been, and may constitute further evidence of there being another John PIGOTT-Constantia Maria PIGOTT father-daughter pairing, perhaps the "other" Captain John?

And it can reasonably be assumed from this will that Fanny and Constantia Junior had no brother John PIGOTT, as WJP had presumed in making his pedigrees.

Frances and Constantia Maria both survived their father, and were joint grantees of the Administration of his estate, February 1764.

Frances PIGOTT, Spinster, was Plaintiff in a Bill, brought before the Court of the Exchequer, Dublin, dated 12 August 1766, in which the Defendants were Andrew ARMSTRONG, Constantia Maria his wife, and Mary PIGOTT; R. POWER Co., JUSTUS Att.; Answer of PIGOTT, Defendant, 10 December 1766, by R. HARRISON; Reply from Plaintiff, 25 February 1767, by JUSTUS; Answer of Andrew ARMSTRONG and his wife, 14 March 1767, by A. ARMSTRONG [Exchequer Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

Frances PIGOTT, Spinster, may have been married, by Settlements dated 6 December 1776 [Memorial 212081, Volume 314, Page 195], aged about 44, to Christopher KELLETT, of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Esq - one of the trustees was Richard POWER, Hon Baron of the Court of the Exchequer (along with Edward KELLETT, also of Clonmel), and one of the witnesses was Andrew ARMSTRONG, of the City of Dublin; this, his second marriage, took place by Consistorial License, at St Anne's parish church, Dublin, 7 December 1776, by Rev Henry CROFTON, Curate (his first marriage to Catherine SHEPHERD had taken place in August 1761, at Monkstown).

Frances KELLETT, widow and surviving trustee and executrix of Christopher KELLETT, deceased, was the fourth party to Deeds of Lease and Release, dated 27 and 28 October 1790, the Release being the Marriage Settlements for William KELLETT, of Wexford, in the County of Wexford (the first party), and Bridget Henrietta SEGRAVE, of Great Cabragh, in the County of Dublin, daughter of the late John SEGRAVE of Great Cabragh, Esq (the third party), the joint second party being Henry Lawes (LUTTRELL, 2nd) Earl of Carhampton in the Kingdom of Ireland, and O'Neal SEGRAVE of Great Cabragh [Memorial 288285, Book 447, Page 83].

Frances KELLETT died at Nassau Street, Dublin, 20 August 1805, the relict of the late Christopher KELLETT, of Co Wexford [Hibernian Journal, Saturday 24 August], aged 71 years, and was buried at St Anne's parish church [irishgenealogy.ie web-site]; there was a monumental inscription:

"Frances KELLETT, d. 20 Aug 1805, aged 77 years, relict of Christopher KELLETT, Esq, Co Tipperary" [David Carnegie Andrew AGNEW, "Protestant Exiles From France," Volume 2, Third Book, Chapter 28].

It would appear that Frances, if she was the elder daughter of John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria BURGOYNE, was born in London about 1730-31, and so should have been aged about 74 in August 1805.

Constantia Maria PIGOTT was married in Ireland, 24 September 1751, to Andrew ARMSTRONG, of Gallen, King's County, with issue six sons and nine daughters.

On 3 October 1761, Susanna BESNARD, Widow, entered her Bill in the Court of Chancery, Dublin, to which the Defendants were Andrew ARMSTRONG, Constantia Maria his wife, Edmund, John, Frances, Alice, Elizabeth and Philip ARMSTRONG (perhaps their six children), Galbraithe HOLMES, John PIGOTT (presumably Constantia Maria's father), Warneford ARMSTRONG and Edward BRERETON; J. WOLFE, Attorney [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

JOHN MARRIES FOR A SECOND TIME; BUT IT ENDED IN ACRIMONY.

Just a year and seven days after Constantia Maria Senior's death, her widower John PIGOTT, Esq, of the City of Dublin, was married secondly, by License of the Prerogative Court of Ireland (same date), and by Rev Mr DUNKIN at St Bridget's Church, Dublin, on 2 August 1740, to Katherine BABINGTON, of St Bridget's Parish, the widow of William BABINGTON of Strabane, County Tyrone, and a daughter of Rev John JOHNSTONE of Clondevadock, County Donegal, by Mildred HAMILTON.

There is a possibility that John was the Captain John PIGOTT, of Poole's Bridge, recorded in the 1740 subscription List for the Charter School in Stradbally, Queen's County, built under the auspices of the Incorporated Society for the Promotion of English Protestant Schools in Ireland. Pole's Bridge, was named for Pole COSBY, the man who built it in 1734; it is shown on 1841 Ordnance Survey maps situated on the Timahoe Road, a little W.S.W. of the town of Stradbally itself, shortly before the intersection with the road heading S.S.E. past the said Charter School. If not, then it is likely that this was instead his younger cousin.

But, as good as John's first marriage had been for him, financially, his second was an utter disaster.

Katherine was encumbered by large debts of her first husband, the facts of which John clearly attests his ignorance:
"Her former husband, by will, left her for life, the income of a Bishop's Lease, called Urny, and a House in Strabane, which is Freehold, over and above her jointure, but made no provision for the Payment of his Debts, for what reason I can't say. Further, and as I have heard it confidently asserted in the North where she lived, that whenever her Husband received any money, it was her constant Custom to plunder him of a considerable Part, which laid him under a necessity of borrowing several Sums, for which he passed his Bonds, but that his fear of Apprising her of his several debts prevented him from making any Provision for the Payment thereof. Insomuch that soon after his death, some of his creditors seized, by executions, the Lease of Urny, being a chattel interest, and had it sold by the Sheriff of Tyrone, at Omagh."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. "Letter to his Friend, A Member of Parliament." Dublin, 1749. Huntingdon Library - ECCO, Gale Group.]

This was part of an extraordinary "broadside" published by John to counter the Dublin gossip about his second marriage, and to explain why he was formally separating from her. He continues with his grievances:
"Mrs PIGOTT, then Mrs BABINGTON, afraid of losing her Use for Life, employed the Rev Mr GAGE her brother-in-law, to attend the Cant, and buy it for her, which he accordingly did, for £2400, and gave the Sheriff his Bond for that Money, by which she made herself, or her brother GAGE, liable to her first husband's creditors, to the value of that Sum, which was vastly more than her Use for Life could amount to. She was attacked likewise by Ralph BABINGTON, Esq, her late husband's brother, for the Freehold and her Jointure. So that under these distressed circumstances (of which I had no intimation), I was unfortunately tricked into a Marriage with her, the 3rd [sic] of August, 1740. And in November following, I had 7 Bills filed against me by Mr BABINGTON's Creditors, and in half a Year after my Marriage, I was attacked (as I am convinced by Mrs PIGOTT's contrivance) not only by all Mr BABINGTON's creditors, but for personal debts of her own contracting, amounting to £800 and upward, and had a Writ marked against me (the first I thank God that ever was) at the suit of one SPAN, for £100 Mrs PIGOTT owed him before she became my wife.
"Hereupon I was compelled to pay, or secure to be paid, nigh on £4,000 of debts of her and her first husband..."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. ibidem.]

Ouch!

[John PIGOTT's signature on Deeds of Lease and Release dated 4 and 5 January 1740, with that of his

wife Katherine, concerning the Town and Lands of Corry, Clondevadock, County Donegal.]

By 1746, John had taken a house in Abbey Street, Dublin, between Drogheda Street (now O'Connell Street) and Great Marlborough Street, with rear access onto Tucker's Row (now Sackville Place), and well since demolished when Abbey Street was straightened, severing it from Old Abbey Street.

[Part of the 1756 ROCQUE map of Dublin. The PIGOTT house was probably one of the set highlighted in red.

The present-day approximate street alignments are highlighted in yellow. The small red property on the right side marks the house in which John PIGOTT's stolen Plate was concealed.]

In April of that year, the Abbey Street house was "burgled":
"Sunday night last, some Rogues broke into the house of John PIGOTT, Esq, in Abbey street, and stole thereout Plate to the value of £200."
[PUE's "Occurrences and Dublin Gazette," 12 April 1746.]

And John PIGOTT inserted an advertisement of the fact, identifying the items so stolen, in George FAULKNER's "The Dublin Journal," in two issues, 5-8 April and 12-15 April 1746, as follows:
"STOLEN out of the House of John PIGOTT, Esq, in Abbey Street on Sunday Night the 6th of this instant April; one Mountess, with the PIGOTT's and BURGOYNE's Arms, the Crest a Wolf's Head; a large Cup and Cover, with the JOHNSTON's and BABINGTON's Arms, the Crest a Spread Eagle on a Coronet; two Pint Cans, with the PIGOTT's and BURGOYNE's Arms; two small square Waiters, with a Wolf's Head; two small round Waiters, one large square Waiter, with the PIGOTT's and BURGOYNE's Arms and crest; one pair of Snuffers and Snuff Pan, with the PIGOTT's and BURGOYNE's Arms and Crest; one Snuff Dish, with the BABINGTON's Crest; one Cruet Frame with two casters and two tops, with the BABINGTON's Crest; one large Tea Dish with the BABINGTON's Crest; a small silver Strainer, with the PIGOTT's Crest; one Punch Ladle and Soup Spoon, with the PIGOT's Crest; two Salts, with the PIGOTT's Crest, and one with the BABINGTON's Crest; a Dish Stand, with the PIGOTT's Crest; a Bottle Splitter, wrote on at Burgundy; two Pairs of Candlesticks, with the BABINGTON's Crest; a large chased Cup and Cover; and a large Tea Pot.
"Whoever stops them for Mr Thomas PARSONS, Goldsmith in Skinners Row, shall have 10 Guineas Reward. As 'tis practice by those who steal Plate here, to carry it, defaced of otherwise, to England and sell it there, 'tis requested of all Masters of the Packet Boats and Chester Traders, that they will search all suspect Passengers, and secure the Person or Persons on whom such Things are found, and they shall be rewarded by Capt PIGOTT, or the Printer hereof."

He kept a well appointed household. And for the record the Wolf's head was the Crest of the PIGOTT family.

COGIT. INT. XXIX - Here arises another question - is the Captain PIGOTT named at the end of this notice the same person as John PIGOTT, Esq, named at the beginning? Or is this yet further evidence of there being two? With Captain PIGOTT well enough known to the Masters of vessels plying the Irish Sea? The identification of BURGOYNE plate here is also further confirmation that this was the man who had married Constantia Maria BURGOYNE in London in 1730. Or is it - could the plate instead have come to Dysart with Judith BURGOYNE and her new husband, Robert PIGOTT, in 1701? And then been inherited by one of his nephews, among the residue of his estate, in 1730? But, on balance, and as the PIGOTT who inherited Robert's residue was Thomas, and not John, I suspect that Constantia is the more likely source.

John referred to this "event" in his broadside letter of 1749:
"In March 1746, Sir Lawrence PARSONS went with me to a little Country House of mine, about 7 miles from Dublin, where we had been above a week or 10 days when on a Monday morning, my Coachman, by his Mistress's orders, came to inform me that the Night before, my house in Abbey-street was robbed, and that most of my Plate was stolen."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. Op. Cit.]

PARSONS was his third cousin, and the Country retreat was at Westpanstown, mentioned elsewhere in the Letter, the leasehold of which John purchased in December 1743 from John the son of Francis BONHAM, by:
"A memorial of an assignment dated 14 December 1743, whereby John BONHAM of the City of Dublin, Esq, in consideration of £216 sterling to him paid by John PIGOTT of the City of Dublin, Esq, did grant, assign, release and confirm unto the said John PIGOTT, in his actual possession then being by virtue of a bargain and sale for one year therein recited and to his heirs and assigns; All those the Town and Lands of Westpanstown and part of Newcastle known by the names of Baldarrad and Kiloges, situate in the County of Dublin, containing by estimation 59 acres profitable land Plantation Measure, more or less; then in possession of John HIFFERNAN, together with the Comons and Appurtenances thereunto belonging, held by lease for lives renewable for ever from Thomas TILSON, Esq to the said James HIFFERNAN and by him assigned to the said Francis (sic) BONHAM both therein recited, subject to the yearly rent, Fines and covenants in and by the said lease for lives reserved and contained; Which assignment is witnessed by William GRAY of the City of Dublin, Gent, and John BATH, of the said City of Dublin, Gent..."
[Dublin Deeds Registry; Memorial 78000; Book 110; Page 374]
John sold this leasehold in July 1748 to William LONGFIELD of Dublin for £300, as:
"...the Town and Lands of Westpanstown and part of Newcastle, known by the names of Baldaradd and Killoges, situate in County Dublin containing by estimation 59 acres profitable Land Plantation Measure, more or less, with appurtenances..."
[Dublin Deeds Registry; Memorial 89057, Book 130, Page 281.]

