Captain John PIGOTT of Antigua, Dublin & Stradbally

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

Vital statistics can be hard to come by in Irish genealogical research.
Such is the case with the family of John PIGOTT, Sr, of Kilcromin, Queen's County, Ireland, & of New North Sound, St John's Division, Antigua, Army Captain & Planter, by his spouse Frances PROCTOR, of Rendezvous Bay, Antigua.
The likelihood 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 4th but 3rd surviving, & named for his father. He, John PIGOTT, was born around 1705, & is the subject of this article.

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

Fortunately, additional information is now appearing in on-line resources. The Google Book Search facility is particularly useful, & especially for older journals which were originally published without index; & Early English Books Online (EEBO) & 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.

The father, John PIGOTT Sr, was himself a younger son of Thomas PIGOTT (b ca 1640; d 1702) of Dysart, Queen's County, Ireland, by his spouse Elizabeth WELDON (they were married in Dublin in 1663).
John sailed from Plymouth, 9 Mar 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 Admiral 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, & has suffered greatly by the late rebellion there. I will engage for his loyalty & courage."
[General Christopher CODRINGTON, Antigua - letter dated 3 Jul 1691, to the Lords of Trade & Plantations, London; "Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America & West Indies, 1689-92," H.M.S.O., 1901.]

John Sr instead settled in Antigua, & eventually on a Plantation in New North Sound, St John's Division, but with occasional voyages home to Ireland, his last in 1708-09, when he made his will, an abstract of which 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 Mar 1708(-09); proved in Ireland 1711. Bound on a voyage to the West Indyes. To my 3 youngest sons, Rob't, Benj'n, & John, 200 pounds each. My daughter Elizabeth 400 pounds. My 3 other daughters 300 pounds each. My 1st son to have one-half my real & 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, & Major John LYONS & 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 & Antigua, reproduced in Vere Langden OLIVER's "History of Antigua," 1895, Vol. 3, p. 25.]

The first named executor, Robert PIGOTT, young John's uncle, had succeeded to the family estate at Dysart in 1702. This estate, of 772 acres plantation measure, was originally granted in 1562 to John PIGOTT (died 1570); livery granted 1586 to his younger son Robert, later Sir Robert (b 1565; d ca 1642); briefly held by his son & heir John & repossessed at the Cessation of 1643 after a short-lived siezure by the Earl of Castlehaven (John was killed in the storm & sack of Dysart, 6 Oct 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, Sep 1646), who died, as recorded, in 1702.

Young John's father was himself to die in violent circumstances, not 2 years after he made his will.
Antigua had been placed by Queen Anne under the governorship of Daniel PARKE, a controversial & 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 7 Dec, 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 & PARKE both died in the ensuing affray.
Captain John was aged in his early forties; his son John was only about 5 years old.

His widow Frances was left with 8 children, & apparently a ninth born after their father made his will. The eldest was not yet born when their maternal grandmother, Frances STOUGHTON alias PROCTOR, dated her will on 9 Sep 1693 (proved Antigua, 8 Feb 1694), in which she made bequests to 3 grandchildren living (Frances KERR, & John & William GUNTHORPE), and to the next, probably already on the way:
"...to the first child my daughter Frances PIGOTT has, 5 pounds for a piece of Plate..."
[Vere Langden OLIVER, Ibid.]

From which detail, & the knowledge that the eldest son Thomas came of age in May 1716, it is possible to conjecture that John, the 4th son, was born in or about 1703 to 1707.

There is a tantalising possibility that this maternal grandmother, Frances Sr, may have been born Frances CUTLER, & the widow of John COOKE, Solicitor-General for the Commonwealth when he prosecuted the case against Charles I, & 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 recent book "The Tyrannicide Brief," suggests that Frances had died of a consumptive disease before her husband's trial & execution, although this detail has yet to be formally corroborated.

Frances Jr continued to raise the children until her death 2 years later; but whether she stayed in Antigua or went to Kilcromin, as provided for in her late husband's will, is unclear.
Thereafter, the young family of orphans was raised at Dysart by their uncle Robert, as exemplified in an extract from our 2nd 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 & 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 & 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.]