And subsequently, also in his 1749 Broadside, John revealed that it was his second wife Katherine who had organised for him to be relieved of these possessions, by a former servant of hers who lived an a house on the other side of Abbey Street, and near the Ferry turnoff, but within sight of the PIGOTT house!

Throughout this time, indeed from the first week of his second marriage in 1740, John had been losing money and papers from his clothing and from his locked "escritoire" in a bed chamber on the first floor. He subsequently moved the escritoire into a locked closet in his own study, but the thefts continued. On legal advice, he then moved all his remaining personal papers into the safe-keeping of his Attorney, Ambrose HARDING, probably a Ballynonty connection.
Thereafter, thefts continued, of personal clothing, his first wife's heirlooms, and household goods - nearly all of which were subsequently recovered, after the discovery (made by John with the assistance of several house servants) that they had been spirited away under the supervision of his wife Katherine, into the possession of her friend and former servant, Mrs GALLACHER, whose husband ran a shop on the south side of Abbey Street, on the Ferry Boat Slip corner!
Several of the domestic staff had become very concerned after being pressed by Katherine to assist in her plans to kill his game-cocks (by sticking long pins into their brains) and hunting dogs (by poison) at Westpanstown, and eventually in a plan to poison John himself - their sworn affidavits attesting to same were attached to John's 1749 broadside letter.

It is hard to credit that John appears to have been so naive about his predicament, and how to deal with it - his own explanation indicates a certain "vulnerability" in his nature:
"...She in a most piteous Manner besought me to let her out, and assured me she had somewhat of Moment to say to me. I was accordingly prevailed on by her Entreaties, and let her out, when she fell on her Knees, and put her Hands about me, and implored my forgiveness and most fervently promised (if I would forgive her) a thorough reformation of her Temper and Principle; and at the same time promised to restore everything she took from me. I was thus persuaded to forgive her, and begg'd her not to expose herself to the Family, and that I would not."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. Op. Cit..]

This was after he had caught her red-handed having used a skeleton key to gain entry into his locked study - and after being let out of temporary "room" arrest, she denied all!
Later, after John had tricked Mrs GALLACHER into returning some of the "stolen" goods, and his wife had again confessed all, he still would not end the relationship:
"...I went up to her, and she and her niece with Tears, Promises and Entreaties, got the better of my Weakness, and again I was prevailed upon to forgive her..."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. Ibidem.]

It was only after John uncovered her plot to poison him that his patience was finally exhausted.

History does not record what became of Katherine PIGOTT alias BABINGTON alias JOHNSTON.
John was either not free, or disinclined to re-marry for at least another 10 years.

The BETHAM Abstracts, now viewable on Findmypast.co.uk, now reveal that John PIGOTT, of Loughtiogue, Esq, the husband, was granted Administration of the effects of Cather. PIGOTT otherwise BABINGTON on 29 January 1759.

[John PIGOTT's signature and seal on a Tripartite Indenture, dated 19 March 1750, then being of

Stradbally, Queen's Co, concerning the disposal of the Bishop's Lease at Urney.]

[John PIGOTT's signature and seal on his much earlier Allegations of Marriage, January 1730.]

AN ATTEMPTED CAREER AS A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.

John made his first moves towards becoming a Parliamentary representative in 1754, when he contested the position of Burgomaster in the Corporation of Maryborough, Queen's County.
One of the two Parliamentary seats of Maryborough had been represented by his uncle Robert PIGOTT from 1703 until his death in 1730, and since then by Warner WESTENRA and an ageing William WALL. John had contemplated moving in 1742 to break WESTENRA's stranglehold on the seat, but that did not eventuate. By 1754, WALL's interest had been purchased by Bartholomew GILBERT, although WALL had to die in the job before GILBERT could "inherit" the privilege.
John saw his chance, and secured preferment as High Sheriff of the County, clearly indicating his alignment with the Court Party, then in the ascendancy in the Irish House of Commons. On 1 August 1754, Cornet SMITH in Maryborough, wrote to Lord George SACKVILLE, Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant:
"This little town is become very disagreeable from the vast riot of party which rages here. It is between GILBERT supported by DAWSON and WESTENRA against PIGOTT that you made High Sheriff of this county."
[H.F. KEARNEY in his notes accompanying "A Hand-list of the Voters of Maryborough, 1760." Irish Historical Studies (joint journal of the Irish Historical Society and the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies), Volume IX, Number 33, March 1954, pages 53-82.]

He then contested the Burgomaster election, the result of which was the subject published in the Dublin Gazette, 28 September 1754:

"Came on the election of Burgomaster for the corporation of Maryborough for the ensuing year. The candidates were Bartholomew William GILBERT and John PIGOTT, Esq. When after a poll of six hours, Mr GILBERT was declared to have a majority of 98 voices, and was accordingly sworn into Office..."

But John PIGOTT did not abide by that outcome:
"In 1754 there was a strong contest for the Magistracy between Bartholomew GILBERT and John PIGOTT, Esq. Upon the poll for Mr GILBERT there was 227; for Mr PIGOTT, 129, a majority for GILBERT of 98. Notwithstanding, PIGOTT, by a violent mob, usurped office; an information was brought in the Court of King's Bench; judgement of ouster against PIGOTT, but still usurped."
["History of the Irish Parliament, 1692-1800." Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast.]

John used his usurping of the position to advantage, appointing a large number of new voters to the Roll during the ensuing year.
And there were irregularities with the records:
"In a fierce dispute over the election of a Burgomaster in Maryborough in 1754 between Bartholomew GILBERT and John PIGOTT, the minute books had been confiscated by Anthony TRENCH for safe-keeping. It was only in 1758 that both parties, 'after much expense were reconciled and Mr DAWSON unanimously elected burgomaster' and that the books were finally recovered, 'but during the interval no entry was made in either of them of the corporation acts'."
[D.M. BEAUMONT, "Local Office Holding and the Gentry of Queen's County, c1600-1750." Chapter 15 in "Laois, History and Society," Edited LANE and NOLAN, Geography Press, Templelogue, Dublin, 1991, pages 446-7.]

WALL died on 9 September 1755, and writs were issued for a new election. PIGOTT won the Poll due to the support of a majority of the newly enrolled voters. But, through several contemporary bye-elections, the Court Party had just lost its slim majority in the Commons to the Patriot Party, and GILBERT saw his chance. Notice from Dublin Castle, dated 10 November 1755, was published in the Dublin Gazette, 8 to 11 November:

"John PIGOTT, Esq, is elected for the Borough of Maryborough, in the room of William WALL, deceased..." along with two other results declared in other constituencies.

A challenge was mounted, and on 18 November 1755, the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges and Elections ordered an investigation, calling for the Poll-books, Corporation Books, and other relevant records of the Borough to be brought in, along with the Indenture of the Sheriff of the Queen's County by which John PIGOTT, Esq, was returned as the member, and the Rule Book of the Crown side of the King's Bench, with the original affidavits that were made at the time John PIGOTT was alleged to have usurped the office of Burgomaster. This Committee found that the newly signed voters, being of less than 12 months standing, were deemed by the new Parliament to be invalid, and PIGOTT was declared "not duly" elected, with GILBERT taking the seat.

The "Votes of the House of Commons in the fifteenth session of the Present Parliament..." in Dublin, sitting on Wednesday 17 December 1755, record the outcome of this story as follows:
"Resolved - That it is the opinion of this Committee [of Privileges and Elections] that the two hundred and one persons who voted for John PIGOTT, Esq, upon the late Election held for a Burgess to serve in Parliament for the Borough of Maryborough in the Queen's County, and who were admitted free of the said Borough between the 29th of September 1754 and the 29th of September 1755, during which time the said John PIGOTT, Esq, took upon him to act as Burgo-master, had not a right to vote at the said election so held...
"Resolved - That it is the opinion of this Committee that John PIGOTT, Esq, is not duly elected... [and] ...is not duly returned a Burgess to serve in this present Parliament for the Borough of Maryborough in the Queen's County...
"To which Resolutions the Question being severally put, the House did agree.
"Ordered - That the Clerk of the Crown do attend this House immediately, and amend the Return for the Borough of Maryborough in the Queen's County, by erasing the Name of John PIGOTT, Esq, and inserting the Name of Bartholomew William GILBERT, Esq."

Rev Matthew PILKINGTON (1701-1774), M.A., the Vicar of Donabate and Portraine (Diocese of Dublin), and author of "The Gentleman's and Connoisseur's Dictionary of Painters" (T. CADELL, London, 1770), made his will on 14 February 1754, witnessed by three including Henry SANDES; in it he named his wife Ann as his sole executrix, and further appointed, "...to be a Trustee for her, to aid and assist her," John PIGOTT of Stradbally, Esq, "...as I can confide in his good nature and generous friendship" [see on-line version of "Notes and Queries, Series 2, Volume vi, 27 July 1912, for F. Elrington BALL's abstract of the will, and the probate, sworn 22 July 1774].
PILKINGTON's first marriage had ended in scandal, and in February 1738 he divorced his first wife, Laetitia Van LEWEN, citing her adultery with a Mr ADAIR; by her somewhat short-lived friendship with Jonathan SWIFT she had obtained for PILKINGTON a post as Chaplain to the Lord Mayor of London; she published her Memoirs in Dublin in 1748, and died on 29 August 1750.
Two days earlier, on 27 August 1750, PILKINGTON had married his second wife, Ann SANDES, a daughter of Pigott SANDES (John PIGOTT's first cousin), who provided her marriage portion of £700.


AFTER HIS FIRST ATTEMPT, HE FINDS ANOTHER WAY INTO PARLIAMENT.

In the 1760 Hand List of the Voters of Maryborough [H.F. KEARNEY. Op. Cit.], John PIGOTT was recorded as resident of Loughteogue, Queen's County, and acting in the interests of Mr COOTE. In the same List, of over 400 voters, there is recorded a Captain John PIGOTT as being among the "influences" over 14 of the voters, including Robert and John BOWKER, his probable cousins.
However, this mention of John PIGOTT, Esq, and the subsequent entry for Thomas PIGOTT, under the influence of his brother John PIGOTT, do not carry the title Captain - providing yet further evidence of the probable existence of a second and inevitably younger John PIGOTT (the midshipman in 1732?) who still styled himself as Captain.
Further, the entry for Andrew SIMMONS, of Firbank, King's County, records the influence over him of Mr ARMSTRONG, Captain PIGOTT's son-in-law; which adds further "evidence" to there being at least two Constantia Maria PIGOTTs - one the "unmarried" daughter of our John PIGOTT (by Constantia Maria PIGOTT - and referred to as still a PIGOTT by her uncle Sir Roger BURGOYNE in his 1755 will); the other a daughter of the later Captain John PIGOTT and who married Andrew ARMSTRONG in 1751 (notwithstanding the fact that there was a "third" Constantia Maria PIGOTT of Compton Chamberlain, Wiltshire, but of the following generation - see below).

COGIT. INT. XXX - It would be of some interest to see the original note-book in which this List was recorded, including the handwriting, and whether it was all in the same hand. KEARNEY recorded that it formed part of the Drogheda Mss, held by the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin [MS 1726]. But it would also be of considerably greater interest to see what KEARNEY did not abstract from earlier in the same note-book - he states that there was an earlier "...rough alphabetical list of the freemen and burgesses of the borough, which was kept up to date by additions and corrections to the year 1759." That might furnish a much clearer picture of which of the Dysart PIGOTTs were on the electoral "roll" and which weren't There was also a short diary of events within the borough from 1 March 1738-39 to 29 September 1754.

[John MALTON's view of the Houses of Parliament, Dublin, now the Bank of Ireland, 

with the corner of Trinity College on the far right.]