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 & 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 & 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 & 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 & pay off his brothers' & sisters' portions.
The end-result was twofold - Thomas borrowed heavily against Kilcromin, with the consequence that he "sold" it to his creditor & 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, & that it was therefor still part of the main family estate - Thomas claimed there had been, 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, & acknowledging that the Earl of Cavan had invested in the property heavily, & on trust.
And Robert sold Dysart to his 2nd cousin, Emanuel PIGOTT of Chetwynd, Co 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 & 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.]

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, & more than likely a "debtor" in the Fleet Prison, when he was married:
"January 20th, 1729-30. John PIGOTT, of St Martin Orgars, London, Captain of a West Indian Merchant, Bach'l'r, & 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 St, over ye Mews, in St Martin's afores'd."
[No 118. A short narrow file in "The Fleet Registers, &c," Ed. John Sotherden BURN, London, 1833, p.60. Extract obtained from ECCO.]

John being the Captain of a West Indian Merchant ship may have dark shadows - most, if not all of the West Indian 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; & then on the return voyage to England with cargoes of sugar, spices & tobacco. Back in English ports, many a Captain would find himself lodged in prison, usually under quite comfortable circumstances, until their cargoes were sold, & customs & excise duties associated with those cargoes were discharged.

Constantia Maria (Constance) was the only daughter of Sir Roger BURGOYNE, 4th Baronet of Sutton Park, Beds, & of Wroxall, Warws (his aunt Judith BURGOYNE just happened to be the childless wife of Robert PIGOTT of Dysart!), & a 1st cousin of General John BURGOYNE (he led the English Armies to defeat in the American "Revolutionary" War of Independence).
The 4th Bt made a generous provision for his daughter Constance in his will (proved P.C.C., 29 Mar 1716) - she was to share 6,000 pounds equally with her younger brother Roger, & she would get the whole 6,000 pounds if it happened that the eldest son & heir John died, & Roger inherited the Baronetcy. This did actually happen, but not until several months after the father died, & perhaps after the terms of his will had already been settled.

Either way, Captain John PIGOTT had married very well!

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), & as the Newspaper Gossips appear to have done likewise:
"DUBLIN. We hear from London, that Capt PICKETT and his new married Lady, daughter to Sir Roger BURGOYNE, set out together for Ireland to take possession of a great estate left him by an uncle, lately deceased in that Kingdom."
[Faulkiner's Dublin Journal, Tue 26 to Sat 30 May 1730, p.2, col.1.]

The London Press was clearly not aware that the present Baronet was instead her brother - but more importantly they were unaware that the "great estate" in Ireland had already been sold off.

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

[The ruins of Dysart Church, built in the early 1700s on the site of an older church, half a mile south of Dysart Castle, & unroofed in a gale in 1847. This photograph was taken in 2004.]

But Robert's will, proved 30 Apr 1730, made no mention of our young John:
"Robert PIGOTT of Disart, Queen's County, Esq. Will dated 5 Jan 1728. To be buried in the vault in Disart Church near my father, mother & wife. 1400 pounds is due by bond from Richard WARBURTON of Garryhinch, Esq, & Capt John WARBURTON his brother; 600 pounds from Richard WARBURTON of Donycarney, Councellor; 100 pounds from Capt John WHEATLEY of Mountmelic; 50 pounds from Sir Thos SLADE of Dublin; 50 pounds from Dudley COSBY & Pole COSBY, Esq; 900 pounds due on my death by deed of sale of Disart, etc; which altogether amount to 3100 pounds.
"I give 1000 pounds to Pigott SANDES & 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 pounds to pay the rent of the farm of Coulereth held by my sister Martha BOWKER, & at her death, 100 pounds to her 1st son John BOWKER, 100 pounds to her daur Frances BOWKER, & 150 pounds each to her youngest sons Sam'l & Rob't BOWKER. To my nephew Robert PIGOTT, 2nd son of my brother John, 700 pounds. To my nephews Pigott & Richard SANDES, 300 pounds in trust for my brother Walter PIGOTT. To my niece Judith PIGOTT, youngest daur of my brother John, 300 pounds. For my sister PHELLIPE 100 pounds, and at her death to go to her daughters Mary & Eliz. My niece Eliz PIGOTT, daur of my brother Alex'r, 100 pounds, & to his 2nd son John PIGOTT 50 pounds, & to his youngest son Starkey PIGOTT 50 pounds, & to his 1st son Robert PIGOTT 50 pounds. 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, & Sam'l BOWKER my brother-in-law, Executors. Witnessed by Warner WESTENRA & William CAULFIELD. Seal affixed ears 'Ermine, Three fusils Argent'."
[Vere Langden OLIVER, Op. Cit., Vol.3, p.25, with footnote - "For the extracts from the Irish Wills... the author is indebted to Mr William Jackson PIGOTT of Dundrum Manor House, Co 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, & that Tho. was perhaps a misreading of the original. But the extract does show it as "Tho." and the original is now almost certainly destroyed.
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 1st cousin of my own gt-grandfather (Henry Robert PIGOTT, b Dublin 1838). WJP's abundant research into our family origins has shed much light on the genealogy of this branch of PIGOTTs, & his pedigree is published in HOWARD & CRISPS's "Modern Visitation of Ireland," 1895, Vol.2, p.92.