By 1761, John had found an easier way into Parliament, in the safe Court Party constituency of the Borough of Banagher, King's County. His "arrival" was reported in the Dublin Courier, 8 July 1761:
"The undernamed gentlemen, who were not in the last Parliament, are returned to represent the following places in the new Parliament:
"... Borough of Banagher, Peter HOLMES, John PIGOTT; ..."
He represented this constituency, as the second member, until his death in 1763.

The History of the Irish Parliament, 1692-1800, by Edith Mary JOHNSON-LIIK [Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002], recorded details of John PIGOTT, the M.P. for the Borough of Banagher [Volume VI, at page 67], but not all of which are correct, it having the appearance of being a conflation of two different John PIGOTTs from different but related branches of the Dysart PIGOTT family (suspected incorrect information is highlighted in red), and uncorroborated and therefore questionable information in purple):
"1681  PIGOTT, John
"MP for Banagher 1761-3 [n.d.e. Maryborough 1755]
"b. 1715; d. 12 Dec. 1763
"FAMILY/BACKROUND: Son of Southwell PIGOTT of Capard House, Rosenallis, Queen's County. and Henrietta VANDERGRAAF.
"MARRIED: [28 May 1743] Mary, dau. of William BROWNLOW (0264)
"CHILDREN: John; Constantia Maria, m. Andrew ARMSTRONG
"CAREER/OCCUPATION: Freeman of ?Fethard (Tipperary) 1750; High Sheriff of Queen's County 1754; Burgomaster of Maryborough ?1755.
"POLITICAL ACTIVITY: He was returned for Banagher at the 1761 General Election, having previously, in 1755, been declared not duly elected for Maryborough. This indicated a decline in the PIGOTT influence in the borough. He sat for the first session of the first parliament of George III (22 October 1761 - 30 April 1762) and possibly for a few weeks of the second (11 October 1763 - 12 May 1764). His political activity was, therefore, limited and nothing is known about it.
"ESTATES/RESIDENCE: Brochy Park, [?] Queen's County; Rathkeale, Co. Limerick. According to WAKEFIELD, 'Mr PIGOTT' (?son/grandson) was granted a market at Rathkeale, and in 1740 Southwell PIGOTT (father) at Kilfinny."

These errors can be confirmed on the very simple grounds alone - that the son of Southwell PIGOTT and Henrietta Van Der GRAAF, who was indeed the husband of Mary BROWNLOW, but subsequently estranged from her, was still making property deeds some years after the M.P. for Banagher was dead. See details of this family in their separate post on this blog spot.

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CAPTAIN JOHN PIGOTT AND THE MARYBOROUGH VOTER'S LIST, 1760.

Captain John PIGOTT, probably a younger first cousin of our John PIGOTT, was recorded in a number of entries as follows:

BRADE, Matthew, Mt Rath.
     Under the influence of Capt PIGOTT and Dean COOTE.
BRERETON, Edward, Carlow.
     Under the influence of Ben: BURTON and Capt PIGOTT, but not free.
COSBY, Arthur, near Stradbally.
     Under the influence of Pole COSBY and Capt PIGOTT.
COSBY, Francis, Stradbally.
     Pole COSBY and Capt PIGOTT's influence.
GRAY, Edward, Ballyroan.
     Under the influence of Capt John PIGOTT and Mr COOTE by Mr WILLIS.
GRAY, William, Maryborough.
     Under the influence of Capt John PIGOTT.
HIGGINS, John, Stradbally.
     Under the influence of Pole COSBY, but more so under that of Capt John PIGOTT.
HOLLYDAY, Thomas, Stradbally.
     Under the influence of Pole COSBY and Capt John PIGOTT.
JONES, John, A Tidewaiter at Rings End.
     Under the influence of the Commissioners and Capt John PIGOTT.
KELLY, Edward, Esqr, Coun'r at Law, Dublin.
     Made by Dean COOTE at the recommendation of Capt'n PIGOTT under whose influence he may
     be in some measure, but may easily be got by Mr DAWSON.
KUNEY, George, Gurtneclay.
     Under the influence of Tom PIGOTT. Has a Popish wife.
McCLEAN, Robert, Maryborough.
     Under the influence of the Widow ROBISON, Harry KNIGHT, and in some measure Cap'n
     PIGOTT.
NIX, Alexander, Brittas. Has a Popish wife.
     Under the influence of Lord Shelburn absolutely; Capt PIGOTT can do a great deal with him.
PORTER, Thomas, Ahanahila.
     Mr Joss RIDGEWAY's influence and Cap'n PIGGOTT's.
SIMMONS, Andrew, Firbawn, King's Co. Dead.
     Under the influence of Mr ARMSTRONG, Cap'n PIGGOTT's son-in-law.
SANDES, Pigot, Esqr, Killcaven. Dead.
     Under the influence of Capt'n John PIGOTT.

Pigott SANDES died at Kilcavan in January 1761 - which suggests that the above list was annotated after that date, and not in 1760, as indicated by the title.

COGIT. INT. XXXI - And herein lies the difficulty that will not go away! Captain John PIGOTT is here positively identified as the father-in-law of Mr ARMSTRONG, who could really be none other than the Andrew ARMSTRONG who married Constantia Maria PIGOTT in 1751. And therefore not the John PIGOTT with the BURGOYNE spouse, who is confidently elsewhere (and from Deed Registry documentation) identified as the brother of Thomas. So does this mean that there WAS another Constantia Maria PIGOTT in the same generation? Which would accord with Sir Roger BURGOYNE recording in his 1754 will that his niece Constantia Maria was still named PIGOTT? Or had the family rift caused a complete collapse in inter-family correspondence across the Irish Sea? But if so, why was Sir Roger including them in his line of descent?

There is another problem, which arises from a literal interpretation of statements made by Robert PIGOTT, the retired Inspector-General of the Customs and Excise, in his 1808 Petition, in which he mentioned those members of his wider family who had military ranks:
"That your Memorialist is the grandson of a General Officer, who was killed in the West Indies in the reign of King George the Second, and whose two sons, Lieutenant Colonel Robert PIGOTT and Captain Henry PIGOTT, were killed in America in the war of 1759; and your Memorialist's only surviving uncle, Captain John PIGOTT, after many years foreign service, returned to Ireland in the year 1761, with his brother-in-law the Earl of Halifax, then Lord Lieutenant, and died when your Memorialist was an infant..."
I deal elsewhere with the problems associated with the Lieutenant-Colonel, but the big issue here is the identification of his uncle John PIGOTT, and Robert's statement that this uncle had returned to Ireland in 1761 with his brother-in-law George MONTAGU, the 2nd Earl of Halifax.

George MONTAGU was born in October 1716, the only son of George MONTAGU (1685-1739), the 1st Earl of Halifax (2nd creation), and his second wife Mary LUMLEY (1690-1726), a daughter of Richard LUMLEY (the 1st Earl of Scarborough). George was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and inherited his father's title in 1739; in opposition as a supporter of Frederick, the Prince of Wales (eldest son of George II, and father of George III), and was the Lord of his Bedchamber, 1742-44; joined the PELHAMs in government as Lord of the Buckhounds, 1744-46; First Lord of Trade and Plantations, 1748-61 (during which time he was instrumental in establishing the port city of Halifax, and fostered trade with the Americas); Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, March 1761 to March 1763, during which time he returned to London (in early-mid 1762) to become First Lord of the Admiralty (June to October 1762); Secretary of State under Lord BUTE, form October 1762 until July 1765; Order of the Garter, 1764; returned the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal under his nephew Lord NORTH in January 1770; re-appointed Secretary of State shortly before his death; died at Horton, Northamptonshire, on 8 June 1771.
MONTAGU was married in 1751 to Ann DUNK (she died in 1753), a daughter of William RICHARDS who adopted the surname of Thomas DUNK in order to inherit his estates, on the proviso his descendants used that surname; by her he had a daughter Elizabeth MONTAGU-DUNK, who married John MONTAGU, the 5th Earl of Sandwich; by his mistress, Anna Maria FAULKNER, George had a daughter Anna.

Now George had a sister, Frances MONTAGU, who was married on 1 January 1739 to Sir Roger BURGOYNE, the 4th Baronet of Sutton, just 6 months before the death of his sister Constantia Maria PIGOTT. By this marriage, the 2nd Earl of Halifax became a brother-in-law of the brother-in-law of Constantia's husband Captain John PIGOTT. Which means that John PIGOTT was not exactly a brother-in-law of the Lord Lieutenant - but we might forgive Robert PIGOTT for not making the subtle distinction in his 1808 Petition.

COGIT. INT. XXXII - Can we be certain that this is the only way in which any other John PIGOTT might have become the "brother-in-law" of George MONTAGU? We see that George's mother was a LUMLEY, but even if Mary MUSGRAVE's first husband, Hugh LUMLEY, had been related to MONTAGU's mother, it would not endow him with brother-in-law status, but instead as a cousin (Mary was Captain John PIGOTT's supposed third wife - see next item below). But Hugh LUMLEY is also recorded with an alias, so his connection to the family of the 1st Earl of Scarborough would have to be seriously unlikely. The only other possibility would have been through the marriage of one of the other Dysart PIGOTT boys - Walter had issue, but we have no indication of his wife's identity - could she have been a MONTAGU? Or perhaps more likely one of the next generation, and of these there were a number - but there is no indication from MONTAGU pedigrees of any other PIGOTT marriage into that family. In the end, it may simply be that Robert PIGOTT had "confused" his uncle Captain John PIGOTT with his uncle's cousin? Mental note to self - Robert PIGOTT is from henceforth relegated to a position of minor importance in matters genealogical.

________________________________________________________________________

A DALLIANCE IN A COCK-FIGHTING PIT IN CORK-HILL, DUBLIN?

I had thought it possible that it was this John PIGOTT who had a brief liaison in 1758 or 1759 with Hester HILCOCK, daughter of Barnaby HILCOCK, Vintner and Cock-Pit Proprietor, of Cork Hill, Dublin. Her illegitimate son was yet another John PIGOTT, who later resided at 2 Grafton Lane.

[Notes and Queries, 4th Series, Volume XII, 8 November 1873.]

However, circumstantial evidence indicates that this John PIGOTT was likely to have been another, and one of two first cousins of the subject of this article.

See his separate blog on this blog-page, posted in December 2012.

____________________________________________________________________________

A THIRD MARRIAGE.

John PIGOTT, of Prospect, Queen's County, Esquire, was married for a third time, by License of the Prerogative Court in Dublin dated 29 June 1759 [BETHAM's Abstracts] and by Rev Dixie BLUNDELL at St Anne's, Dublin, on 30 August 1759, to Mary LUMLEY of the Parish of St Anne, the widow of Hugh LUMLEY, and daughter of Sir Christopher MUSGRAVE, 5th Baronet of Eden Hall, County Cumberland, by his first wife Julia CHARDIN.

John PIGOTT, Esq, and Mary his wife, were named as Plaintiffs in his Chancery Bill, entered 19 November 1763, the Defendants being Henry LUMLEY, Sir Philip MUSGRAVE and William JACKSON; Mr CONNOR officiating; M. DISNEY, Attorney [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

Sir Philip was Mary's brother; Henry was probably her brother-law, or her son; William JACKSON'S connection is not yet established.
Lack of any mention of her in Irish property deeds until 1784 may suggest that this marriage could have been instead to another John PIGOTT, perhaps a cousin? Further, the marriage notice published in Faulkner's Dublin Journal in July 1759, recorded the marriage of Captain PIGOTT and Mrs LUMLEY - which, at first glance, suggests that this may have been a younger John PIGOTT, who was then more recently engaged in the trans-Atlantic trade as a ship's Captain, and not his older cousin who appears to have well since retired to look after his acquired Irish property interests.

However, a very interesting item was published in Saunder's News-Letter (Dublin), on Friday 22 May 1778, at page 3, and in column 1 (and in other issues dated 26 May, and 1, 3 and 15 June), as follows:

[Image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive, copyright of the British Library Board.]

"Mary PIGOTT, Widow, Plaintiff. Andrew ARMSTRONG, Esq, and others, Defendants.
"Whereas by decree of His Majesty's Court of Exchequer made in this case, bearing the date 26th day of January, 1769, it was among other Things ordered that all the Creditors of John PIGOTT, deceased, therein named, who were not Parties to this Cause, should be at Liberty to come in  and ascertain their several demands before the Chief Remembrancer of the said Court or his Deputy: Now I do in Pursuance thereof hereby give Notice to the several Creditors of the said John PIGOTT that they do come in before me on or before the 15th day of June next, and prove their respective Demands. Otherwise they will be precluded from the Benefits of the said Decree. Dated this 18th May, 1778. CLANBRASSIL."

This is inevitably the Bill, brought before the Court of Exchequer, Dublin, on 11 April 1765, by Mary PIGOTT, Plaintiff, the Defendants being Andrew ARMSTRONG, Constantia Maria his wife, Frances PIGOTT, Lancelot SANDES and Ambrose HARDING; C.GARDINER, Co., R. HARRISON, Att.; Answer of PIGOTT, 22 June 1765, by JUSTUS; Answer of HARDING, 5 September 1765, by James SMITH; Answer of ARMSTRONG and wife, 30 October 1765, by JUSTUS; ditto SANDES, same date, ditto; Bill amended 31 January 1766, by JUSTUS; Second answer of PIGOTT, 8 March 1766, by JUSTUS; Second answer of ARMSTRONG and wife, 22 April 1766, by JUSTUS; ditto, ARMSTRONG and wife, same date, ditto; Reply by Plaintiff, 30 May 1766, by HARRINGTON; Rejoinder of HARDING, 3 September 1766, by J. SMITH [Exchequer Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

COGIT. INT. XXXIII - The decree of 1769 would make fascinating reading, but inevitably, the original, having been lodged in the P.R.O. in Dublin, would have been destroyed in 1922. I do not know whether all Irish law cases were systematically published in weighty legal tomes for use by legal-eagles in reading up on precedent? Or if they did, whether this case may not have been important enough to have warranted inclusion?

Which brings us back to square one again - one John PIGOTT with three wives!

However, it would appear that this Mrs Mary PIGOTT, of St Catherine's parish, Dublin, Widow, married yet again, by License of the Diocese of Dublin, dated 1 December 1794, to Aylmer NEVILL, of Harold's Cross, Gent [Fisher Mss, Dublin Diocese Marriage Licenses, Vol VIII, 1794-1800 - National Library of Ireland; BETHAM's Abstracts]; and that she died in 1799, as (Mrs) NEVILL otherwise PIGOTT otherwise LUMLEY, Intestacy, #48 [Prerogative Wills Index, National Archives].

COGIT. INT. XXXIV - If this was the widow of John PIGOTT, the M.P. for the Borough of Banagher, then she was 31 years a widow before marrying again - which is a VERY long time.

Aylmer NEVILL was named as the second Defendant, with Jonathan HUDSON, in a Chancery Bill, entered 8 November 1799, the Plaintiff being William LUMLEY (very likely a relation of Hugh LUMLEY, first husband of Mary MUSGRAVE, who, as the widow Mary PIGOTT, was Aylmer's last wife).

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A LIFE ENDS.

John PIGOTT died in Dublin, as reported in the Press:
"Deaths - A few days ago, at his lodgings in Dame Street, John PIGOTT, Esq, one of the Representatives in Parliament for the Borough of Banagher, King's County."
[The Public Register, or Freeman's Journal, Tuesday 13 to Saturday 17 December 1763.]

His death occasioned the issue of a new writ for his parliamentary seat, details of which were published in the Freeman's Journal of 27 December 1763.

He died intestate, and administration of his effects was granted on 14 February 1764 to his son-in-law Andrew ARMSTRONG, and his daughters Constantia Maria ARMSTRONG (otherwise PIGOTT) and Frances PIGOTT.

These details come from WJP, and are corroborated by another abstract, made by Sir William BETHAM, about 1830, shortly before he became the Chief Herald in Ireland, which abstracts are now viewable on the Findmypast.co.uk subscription web-site - the originals having been lodged in the Public Records Office of Ireland, probably then located in the Four Courts Building in Dublin, among the many documents destroyed in 1922. 

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THE ELDER DAUGHTER FRANCES.

Frances PIGOTT was named as the second life for the term of her father's lease, registered as a Deed Poll or Minute, dated 10 May 1749, by which Pole COSBY of Stradbally Hall, Esq, demised unto John PIGOTT the leasehold of the Town and Lands of Knocknacarrol and Knocknabrahar (containing 140 acres) in the Parish of Stradbally, at the yearly rental of £53 sterling by equal half-yearly instalments, for the term of three lives - his own, and the lives of his daughters Frances PIGOTT and Constantia Maria PIGOTT - or 31 years, whichever should last the longest. This deed was witnessed by William WELDON of Portarlington, Queen's County, Esq, and Lewis JONES of the fort of the said county, Esquire; but it was not registered until 19 September 1757, when Lewis JONES and William JUSTICE of the City of Dublin, Gent, with JONES swearing on oath that he had witnessed the original Deed being signed by John PIGOTT.

This is the property which was later known as Brockley Park.

Fanny PIGOTT was named in the will of her uncle, Roger BURGOYNE, the 6th Baronet of Wroxhall, dated 19 February 1755 (some 25 years before his death), making provision for them, with precedence to Frances, in the succession to the family estates at Sutton in the event of the failure of his own issue:
"...Then I give and devise my said real Estates to my niece Fanny PIGOTT, eldest daughter of my late sister PIGOTT, for her life...
"And in default of such issue, my niece Constance PIGOTT..."
[British National Archives - On-line Wills, P.C.C. 22 January 1781, PROB 11/1073.]

Frances PIGOTT, Spinster, was Plaintiff in a Bill, brought before the Court of the Exchequer, Dublin, dated 12 August 1766, in which the Defendants were Andrew ARMSTRONG, Constantia Maria his wife, and Mary PIGOTT; R. POWER Co., JUSTUS Att.; Answer of PIGOTT, Defendant, 10 December 1766, by R. HARRISON; Reply from Plaintiff, 25 February 1767, by JUSTUS; Answer of Andrew ARMSTRONG and his wife, 14 March 1767, by A. ARMSTRONG [Exchequer Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

Frances PIGOTT, Spinster, may have been married, by Settlements dated 6 December 1776 [Memorial 212081, Volume 314, Page 195], aged about 44, to Christopher KELLETT, of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Esq - one of the trustees was Richard POWER, Hon Baron of the Court of the Exchequer (along with Edward KELLETT, also of Clonmel), and one of the witnesses was Andrew ARMSTRONG, of the City of Dublin; this, his second marriage, took place by Consistorial License, at St Anne's parish church, Dublin, 7 December 1776, by Rev Henry CROFTON, Curate (his first marriage to Catherine SHEPHERD had taken place in August 1761, at Monkstown).

Frances KELLETT, widow and surviving trustee and executrix of Christopher KELLETT, deceased, was the fourth party to Deeds of Lease and Release, dated 27 and 28 October 1790, the Release being the Marriage Settlements for William KELLETT, of Wexford, in the County of Wexford (the first party), and Bridget Henrietta SEGRAVE, of Great Cabragh, in the County of Dublin, daughter of the late John SEGRAVE of Great Cabragh, Esq (the third party), the joint second party being Henry Lawes (LUTTRELL, 2nd) Earl of Carhampton in the Kingdom of Ireland, and O'Neal SEGRAVE of Great Cabragh [Memorial 288285, Book 447, Page 83].

Frances KELLETT died at Nassau Street, Dublin, 20 August 1805, the relict of the late Christopher KELLETT, of County Wexford [Hibernian Journal, Saturday 24 August], aged 71 years, and was buried at St Anne's parish church [irishgenealogy.ie web-site]; there was a monumental inscription:

"Frances KELLETT, d. 20 Aug 1805, aged 77 years, relict of Christopher KELLETT, Esq, Co Tipperary" [David Carnegie Andrew AGNEW, "Protestant Exiles From France," Volume 2, Third Book, Chapter 28].

It would appear that Frances, if she was the elder daughter of John PIGOTT and Constantia Maria BURGOYNE, was born in London about 1730-31, and so should have been aged about 74 in August 1805.

THE YOUNGER DAUGHTER CONSTANTIA MARIA.

Constantia Maria PIGOTT was married, by Licence of the Diocese of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, 24 September 1751, to Andrew ARMSTRONG, of Gallen, King's County; he was named in the Indented Articles of Agreement dated 15 January 1761 [Memorial 222682, Book 328, Page 545], as joint third party (with Thomas ARMSTRONG of Moorock, King's County), it being the Marriage Settlements of Warneford ARMSTRONG and Frances GRAY, niece of John PIGOTT of Prospect, Queen's County (Andrew's father-in-law); they had issue:

     a. Edmund ARMSTRONG, born 14 December 1754; called to the Bar, 1779; died 12 December 1827; married 4 February 1783, to Elizabeth TRENCH, with issue.

     b. John ARMSTRONG, born 29 August 1758; Lieutenant, 35th Regiment, St Lucia; died unmarried.

     c. Andrew ARMSTRONG, born 13 July 1762; died in infancy.

     d. William ARMSTRONG, born 14 September 1763; died in infancy.

     e. Dennis ARMSTRONG, born 12 July 1766; Lieutenant, 36th regiment; killed at Sattimugulum, India, 1791; unmaried.

     f. Philip ARMSTRONG, born 13 December 1767; 8th Foot; Major, King's County Militia; died 1806.

     g. Constantia Maria ARMSTRONG; married George ARMSTRONG, of Ballycumber, Esq.

     h. Elizabeth ARMSTRONG; named in a Chancery Bill, 3 October 1761.

     j. Frances ARMSTRONG; died an infant.

     k. Belle ARMSTRONG; died at Gallen, unmarried.

      l. Mary ARMSTRONG; married in Scotland, 28 January 1782, to Charles SHERRINGTON; with issue.

      m. Alicia ARMSTRONG.

      n. Anne ARMSTRONG; died in 1824; married in 1793, Andrew ARNSTRING, Esq.

      o. Lucinda ARMSTRONG; married in October 1795, Robert MILLS, of Malahide, Esq; with issue.

      p. Frances ARMSTRONG; married Joseph BARNES, Captain, Royal Artillery; with issue.

On 3 October 1761, Susanna BESNARD, Widow, entered her Bill in the Court of Chancery, Dublin, to which the Defendants were Andrew ARMSTRONG, Constantia Maria his wife, Edmund, John, Frances, Alice, Elizabeth and Philip ARMSTRONG (perhaps their six children), Galbraithe HOLMES, John PIGOTT (presumably Constantia Maria's father), Warneford ARMSTRONG and Edward BRERETON; J. WOLFE, Attorney [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast].

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HIS WIDER FAMILY CONNECTIONS - THE SIBLINGS.

Of his wider family, we know, from the family pedigree published in Vere Langford OLIVER's "History of Antigua," 1895, Volume 3, pages 26-27, that the following were John's siblings:

1. Elizabeth PIGOTT, born about 1694; wife of Rev James KNOX of Antigua, an Episcoplian; he went to St Kitts, about 1714, and was translated to Antigua, 1719, to succeed Rev SIMPSON (deceased); he died at St Giles in the Fields, County Middlesex, 1740; his will dated 19 April 1729, proved by Elizabeth, the widow, 30 May 1741; apparently without issue.