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 St, Dublin, which names our John PIGOTT, was a Deed Poll dated 15 Mar 1727, in which John & 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 pounds sterling was left to me John PIGOTT as a portion, & the sum of 300 pounds to me Ann PIGOTT as my portion, also a dividend to each of us of 30 pounds 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, & John LYONS, Esq, Ex'ors of our said father's will..."
[Extract from Memorial No 37417, page 164.]

The memorial indicates that the deed was signed by Ann, but not by John, who may well have been absent, perhaps somewhere in the "Triangle of Trade." Three other Deeds, dated 30 Sep 1730, pertaining to the provisions of the will of Robert PIGOTT of Dysart, & citing an earlier Deed dated 1725 (concerning the sale of Dysart by Robert to his cousin Emanuel), named the nephews & nieces Thomas, Judith & Robert, but not our John!
John's next mention is a deed of Lease dated 23 Feb 1735, John now of Ballynonty, Co Tipp, Esq'r, together with his brother Thomas, of Mounteagle, Queen's Co, concerning the Town & 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 6 Jan 1736, for the sum of 600 pounds sterling; another deed dated 16 Dec 1738 confirmed the "absolute purchase" of the same property by John, for the sum of 1150 pounds.

Curiously, several years earlier, John was back in England, where his admission into the Middle Temple confirms his paternity:
"...3rd son of John PIGOTT late of Kilcromin Queen's Co, Ireland, deceased."
[Middle Temple, London, Admissions Register.]

John's elder brother Benjamin, the 3rd son, had died unmarried, in or before 1726, a Mariner. 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.

By 1739, John was probably back in Dublin, where, on 26 Jul, his wife Constance died, leaving him with two daughters, Frances & Constantia Maria Jr. Details of her burial, on 29 Jul 1739, were recorded on the BURGOYNE family vault in All Saints, Sutton, Bedfordshire, suggesting that she may have been buried there instead of in Ireland.
Both of the daughters were named in the will of their uncle, Roger BURGOYNE, the 6th Baronet, dated 19 Feb 1755 (some 25 years before his death), making provision for them in the succession to the family estates at Wroxall & Sutton in the event of the failure of his own issue:
"...Then I give & 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 Jan 1781, PROB 11/1073.]

Although by then, Constantia Maria Jr was already the wife of Capt Andrew ARMSTRONG of Gallen, King's Co (they married in Sep 1751, with numerous issue).
And it can reasonably be assumed from this will that Fanny & Constantia Jr had no brother John PIGOTT, as WJP presumed in making his pedigrees.

Just a year & a week after Constance Sr's death, her widower John PIGOTT, Esq, of Dublin, was married by Rev Mr DUNKIN at St Bridget's Church, Dublin, 2 Aug 1740, to his 2nd wife, Katherine BABINGTON, of St Bridget's Parish, widow of William BABINGTON of Strabane, Co Tyrone, & daur of Rev John JOHNSTONE of Clondevadock, Co Donegal, by Mildred HAMILTON.