2. Thomas PIGOTT, born about May 1695; of Kilcromin, Queen's County, Gent, when named in the will, dated 5 August 1720, of his father-in-law, Oliver WHEELER of the City of Dublin, Esq [BETHAM's Abstracts]; the 1725 Litigant, of Kilcromin, Queen's County; of Grange, Queen's County, when he and his wife Mary, by deed dated 11 January 1726 [Memorial Number 33784], formally sold Kilcromin to Richard, Earl of Cavan; of Coulcrih alias Hophall, Queen's County, when he relinquished, by deed dated 28 August 1730 [Memorial Number 44093], his rights of inheritance under Robert PIGOTT of Dysart to Emanuel PIGOTT of Chetwynd, Cork, the new proprietor; of Mounteagle, Queen's County, when he made a Deed of Lease, dated 28 February 1735 [Memorial Number 57833], for the Town and Lands of Coulcrih alias Hophall, Queen's County, from Warner WESTENRA, in which he named his three children, John, William and Elizabeth PIGOTT, as lives for the term of the lease; of Mounteagle, December 1735, when named as Executor of the will of his son-in-law Thomas BERNARD; of Ballinakill, Queen's County, when he was named in a Deed of Mortgage dated 19 September 1739 [Memorial Number 69603], concerning Coulcrih alias Hophall, Barony of Maryborough, to Thomas BERNARD (his son-in-law); possibly of Prospect, Queen's County (unless instead his son), when he witnessed a Deed dated 15 January 1761 [Memorial Number 222628], made by John PIGOTT, also of Prospect, on the marriage of John's niece Frances GRAY to Warneford ARMSTRONG (which marriage was licensed on 15 July 1762, between Warneford ARMSTRONG of Ballycumber, King's County, Esq, and Miss Fannie GRAY - Hibernian Magazine Marriage Notices).
Thomas PIGOTT died intestate in 1778, survived by his wife Mary and sister Elizabeth (this again may have been instead his son); however, administration was granted 26 June 1778, to Elizabeth WESTENRA or BERNARD or PIGOTT, the sister, and Mary PIGOTT, the widow [BETHAM's Abstracts].
Thomas married about 1716, Mary WHEELER, daughter of Oliver WHEELER of Dublin, Esq [Gen. Off. Pedigree]; she was named in her father's will, dated 5 August 1720; with issue:
a. Elizabeth PIGOTT, born about 1717; named in the will of her grandfather, Oliver WHEELER of Dublin, dated 5 August 1720; named as the third of three lives for the term in her father's deed of Lease dated 28 February 1735; probably dead before 1770; she married firstly, at Athy, County Kildare, on 10 January 1736, Thomas BERNARD (son of Charles BERNARD); Thomas was named in his father-in-law's deed dated 1739; he died in 1744; his will, dated 19 December 1737, was proved in the Prerogative Court on 29 November 1744, naming his father-in-law Thomas PIGOTT of Mounteagle, Queen's County, Executor, wife Elizabeth PIGOTT, and daughter Mary; issue:
     i. Mary BERNARD; named in her father's will, dated December 1737; married her cousin William BERNARD. 
     ii. Thomas BERNARD.
b. John PIGOTT, born about 1719-21; named as the first of three lives as the term of his father's deed of lease dated 28 February 1735; possibly of Prospect, Queen's County.

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However, John PIGOTT of Prospect was named in a deed dated 28 February 1759 [Memorial Number 131272]by which he purchased from Thomas PIGOTT of Mountmellick all of his "...goods, household stuff, implements, furniture, plate, etc," in his dwellings in Mountmellick and Dobby Cott nearby, for £31 and another £9 in rent to be paid; of Prospect, Queen's County, when he made a deed dated 15 January 1761, being the settlements for the marriage of his niece Frances GRAY to Warneford ARMSTRONG. However, this wedding is too close to Margaret PIGOTT's marriage in 1751 to William GRAY, so Frances is very unlikely to have been their daughter, unless a daughter of William GRAY by a previous marriage? John PIGOTT is unlikely to have made marriage settlements for a daughter of any brother still living, which rules out Thomas for Frances's father, so perhaps instead Walter?
Captain John PIGOTT of Prospect was married in Dublin, on 7 July 1759 to Mary LUMLEY, Widow.

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c. William PIGOTT; named as the second of three lives as the term of his father's deed of lease dated 28 February 1735; of Bernardsgrove, Queen's County, Gent, when named in his father's deed dated 17 August 1744; of Dublin, and formerly of Raheenanisky, Queen's County, when named in a Deed of Mortgage, dated 11 December 1765 [Memorial Number 158060], concerning the lands of Hophall, for £150 lent by Willliam DROUGHT; of Dublin, when he made a deed dated 26 May 1770, concerning the lease of Coulcrih alias Hophall, Queen's County, in which he mentioned that only two of the names were "...still in term" - indicating that either his sister Elizabeth or his brother John had since died; William PIGOTT of Hophall, Esq, made a deed dated 5 May 1794 [Memorial Number 321480 or 321489], demising Coulcrih alias Hophall to Denis, Patrick, Edward and John CONRAN.
William PIGOTT made a Deed of Settlement, dated 6 January 1766 [Memorial Number 176859] for his marriage to Ann McCARTHY, widow of Anderson HARRINGTON of Gangeconn, County Wicklow; she made a deed dated 23 February 1769 [Memorial Number 176776] concerning her late husband's lands in Grangeconn; and William made a Deed of Marriage Separation dated 2 June 1770 [Memorial Number 178999] - the HARRINGTONs were Catholic; this set of deeds may fall under the category of a Protestant Minder camouflaging Catholic property transactions.

3. Benjamin PIGOTT; a mariner; died unmarried; will dated 3 September 1720, proved 1726.

4. Robert PIGOTT; Lieutenant in Colonel NEWTON's Regiment, 1730; after of Colonel WENTWORTH's Regt (1733); which same Regiment was later re-named the 39th Foot; probably married, with possible issue:
a. John PIGOTT; 39th Regt in India; of Compton Chamberlain, Wiltshire; married Jane BENNETT, with issue.
b. Frances PIGOTT; married Richard POWER, Councillor-at-Law and 2nd Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland.

5. Anne PIGOTT; she died 30 March 1783; married at St Michan's, Dublin, 3 April 1730, Francis COSBY of Vicarstown, Queen's County (he was a great-grandson of Elizabeth PIGOTT of Dysart, wife of Richard COSBY of Stradbally Hall); he and his brother-in-law John PIGOTT of Dublin were party to a complicated deed of Assignment, dated 9 April 1739, concerning a part of the Town and Lands of Vicarstown, and a debt of £60 owed by COSBY to PIGOTT; they had issue:
a. Thomas COSBY, born 1742; married firstly his cousin Frances BOWKER, with issue.
b. Francis COSBY.
c. Frances COSBY; married in 1753, her cousin Robert BOWKER, by whom issue - Pigott BOWKER and Captain John BOWKER, R.N. See below.
d. Anne COSBY; married on 1 March 1764, Lieutenant John WARD, 9th Regiment.
e. Eleaner COSBY; married on 15 April 1774, Bernard WARD of Ballyclider.

6. Frances PIGOTT; Administration dated 1 December 1725; unmarried.

7. Judith PIGOTT.

8. Martha PIGOTT.

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HIS WIDER FAMILY - THE AUNTS, UNCLES AND COUSINS.

1. Robert PIGOTT, born about 1664; heir of Dysart; Ensign, Sir John EDGEWORTH's Regiment, 1 May 1689 (the day EDGEWORTH was cashiered and Edward BRABAZON, Earl of Meath, was commissioned in his place); probably served under the Duke of Schomberg at the Siege of Carrickfergus; probably also served in the Battle of the Boyne, 1690; resided in London about 1695-1701; returned to Ireland shortly before his father died in 1702; Captain, Earl of Inchiquin's Regiment, March 1704 (Command assumed by Colonel Edward STANHOPE, 1710); Major, 8 Sep 1710; he served in Spain, at Siege of Cardona, December 1710, during which his commanding officer was killed, and which resulted in him quitting the service, after 22 years an officer; he petitioned to be placed on the Half-Pay as a LieutenantColonel on the Irish establishment, 1710; but as he returned to Ireland before the warrant was issued, and due to the death of Queen Anne before it received Royal approval, it lapsed (although a subsequent petition to The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland secured him a payment of £109 10s in June 1715; M.P. for Maryborough (2nd member), 1703-1713; ditto (1st member), 1713-1730.

Robert died in April 1730, and was buried in the Dysart Church; he made his will in 1728, in which he desired "... my body, next night after death, may be carried at 10 o'clock at night to the Church of Disart and out into the vault without least expense and laid at the foot of my father and mother, and by his dear wife. I leave and bequeath my plate as follows - the two big decanters, one, if not done before my death, to be made into a flagon for the communion service of the Dysart Church, the other to be made into two flat salvers for the same service of the church" [Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, Volume 1, 1852, page 478.
Robert was married at Wanstead, Essex, 3 July 1701, to Judith BURGOYNE; she died before him and was buried in the family vault at Dysart Church; they had no issue.

3. Weldon PIGOTT.

4. Walter PIGOTT; probably served in the Army - originally thought to have served in NORTHCOTT's Regiment of Foot, and later in VILLIER's Regiment of Marines, but it is looking more likely that this was another Walter PIGOTT (see below); Walter PIGOTT of the Queen's County witnessed an Irish property deed, dated 11 November 1720, by which Lancelot SANDES (widower of his late sister Elizabeth PIGOTT) made a lease of 600 acres by Phillipstown, King's County, to Walter BIRMINGHAM; Walter thereafter went to the West Indies; as Major PIGOTT, appointed by Thomas OTTLEY, of St Kitts, to command a group of armed men to protect his vessels against French pirates, 1718; probably identified as "... old Major PIGOTT" of Antigua, 1732 (see below); named in an Irish Deed, 1730; of Stradbally, Gent, 16 June 1751, when he was party to Articles of Assignment that was his youngest daughter Margaret's Marriage Settlements, the other party being her husband Willaim GRAY of Maryborough [Memorial 132594, Volume 201, Page 233 - but not registered until 21 June 1759]; named in a Handlist of Voters for the Borough of Maryborough, dated 1760, but evidently preceding another 1760 list which was published by F.H. KEARNEY in 1954, as Walter PIGOTT of Ballymadock, deceased; married with probable issue:
1. John PIGOTT, born about 1710; a Mariner; in 1732 he delivered, by his own hand, a written introduction from John GUNTHORPE in Antigua, to Abraham REDWOOD (1710-1788), a Merchant in Newport, Rhode Island (his father, Abraham REDWOOD Senior, had been a Merchant in Antigua from 1687 until 1712, whence he removed to Salem, Massachusetts, and thence to Newport in 1729, shortly before his death).
GUNTHORPE's letter, dated at Antigua on 24 July 1732, included the following paragraph:
             "Deare Abraham...
             "I beg leave to recommend the Bearer Mr. John PIGOTT, Son to old Major PIGOTT of our Island, to your 
       Friendship and favour, and if you can be any way servisable to him by assisting him to get an Employment in the
       Command of some goode Vessel; I shall take it as a very greate favour, for He is truely a young Gentleman of Meritt,
       being, very modest, sober, industrious, a brisk Sayler, and goode Artist, which I aver to be the Character given to
       me of him by two Captains of Men of War, he had the honour to serve under as Midship Man for four years last
       past. Capt. Malbone  I am in hopes will provide for him, and use your interest with him to that end."
This was inevitably Col John GUNTHORPE (about 1683-1740), the son of Major John GUNTHORPE and Feelove COOKE, and so a first half-cousin of our Captain John PIGOTT (about 1704-1763), who was likely to have been this Midshipman PIGOTT's first cousin german.
Very likely to have been the second Captain John PIGOTT, who returned to Ireland about 1761 after many years service abroad.
2. Margaret PIGOTT (or Mary), married at Stradbally, 1751, William GRAY of Maryborough (with issue).

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There was another Walter PIGOTT, born about 1670 (from the age he recorded on the Allegations of his third marriage in 1706), son of Thomas PIGOTT of Chetwynd, County Salop, by his first wife Elizabeth LOET; probably the Captain in William NORTHCOTT's Regt of Foot, 1694; Captain, George VILLIERS' Regiment of Marines, 1702; served in the War of the Spanish Succession; advertised rewards for information on deserters from his company, 1702, then residing at Wimborne Minster, Dorset; his will, dated 1716, was proved P.C.C., January 1719, late of North Bowood Farm, Netherbury, Dorset; Walter married firstly, at Winterborn Zelstone, Dorset, 12 February 1697-98, Amy COMPTON, widow of Joseph HUSEY of Stourpaine and Wimborne (his Administration dated 24 July 1695); as a Widower, Walter married secondly, Royal Chapel, Hampton Court, 16 September 1703, Rebecca ENGLISH; he married thirdly, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, 27 April 1706, his cousin Mary STEPHENS (Marriage Settlements recorded Walter at Wimborne Minster, Dorset - she was daughter of Maximilian STEPHENS by Mary PIGOTT of Chetwynd, Salop); she died on 10 September 1737, aged 48 years, was buried in Totteridge Parish Churchyard (Totteridge is bounded by the Parishes of Hendon and Finchley) as the "...relict of Captain PIGOTT" [Country Journal or Craftsman (London), Saturday 17 September 1737], and the tabular stone on her grave records her as the "...widdow of Captain PIGOTT, and daughter of Maxemilian STEVENS, Esq" [History of Hertfordshire, by Edward CUSSANS, 1972, Volume 2, page 302]; Walter and Mary had issue:
1. Ann PIGOTT (baptised at St Martins-in-the-Fields, London, 6 July 1708).
This Walter was clearly a Captain, and not a Major.

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However, there is evidence that Walter PIGOTT, of VILLIER's Marines, received a brevet promotion to the rank of Major in September 1706; and that he resigned from Josiah CHURCHILL's Regt (formerly VILLIERS'), with the rank of Major, in 1708.
If the rank of Mary's late husband was correctly recorded as Captain, then it would appear to confirm that there were two Walter PIGOTTs, who both had Army connections, and perhaps with the same regiment.
There is therefore a possibility that some of this Army career recorded above may have been about our Walter of Dysart.

5. Thomas PIGOTT; Ensign, Colonel Solomon RICHARDS' Regiment, 15 November 1688; Lieutenant, same regiment, December 1688; sailed to Londonderry, March 1689, to reinforce the Williamite defenders in the city of Derry, but failed to arrive due to an enemy ruse; returned to England, and was garrisoned there until early 1694 (Sir George ST GEORGE had replaced RICHARDS as Commanding Officer); went to Flanders; at Oostende, 1695 (James COURTHOPE replaced ST GEORGE); at Kenoque and Namur; Storm of Namur, August 1695 (losing 3 Officers, including COURTHOPE, and 104 men); Command fell to Matthew BRIDGES; on active service until the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697; returned to Ireland until 1702; again in Holland, 1702; Thomas was appointed Lieutenant, in Colonel BLOOD's Regiment, 7 July 1702 (Holcroft BLOOD was gazetted as taking over BRIDGES' Regiment in 1703); returned to England to re-establish, November 1703; at Lisbon, March 1704; at Valencia, Badajoz, Alcantara and Madrid, 1705; at Ciudad Rodrigo; Valencia; Alamanza, 1707; James WIGHTMAN took command, August 1707; returned to England, 1708, and thereafter on garrison duty in Edinburgh; Thomas was granted £169 to repair to the front, 1711.
Thomas was possibly married with issue in Antigua:
    a. Thomas PIGOTT; married Mary PAINTER. See end of this blog for a speculated descent for this family.
    b. Elizabeth PIGOTT; married John PAINTER.

6. Alexander PIGOTT; married BRASSETT; with issue, all living 1728:
    a. John PIGOTT.
    b. Robert PIGOTT.
    c. Starkey PIGOTT.
    d. Elizabeth PIGOTT.

7. Martha PIGOTT; she was named a Chancery Court Bills, dated 3 May 1706, 5 July 1731 and 10 November 1743, with her husband Samuel [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast]; she was married, probably in or shortly before May 1706, to Samuel BOWKER, a native of Staffordshire [recorded by his grandson, Pigott BOWKER, in his letter of 1852, now held in the Battye Library, Perth, W.A.]; formerly of Noon (perhaps in error for Naas), County Kildare, and co-signatory (with John PIGOTT) of a memorial, dated 13 August 1700, seeking to re-open the port of New Ross for the exporting of wool; probably named, along with Thomas and George BOWKER, in Quaker Sufferings Register, Anno 1703, for Queen's County, demanding 20 shillings for repairs to the Worshipping House at Dysart, from Henry RIDGEWAY [Quaker Archives, Findmypast]; Samuell BOOKER and Martha his wife were joint Plaintiffs in a Bill brought before the Chancery Court of Ireland, 3 May 1706, in which Robert PIGOTT was the Defendant, and mentioned Richard WARBURTON - same date, another Bill, same details, Thomas PIGOTT, Gent, Plaintiff, and Robert PIGOTT, Defendent [Court of Chancery Bill Books, Findmypast]; Samuel witnessed his brother-in-law John PIGOTT's will, dated 1708-09; he settled at Coulcreagh alias Hophall, Queen's County; of Coolchry, Queen's County, Gent, 29 August 1713, when he was granted Administration of the effects of Maria Blessington BOOKER, Widow, as the son [BETHAM's Abstract]; named in his brother-in-law Robert PIGOTT's will, 1728; Plaintiff to a Bill dated 10 November 1743, jointly with his wife artha and their three sosns, John, Samuel and Robert, v. Thomas PIGOTT, and Pigott and Richard SANDES, as Defendants [Court of Exchequer Bill Books, Findmypast]; Samuel was granted Administration of his son Samuel's effects, 11 February 1743(-44?); he witnessed a deed dated 2 May 1747 (Memorial Number 148364) concerning Coulcreagh alias Hophall, but was deceased before that deed was registered in Dublin on 16 November 1763; he made a Deed of Lease, dated 19 October 1750, by which he demised part of the Town and Lands of Derry, in the Queen's County, to Thomas QUINN, of Derry, for 31 years, under terms by which Robert PIGOTT of Dysart, Esq, late deceased, held the said premises from Warner WESTENRA of Lamberton, and which deed was witnessed by Jonathan BALDWIN of Dysart, and Robert BOWKER of Coolcregh.
Samuel and Martha had issue:
a. John BOWKER; named as joint Plaintiff in his father's Bill, dated 10 November 1743, with his mother and two brothers [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast]; named on a Handlist of the Voters for Maryborough, 1760; and probably died in Queen's County, Supervisor of Hearths, in May-June 1767. Probably married with issue:
    i. Samuel BOWKER, Surveyor of Excise for County Armagh, Monagahan Survey, 1816, at a salary of £150 a year; married by M.L.B., Diocese of Kildare, 1793, Elizabeth MAXWELL, with issue including - a son Robert BOWKER of Trillick, County Tyrone.
b. Samuel BOWKER; of Coolcrith, Queen's County, Gent; named as joint Plaintiff in his father's Bill, dated 10 November 1743, with his mother and two brothers [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast]; died in or before February 1743[-44?]; Administration of his effects was granted on 11 February 1744, to Samuel BOWKER, "... the natural and lawful father" [BETHAM's Abstract, Findmypast].

c. Robert BOWKER; born before 1722; named as joint Plaintiff in his father's Bill, dated 10 November 1743, with his mother and two brothers [Chancery Court Bill Books, Findmypast]; of Coolcreagh, 19 October 1750, when he witnessed a deed of his father [Memorial 105941, Book 155, Page 585]; he was named in the Hand-list of the Voters of Maryborough, Queen's County, 1760, of Coolcree; made a Deed of Lease, dated 1 May 1765 [Memorial 162193, Book 245, Page 76], by which he lease a portion of Coolcreagh (11 acres 5 perches plantation measure), to Patrick BOURKE of Hophal, Queen's County, for  16 years at an annual rental of £8 16s 6d; he was married, by M.L.B. dated 1753, to his cousin Frances COSBY; issue:

    i. Pigott BOWKER, born Queen's County, about 1768; Storekeeper of a Small Arms Repository (or Armoury) near Chelmsford, Essex, 1812-18; he returned to Queen's County before 1824 to enable his sons to attend the Lancastrine School in Abbeyleix; married with issue including - a son Thomas BOWKER, was set to travel to Australia in 1853.
   ii. John BOWKER, born Queen's County, 1770; died at Greenwich, London, 1847; enjoyed a career in the Royal Navy, which included a short period in 1818 as acting Governor of Newfoundland; married in 1801, Mary Beckford YATES, with issue - a daughter Frances BOWKER, born Soberton, Hampshire, about 1810; and a son John BOWKER, b Newfoundland, 1818, at one time a newspaper editor in Shanghai.
d. Frances BOWKER; she died before 1779; she was married, as his first wife, to her cousin Thomas COSBY (born 1742) of Vicarstown; he died 10 December 1788; he was married secondly, by Settlements dated 14 August 1779, to Grace JOHNSTONE; he had issue three sons - Thomas COSBY (married 1802), Dudley COSBY (drowned at Gallen, King's County, July 1787) and Francis COSBY (drowned at Cork, 1791), although it is not clear which, if any, were by Frances. 

8. Elizabeth PIGOTT; evidently died about 1705; married, about 1694, as his first wife, Lancelot SANDES, of Kilcavan, Queen's County (born about 1672); he was Captain, 2nd or the Queen Dowager's Regt of Foot, June 1692; wounded at the Battle of Landen, Flanders, 29 July 1693; Commissioner of the Poll, 1698, when named (with others, including his brother-in-law Robert PIGOTT) in Quaker Congregational records for Queen's County, for the taking of goods in lieu of monetary assessments of Quakers; wrote to his cousin, Robert PIGOTT, in London, 1701, advising him of some "irregularities" in dealings over the family property at Kilcromin; J.P., Queen's Co, 1707; Sheriff of Queen's County, 1716; M.P. for Portarlington, 1723-27; died Easter 1728; Prerogative Will Index, 1729.
Lancelot SANDES married secondly, by Settlements dated 7 March 1706, Elizabeth (unknown, perhaps L'ESTRANGE); she made an Indented Deed, dated 20 July 1745 (Memorial Number 81840, Deeds Registry, Dublin), in which she relinquished all right and title to an annuity and another charge made on her late husband's estate to Pigott SANDES and his son and heir apparent Lancelot SANDES the younger (this deed cited two earlier deeds made by Lancelot SANDES the elder, now deceased - one dated 6 March 1706, charging his lands with the sum of £300 to go to his wife Elizabeth in the event she had no issue by him - the other dated 7 March, 5th year of the Reign of Queen Ann, i.e. 1706, being Articles made prior to his marriage with the said Elizabeth, and making a charge on his lands of an annuity of £40 per year to go to his said wife Elizabeth in the event she died before him having had issue by him - the deed further recited "...that said Elizabeth had no issue by said Lancelot"); she died in 1757, evidently without issue.
Lancelot and Elizabeth PIGOTT had issue:
a. Pigott SANDES, born about 1695; Magistrate, Queen's County, 1722; elected Burgomaster, Maryborough Corporation, 29 September 1727 (under influence of William WALL and John PIGOTT); a joint executor of his uncle Robert PIGOTT's will, 1728; named as a Tithe-taker, 1728, under his uncle Robert PIGOTT, in Quaker congregational records concerning confiscations from delinquent Quakers; with Ambrose HARDING, appointed Trustees of the BURGOYNE investments, 1733, for his cousin John PIGOTT of London and Ballynonty; named as eldest son and heir in a Deed dated March 1743; his deed dated 1 July 1745 (Memorial Number 81612) jointly with his wife Susannah SANDES otherwise WARREN; named in a deed dated 20 July 1745 in which his step-mother Elizabeth SANDES relinquished her right to any annuities arising out of her late husband's estate; named in a Handlist of Voters for the Borough of Maryborough, 1760, of Kilcavan; he died at Kilcavan, in January 1761 [Gentleman's Magazine]; he was married by Prerogative License (Dublin Diocese), dated 23 February 1716, to Susannah WARREN (daughter of Henry WARREN of Crofton, County Kildare, by Elizabeth EUSTACE); she was probably the Mrs SANDES who died at Kilcavan, a few days before 3 May 1766; they had issue:
    i. Anne (Nancy) SANDES; she was married, 27 August 1750, to Rev Matthew PILKINGTON, with a £700 marriage portion from her father; he made his will, 14 February 1754, naming his wife Anne as sole executrix, and appointing John PIGOTT of Stradbally, Esq, as her Trustee, "...as I can confide in his good nature and generous friendship"; of the parish of St Thomas, Dublin, when she made her will, dated 28 October 1785, and proved P.C.I. 30 November 1785, naming her brother Lancelot SANDES, nephew Pigott SANDES, and her nieces Elizabeth CROASDAILE and Jane SANDES.
    ii.  Lancelot SANDES, born about 1720; of Kilcavan; Sheriff of Queen's County, 1761; he was named as son and heir in his father's deed dated 16 August 1744, being the Marriage Settlements for he and his cousin, Mary Dorothea SANDES (daughter of Lancelot SANDES of Carrigafoyle, County Kerry, by Margaret CROSBIE); he died in 1788; his will, dated 2 November 1786, was proved P.C.I., 6 February 1788, naming his late wife Dorothy, his eldest son George, his son Lancelot, his daughter Susannah (wife of Edward CROKER), his daughter Elizabeth (wife of Richard CROASDAILE), his daughter Catherine )the widow of Robert FITZGERALD, Esq), daughters Mary and Jane SANDES, his late sister Anne PILKINGTON, and Deborah SANDES (widow of his late brother Henry) [BETHAM's Abstract]; Lancelot was married secondly, by M.L.B. dated 1760, to Elizabeth WOLSEY; she died at Kilcavan, a few days before 3 May 1766; he was probably married thirdly, a few days before 9 February 1768, to Miss Dorothea GIFFORD of Portarlington; he had issue - George SANDES, eldest son, born about 1750, adm T.C.D., November 1767, B.A. 1772, of Lincoln's Inns; Susannah SANDES, married at Limerick, 1768, Captain Edward CROKER of Raherline; Elizabeth SANDES, married in 1775, Colonel Richard CROASDAILE of Woodford County Galway and of Rynne, Queen's County; Catherine SANDES, married 1770, as his third wife, Robert FITZGERALD, Knight of Kerry, Judge of the Admiralty and M.P. for Dingle; Lancelot Charles SANDES, of Kilcavan, died 1828 and married April 1768, Sarah CROKER of Ballynagard, County Limerick; and Jane SANDES, youngest daughter, married March 1788, Pigott SANDES of Woodfield, King's County (he died at Woodfield, January 1847, aged 90).
     iii. Henry SANDES; his will, dated 10 July 1760, was proved P.C.I., 27February 1761, naming his father Pigott SANDES, his brother Pigott SANDES, his wife Deborah and their children Pigott, Henry and Hester [BETHAM's Abstract]; he was of the City of Dublin, Gent, when he was married by License of the Diocese of Dublin, dated 17 June 1756, to Deborah EMOR, of the parish of St Dowglass, County Dublin, Spinster [BERHAM's Abstract]; they had issue - Pigott SANDES; Henry SANDES; and Hester SANDES.
b. Richard SANDES; a joint executor of his uncle Robert PIGOTT's will, 1728; named in a Handlist of the Voters of Maryborough, 1760, as Richard SANDES, of Portarlington, deceased.
c. Lancelot SANDES, born 1698.
d. John SANDES; possibly in error for Lancelot born 1698?
e. a daughter, married Samuel LOWE with issue.
f. Elizabeth SANDES, born 1702; possibly married Maurice CROSBIE, with issue.