And as good as John's 1st marriage had been for him, financially, this 2nd was an utter disaster.

Katherine was encumbered by large debts of her 1st husband, the fact 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, & a House in Strabane, which is Freehold, over & 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 chattle interest, & 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 2nd marriage, & 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 pounds, and gave the Sheriff his Bond for that Money, by which she made herself, or her brother GAGE, liable to her 1st 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 pounds 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 pounds Mrs PIGOTT owed him before she became my wife.
"Hereupon I was compelled to pay, or secure to be paid, nigh on 4000 pounds of debts of her & her 1st husband..."
[John PIGOTT, Esq. ibidem.]

Ouch!

John PIGOTT's signature on Deeds of Lease & Release dated 4 & 5 Jan 1740, with that of his wife Katherine, concerning the Town & Lands of Corry, Clondevadock, Co Donegal.

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

[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.]

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

John noted this "event" in his broadside letter of 1749, with the subsequent & extraordinary explanation that his wife had organised for him to be relieved of these possessions:
"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 3rd cousin, & the Country retreat was at Westpanstown, mentioned elsewhere in the Letter, & sold by John in Jul 1748 to William LONGFIELD of Dublin for 300 pounds, as:
"...the Town & Lands of Westpanstown & part of Newcastle, known by the names of Baldaradd & Killoges, situate in Co Dublin containing by estimation 59 acres profitable Land Plantation Measure, more or less, with appurtenances..."
[Dublin Deeds Registry; Memorial No 89057, Book 130, Page 281.]

Throughout this time, indeed from the first week of his 2nd marriage in 1740, John had been losing money & papers from his clothing and from his locked "escritoire" in a bed chamber on the 1st floor. He subsequenty 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.
Therafter, thefts continued, of personal clothing, his 1st wife's heirlooms, & 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 & former servant, Mrs GALLACHER, whose husband ran a shop on the south side of Abbey St, on the Ferry Boat Slip corner, within view of the PIGOTT house!
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) & hunting dogs (by poison) at Westpanstown, & 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, & 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, & 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 & 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. Ibidem.]

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, she denied all!
Later, after John had tricked Mrs GALLACHER into returning some of the "stolen" goods, & his wife had again confessed all, he still would not end the relationship:
"...I went up to her, & she & her niece with Tears, Promises & Entreaties, got the better of my Weakness, and again I was perevailed 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. But in the meantime, his passion for game-cock fighting had led him into the embrace of the daughter of a Dublin Cock-fighting Pit Proprietor, & by her, about 1759, he had sired an illegitimate son, whom we shall meet with shortly.

John PIGOTT's signature on a Tripartite Indenture, dated 19 Mar 1750, then being of Stradbally, Queen's Co, concerning the disposal of the Bishop's Lease at Urney.

John made his first moves towards gaining a Parliamentary seat in 1754, when he contested the position of Burgomaster in the Corporation of Maryborough, Queen's County.
The seat of Maryborough had been represented by his uncle Robert PIGOTT from 1703 until his death in 1730, & since then by Warner WESTENRA & 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 privelege.
John saw his chance, & 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 Aug 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 & WESTENRA against PIGOTT that you made High Sheriff of this county."
[H.F. KEARNEY in his notes accompanying "A Handlist of Voters of Maryborough, 1760." Irish Historical Studies (joint journal of the Irish Historical Society & the Ulster Society for Irish Historical Studies), Vol. IX, No. 33, March 1954, pp. 53-82.]

He then contested the Burgomaster election:
"In 1754 there was a strong contest for the Magistracy between Bartholomew GILBERT & 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 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 & 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 & the Gentry of Queen's County, c1600-1750." Chapter 15 in "Laois, History & Society" (Edited LANE & NOLAN), Geography Press, Templelogue, Dublin, 1991, pp. 446-7.]

WALL died on 9 Sep 1755, & 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 majority in the Commons to the Patriot Party, & GILBERT saw his chance. A challenge was mounted, the newly signed voters, being of less than 12 months standing, were deemed by Parliament to be invalid, & PIGOTT was declared "not duly" elected, with GILBERT taking the seat.