9. Ann PIGOTT: married Thomas PHILLIPS, of Newton-Limavady; issue:
    a. Mary PHILLIPS.
    b. Elizabeth PHILLIPS.
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THE LIFE OF ANOTHER JOHN PIGOTT ENDS, POSSIBLY.

A query was published in "Notes and Queries" on 2 June 1894, at page 429, which asked:
"John PIGOTT - In PUE's Occurrences and Dublin Gazette of May 2, 1761, appears the following:- 'Died in Dame Street, John PIGOTT, Esq, one of the representatives in Parliament for the Borough of Banagher' (King's County). Can any correspondent of 'N. and Q.' say who this gentleman was?
                                                                                                                                   "PIGOTT."

I would not normally doubt the accuracy of this sort of item; however, it appears that Parliament, recalled after a long period in abeyance, was not due to sit again in Dublin until the further delayed date of 22 October 1761; and the representative who did then take up his seat for the Borough of Banagher was yet another John PIGOTT, Esq, who also had lodgings in Dame Street, Dublin, and who died 2 and a half years later, in December 1763.
I had thought it unlikely that a second John PIGOTT would have been "elected" in the room of the first John PIGOTT without more widespread news coverage of the event.

However, a search of this newspaper, as "Dublin's Pue's Occurrences" for 2 May 1761, 2-5 May 1761, and 5-9 May 1761,  conducted in February 2013 by staff at Public Services, British Library Newspapers, Colindale, London (before they were removed to Yorkshire), reveal that no such death notice was published in any of those issues.
Which probably confirms that this is an error - otherwise, one might expect, a similar notice should probably have been published in other newspapers of the time, particularly in England.
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A "FLAWED" MENTION IN A PUBLISHED HISTORY.

During the late 1990's, the Ulster Historical Foundation published their monumental "History of the Irish Parliament; 1692-1800" edited by Edith Mary JOHNSTON-LIIK; in Volume IV, at page 67, is a memorial to John PIGOTT, the Member for the Borough of Banagher, recorded as sitting in the first Parliament of George III (22 October 1761 to 30 April 1762), and in the early days of the second (from 11 October 1763), and of whom it was noted:
"...his political activity was therefor limited, and nothing is known about it."

The editors have recorded his father instead as having been Southwell PIGOTT of Capard, Queen's Co, and his wife instead as Mary BROWNLOW - which John PIGOTT did indeed exist, and made a number of property deeds registered in Dublin, many associated with his wife's BROWNLOW family, including one made in 1771, verified by comparison of signatures (on signed and sealed originals in the Registry basement) with earlier deeds, including one in 1762 which was his Marriage Separation agreement with Mary BROWNLOW.

It follows that as this John PIGOTT was living in 1771, he could not have been the M.P. for the Borough of Banagher who is known to have died in December 1763.

Correspondence directed to the Ulster Historical Foundation on this matter has so far gone un-acknowledged.
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A "DISTANT" COUSIN IN THE REVENUE IN DUBLIN.

Robert PIGOTT, the Inspector-General of Customs and Excise in Dublin, appears to have been an almost exact contemporary of the illegitimate son of our Captain John PIGOTT above.

Robert was born around 1758-1760; appointed Gauger, Excise Department, Wexford, about 1781-82, on the recommendation of Lord TRACTON, a relation by marriage (James DENNIS, whose wife was Elizabeth PIGOTT, daughter of Emanuel PIGOTT of Chetwynd, Cork, held the title of Baron TRACTON only very briefly, from January 1781 until his death in June 1782); Surveyor of Excise in Wexford, 1798, when imprisoned by rebels and forced to participate in the execution of a Roman Catholic "traitor" named MURPHY (gardener to Mr EDWARDS of Ballyhire) who had informed on the priest DIXON (transported for administering the United oath) by dragging his body to the river and throwing it in; with Thomas Knox MAGEE, Robert was appointed one of the Inspector's-General of  Excise, Dublin, April 1805, "... by the Right Honourable and Honourable the Chief Commissioners of Excise, with the approbation of the Lord Lieutenant" [Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 6 April]; Robert was appointed to take charge of the Malt Duty in Dublin, July 1805; examined by the Board of Commissioners of Excise, September 1807; relieved of his post, January 1808, and retired on half-pay, having served upwards of 26 years in the Revenue service; he petitioned the Lord Deputy, in April 1808, concerning a decision by the Commissioners for Excise to deprive him of his post as Inspector-General of Excise and retire him on half pay.

The petition is reproduced here in full:

"Mr ROBERT PIGOTT, Surveyor of Excise in Ireland. No.4
"To the Right Honourable Sir Arthur Wellesley, K.B., Principal Secretary of Ireland.
"The MEMORIAL of Robert PIGOTT, lately one of the Inspectors General of Excise, Humbly Sheweth,
"That your Memorialist is the grandson of a General Officer, who was killed in the West Indies in the reign of King George the Second, and whose two sons, Lieutenant Colonel Robert PIGOTT and Captain Henry PIGOTT, were killed in America in the war of 1759; and your Memorialist's only surviving uncle, Captain John PIGOTT, after many years foreign service, returned to Ireland in the year 1761, with his brother-in-law the Earl of Halifax, then Lord Lieutenant, and died when your Memorialist was an infant.
"That these, and the misfortunes of your Memorialist's father, reduced him to the necessity of accepting the employment of a Gauger, obtained for him by the late Lord Tracton, who was closely connected with Memorialist.
"That your Memorialist's faithful services raised him to the rank of Inspector General of Excise, about 3 years ago, in which station, as the reward of his long and faithful services, he did enjoy a salary of £300 a year.
"That the Commissioners of Excise have been pleased, without the knowledge of consent of your Memorialist, to advise the Government that he should be superannuated at half his salary, though Memorialist, in perfect health and strength, is as able and as willing to perform his duty as at any former period of his life, and never was employed under the present Board of Excise except once.
"That it has always been understood, that when an Officer, after a long and faithful service was to be superannuated for the public convenience, that he should retire with his full salary; which in the present case £300, your Memorialist humbly hopes you will not think too much for the maintenance of Memorialist and six children.
"That your Memorialist's character, in every rank he served in, has been uniformly that of integrity and good official conduct, and no charge ever brought against him. And his sufferings for his strict loyalty, in the Rebellion of 1798 in Wexford, have been afflicting and severe; they have been stated by Sir Richard Musgrave, Mr Taylor, and other writers of that period.
"That Memorialist humbly begs leave to refer you for the truth of what has been stated to the Earl of Donoughmore, late first Commissioner, whose favour and protection he has long had the honour to enjoy; and who, had he remained in office, would never have consented to have a faithful Officer so severely treated.
"Memorialist, therefore, most humbly prays you, Sir, to take his case into your humane and just consideration; and as he was bred up in the service of the Revenue, and knows no other profession or business to support his large family, that you will be pleased to recommend him to an employment equal in value to that he held; or for full compensation of his salary of £300 a year, and thereby save him from poverty and distress.
"And your Memorialist, as in duty bound, will pray.
"(Signed) Robert PIGOTT.
"Dublin, 20th April 1808."
[House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, from the http://parlipapers.chadwyck.co.uk/ web-site through the institutional subscription of the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin, on one of the terminals in their Genealogy Room.]

This petition was evidently unsuccessful.

Robert was named in a Deed dated 25 May 1819 (Memorial Number 504727, Registry of Deeds, Dublin), in which he sold one quarterly payment of his pension to Michael MURPHY, late Captain in H.M.'s 3rd Regiment of Foot.

Robert was recorded as deceased in the published notice of his grand-daughter Mary WELMAN's 1829 marriage in Sydney (see below); which suggests that he may have been the Robert PIGOTT of Williamstown, County Dublin, who was buried at St Catherine's (C.of I.), Dublin, 11 June 1823, aged 64.

Robert PIGOTT, perhaps the Excise man, was married by License of the Diocese of Ossory, 1779, to Margaret GAINSFORT - although, if he was born in 1759, he was not yet of age.

Robert had known issue:

1. Abigail PIGOTT, born in the 1780s; had children born in Wexford (December 1807), Warrington, Cheshire (January 1810), Gibraltar (February 1812), Wexford (June 1814), Dublin (March 1818) and Enniscorthy (April 1819); she died on 10 October 1824 [recorded on Harvey WELMAN's Service Record, "British Regimental Registers, 1756-1900"]; she was married, by Special License, at St Andrew's Church of Ireland, Dublin, 26 July 1806, as his first wife, to Harvey WELMAN, Lieutenant, 1st Battalion, 9th Regiment of Foot [St James's Chronicle, 7 August].

[Image courtesy of the WELMAN Family Tree of Dallas WELMAN, on ancestry.library edition.]

See his separate post at this link:
http://pigott-gorrie.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/harvey-welman-officer-in-hms-57th.html

2. Robert PIGOTT, born about 1793; Esq, of 5 Lower Rutland Street, Dublin, 1824 (unless that was instead his father); joined the Excise Department, about 1809; forced into retirement by "ill-health," 1836, at half-pay; his pension was "with-held," November 1839, for publicly proclaiming the illegal and unconstitutional character of the Revenue Police in Ireland; he died in London, February 1841, while on a visit to state his case before Parliament; of Cuffe Street, Dublin, when he was married, at St Peter's (C. of I.), Dublin, 17 March 1827, to Elizabeth REILLY of Grafton Street, parish of St Anne's; she published her late husband's papers as "The Waste of Revenue in the Excise Department, etc" in Dublin, 1843; issue:
  a. Robert PIGOTT, born Ashgrove House, County Cavan, 1 May 1836 (and baptised at St Catherine's, Dublin, 1 July 1837).
  b.-f. Five daughters, all "little girls" at the time of their father's death.

3. (?) Eleanor PIGOTT; married by Settlements dated 29 September 1820, Christopher REILLY of the City of Dublin, Chandler.

4-5. Two other children living in 1808.

6. Elizabeth PIGOTT; as Eliza PIGOTT, "... youngest daughter of Robert PIGOTT, Esq, late Inspector-General of Excise," when she was married by Rev John FAY, and by License, at St Thomas's church, Dublin, October 1822, John Millsworth MILLS, Esq, "... youngest son of the late James MILLS of County Roscommon, Esq" [Saunder's News-Letter, 22 October]; probable issue including:
     a. George Pigott MILLS; full age, bachelor, Gent, of Serpentine Avenue, when he was married by License at Donnybrook parish church, Dublin, 13 Oct 1855, to Mary Louisa McKENZIE, full age, spinster, of Lisburne Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, daughter of Murdoch McKENZIE, Gent, witnessed by Murdoch and Robert McKENZIE.

The "... only surviving uncle Captain John PIGOTT" mentioned in Robert PIGOTT's 1808 petition (see above) may have been the Captain PIGGOTT who sailed from Dublin on H.M.'s Yacht Dorset, Captain BONSOY, Tuesday 26 December 1758, bound for Parkgate; one of the other passengers was Captain WELLER.
The timing is right for this Captain PIGGOTT to have conceived a child who might have been born in mid 1759.
Captain WELLER, perhaps the same, was recorded as having arrived at Bath on 4 October 1762; among those listed with him was Captain PICKETT, perhaps the same as Captain PIGGOTT in 1758.
It appears that the WELLER family, from Rolvenden in Kent, provided more than one Captain in the Royal Navy and in the Army - one possibility for the 1758 passenger was John WELLER (1724-1774), later Admiral in the R.N., and probably a son of John WELLER (1689-1752), who had been Captain of H.M.'s Yacht before the Dorset was commissioned to replace it in 1753; this John WELLER Junior was himself Captain of the Dorset, until his appointment as Commander of H.M.'s man-of-war Assistance (54 guns) in December 1755, when he was succeeded on the Dorset by Captain BONSOY.
Perhaps more interestingly, John Senior had another son Nicholas WELLER (1724-1774), who was appointed on 18 February 1854 as Captain in Colonel John ALDECRON's Regiment of Foot; he was recorded in March 1754 a having "... safe arrived in Ireland" with his Colonel and Lieutenant CARNAC, en route for service in the East Indies; he was mentioned by Eyre COOTE on Army service in India in January 1757; and he was buried in Calcutta in 1774; he married a few days before 2 October 1750, probably in Dublin, Catherine CARR (daughter of Rev Dr Charles CARR, Bishop of Killaloe), who died in 1793, aged 67, with issue.
What we do know is that John PIGOTT, later of Compton Chamberlain in Wiltshire, served as a Captain in ALDERCRON's Regiment in India, and survived the "Back Hole of Calcutta" in 1757.
He may have been the Captain PIGGOTT of 1758, perhaps recently arrived back in Ireland.
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ANOTHER FAMILY OF DUBLIN COUSINS.

John PIGOTT of Dublin was a Wholesale and Retail Linen Draper, who resided at 97 Back Lane, 1808-10; then, after an encounter with the Commissioners for Bankruptcy in January 1811, at 10 North King Street (1813-14); and thereafter at 3 Upper Bridge Street (1819-20).
He disappears from Dublin records after 1820.

It is highly likely that John PIGOTT emigrated to America, about 1819, perhaps arriving at Philadelphia, 12 July 1819, on the ship "Fox" with Robert ERWIN; and that he settled in St Louis, Missouri, where his brother William PIGOTT (undoubtedly the other Linen Draper of Dublin) also settled.
William PIGOTT arrived in New York on the brig Anne, April 1817; and died in St Louis, 16 April 1838.
Also in America was their sister Frances PIGOTT (in 1838, the wife of David DIAS of Bellevue, Territory of Wisconsin); she had also emigrated in 1817, with her husband and their 4 young children). The naming of her second son, John Pigott DYAS, suggests a distinct possibility that France's father, and that of John, William and Gertrude, was yet another John PIGOTT of Ireland!

John's story is the subject of another posting, the most recent, on this blog-page.
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THE PIGOTT FAMILY THAT REMAINED IN ANTIGUA.

The PIGOTT family had a continuing presence in Antigua after 1710, and they are presumed to descend from the marriage of Thomas PIGOTT and Elizabeth PAYNTER (see above).
The parentage of this Thomas PIGOTT has not yet been established with any certainty, but I speculate that he may have been the son of Thomas PIGOTT, the fifth son of Thomas PIGOTT (about 1641-1702) of Dysart, Queen's County, and his wife Elizabeth WELDON - there is a possibility that he may instead have been a son of Walter (yet another son of Thomas and Elizabeth), but the fact that he named no sons Walter does tend to make this option less likely.

My speculative pedigree construction, using data from Vere Langford OLIVER's "History of Antigua" (where a separate drop-line pedigree is inset above the main pedigree, but not connected to it - see page 27), together with additional information from family trees and from descendant correspondence, is as follows:

Thomas PIGOTT, born about 1713; died in Antigua, 29 March 1758; married at St George's, Antigua, 18 June 1735, Mary PAYNTER (born 1717, daughter of Captain William PAYNTER); she died at Belfast Division, Antigua, on 15 November 1786; they had issue:
1. William PIGOTT, born about 1735-36; executor to his father's estate, 1759; died in March 1790, and was buried in Falmouth Churchyard; he married at St John's, Antigua, in 1754, Susannah SEDGWICK.
2. Thomas PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 14 May 1737; buried there on 1 January 1737[-38].
[? John PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 21 Jan 1738[-39] - however, the mother of this child was recorded as Elizabeth, not Mary.]
3. George Crosby PIGOTT, baptised at St George's, 22 April 1744; buried there on 12 Jan 1745-46.
4. Elizabeth PIGOTT, baptised at 16 April 1746; probably married at St John's, 16 February 1763, Charles LIBERT.
? Ann PIGOT, died 15 February and was buried at St George's, 16 February 1748-49.
5. Edmund Paynter PIGOTT, bapt ised atSt John's, 5 November 1749; married Mary (-?-), with issue:
     a. Mary PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 1 October 1770; possibly married at St George's, 25 Feb 1800, Henry Greenway GORE, Planter.
     b. Richard PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 25 November 1771; probably buried St John's, 2 October 1772.
[OLIVER records this Richard as having married married Rachel (-?-),with issue, but this appears more likely to have been the younger cousin Richard Hill PIGOTT - see below.]
     c. John PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 13 January 1774.
     d. George PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 24 September 1776.
     e. William Burnett PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, October 1783.
6. Richard Irvin PIGOTT, born on 20 November 1752. See [A] next below.

[A] Richard Irvin PIGOTT; died at Antigua, 18 August 1820, aged 67; he was married at St Philip's, Antigua, on 14 August 1777, to Mary (Christian) HICKS; she died 23 May 1803, aged 47; they had issue:
1. William Colbourn PIGOTT, born 26 July 1778; buried at St Philip's, 28 May 1783, aged 4.
2. Richard Hill PIGOTT, born 13 or 23 July 1780. See [B] below.
3. Elizabeth PIGOT, baptised at St Philip's, 1 January 1782.
4. John (Joseph Paynter) PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 13 January 1784; probably John PIGOTT, infant, buried at St John's, 11 July 1785.
5. George PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 24 September 1786.

[B] Richard Hill PIGOTT; occupant of Pew No 7 or 37, St John's Church, February 1806, February 1827; Proprietor; Slave owner; died 9 Jul 1829, and was buried at St John's, 10 July, aged 49; married on 12 Dec 1799 to Rachel LOUDEN or SEDGWICK; she was buried at St John's, 14 July 1814; with issue:
1. Richard PIGOTT, born 27 December 1801; compensated for the freedom of his slaves, 1835; died 6 Apr 1861; married at St John's, 31 July 1838, to Annie Louisa LAMPE, with issue:
     a. Richard Albert Louden PIGOTT, born 1 April 1848; manager of the Fytche's Creek estate; died 25 October 1926; he had issue by Hettie JACOB.
     b. Ann PIGOTT.
     c. Robert Thomas PIGOTT, born 14 November 1848; Clerk; Merchant; died 1928; married in Antigua, 18 December 1873, Rosalind Esther GRANT (she was born 2 May 1850); she died in September 1929; they had issue.
     d. Anna Louise PIGOTT, born 1851.
1. John Nugent PIGOTT, baptised at St John's, 26 June 1805.
2. David S. PIGOTT, born 18 November [1807], and baptised at St John's, 23 March 1808.
3. Mary D. PIGOTT, born 18 November 1808, baptised next day but not recorded, then re-baptised at St John's, 21 June 1813; probably married Richard HOLMES or MASON.
4. Thomas PIGOTT, born 21 December 1812; Planter in Antigua; died on Good Friday, 10 Apr 1868, aged 56; he married firstly, Eliza Mary (-?-); she died on 8 Aug 1834, aged 18, and probably without issue; Thomas married secondly, Eliza Mary (possibly GREGORY); she died on 10 Jan 1852, aged 37, and was buried at St John's with her twin children and Thomas's first wife, she had issue:
     a. Thomas Smith Gregory PIGOTT, born in 1842 or1848; Clerk and Merchant; died 6 January 1920; married Martha (Moe) BRYN; she died in 1911, aged 79, without issue.
     b. George William Henry PIGOTT, born 12 or 17 Aug 1849; died 30 Sep 1849, aged 7 weeks.
     c. Eliza Jane PIGOTT, born 12 or 17 Aug 1849; died 17 Feb 1850, aged 7 mos.
     d. Louisa Mary PIGOTT, born 1850; died 1920; married Edward GALE, of Barbados, Planter.
Thomas possibly married thirdly, Jane Eliza BARTON; he married fourthly, Margaret Baker REYNOLDS alias McNISH, with further issue:
     e. Alexander Thomas Johnson PIGOTT, born about 1864; emigrated to Australia; married in Victoria, Louisa WESTMACOTT, with issue born in Brighton (1895-1903).
     f. Louisa Maria PIGOTT.
     g. William Brodie PIGOTT.
Richard Hill married secondly, 30 November 1816, Catherine Bowman ROSE, with further issue:
4. Ann D. PIGOTT, born on 11 April 1820 and baptised at St John's, 6 July.
5. William Horatio Nelson S. PIGOTT, born on 14 November 1822, and baptised at St John's, 29 September.

There was another PIGOTT family in Antigua, perhaps related:

Henry Tucker PIGOTT; probably of Garden Estate and Cotton New Works; of Vernon's Estate; married Sarah (-?-); with issue:
1. Henry Bladen PIGOTT, born about 1806; died on 28 Dec 1813, and buried at St Peter's, 29 Dec 1813, an infant, from Cotton new Work, aged 6 years (see M.I. in Parham Old Burial Ground).
(?) Sarah Ann PIGOTT, buried at St Peter's, 13 Apr 1814, from Garden Estate.
2. William Bladen PIGOTT, born on 26 December 1812, and baptised at St Peter's, Antigua, 19 June 1814.
3. Henry S. PIGOTT, born 3 March 1814, and baptised at St Peter's, 19 June 1814; probably buried at St Peter's. 24 Jun 1814, infant, from Cotton New Work.
4. Eliza Ann Billinghurst PIGOTT, born at Venron's Estate, and baptised at St Peter's, 1 November 1818; died 11 Nov 1818, and was buried St Peter's, an infant, from Vernon's Estate, with Henry Bladen PIGOTT at Parham Old Burial Ground (M.I.).
5. Henry Alexander Moore PIGOTT, born Vernon's Estate, and baptised at St Peter's, 8 October 1821.
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Captain John was, I believe, my gtx4 grandfather.