In the 1760 Hand List of Voters of Maryborough [H.F. KEARNEY. Op.Cit.], John was recorded as resident of Loughteogue, Queen's Co, & acting in the interests of Mr COOTE. In the same List, of over 400 voters, he is recorded, against a number of voters as being one of their influences, as Capt John PIGOTT of Stradbally, including his brother Thomas, & cousins Robert & John BOWKER.
By 1761, John had found an easier way into Parliament, in the safe Court Party constituency of the Borough of Banagher, King's County, which he represented until his death in 1763.

John's 1759 liaison was with Hester HILCOCK, daur of Barnaby HILCOCK, Vintner & Cock-Pit Proprietor, of Cork Hill, Dublin. Her illegitimate son was yet another John PIGOTT, who later resided at 2 Grafton Lane.
Part of ROCQUE's 1756 Map of Dublin, showing Span Lane, later Grafton Lane, now Lemon St.

John was later again of 11 Charlotte St, Dublin, where he died in 1838, being buried in the Vicar's Bawn, St Patrick's Cathedral, beside his late wife, Mary VICKERS.

[One of James MALTON's views of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, across the Vicar's Bawn.]

Evidence of the illegitimate connection comes in the form of deeds for a residential property in Ring's End, Co Dublin, which John apparently signed over to Hester HILCOCK & her son John PIGOTT. The deed for that particular transaction, which was clearly in the possession of WJP, has not yet been located in the Deeds Office, & may only have been a draft. Two deeds that were Registered were a Deed of Lease dated 26 Mar 1756 (Mem No 120390) by Jeremiah O'SULLIVAN to John PIGOTT, of a newly built dwelling house at Ring's End, at a yearly rental of 8 pounds sterling; & a Deed of Assignment dated 7 Jan 1762 (Mem No 141387), by Peter DECEYX, of the City of Dublin, Gent, "... in whom the said premises were then legally vested," & for the same property, to Isaac VIGNAU, of the City of Dublin, Gent.
The somewhat obscure connection is made abundantly clear by the following extract of a letter written by Mr E. EVANS, in answer to a query by WJP, citing a marriage license in his possession:
"Esther HILCOCK, Spinster, marr 12 Aug 1760, by License of Archbishop COBB dated 9 Aug 1760, Pierre DECYX, Silk Throwster of Dublin."
[Letter published in the Irish Builder, Dublin, of 15 Feb 1896.]

The infant John was to retain the use for life of his father's surname, but was probably raised by his mother, under the roof of his step-father, Peter DECEYX. This association with the Silk industry probably explains how John Jr made the acquaintance of his future wife, Mary VICKERS (1769-1828), the daughter of Joseph VICKERS, a Dublin Silk Manufacturer.

His step family was as follows - Pierre DECYX (alias DESSIS or DECEASE) was of a Huguenot family, probably son of Jeremy DECYX & Maria HANNAH, & widower of Hannah RABAULT (bur St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, 28 Dec 1754, having had 2 daughters Catherine & Mary); he married Hester HILCOCK, as stated, in 1760; & by her he had further issue:
1. Michael DECYX, b ca 1761; died dublin, 16 Jan 1831, aged 70, & bur St Mark's, Dublin; marr Elizabeth, with issue a daur Elizabeth (b ca 1816, & died 8 Dec 1818, aged 2).
2. Susannah DECYX, bt St Peter's, Dublin, 23 Jul 1762.
3. Peter DECYX, b Dublin, 1764; probably marr a Miss HALL (perhaps a sister of John HALL who marr Dinah WILSON); issue - an eldest son William De SAIX, who marr Bridget NORTON, & a third son John (b 1795, marr 2ndly, his 2nd cousin Diannah HALL, daur of John HALL & Dinah WILSON).
4. another son (?) John, who had issue a son Peter, by whom grandsons Miles DESAIX (b Wicklow, 1819) & Peter (b Wicklow, 1832).

John PIGOTT is said to have married for a third time, by Rev Dixie BLUNDELL at St Anne's, Dublin, 30 Aug 1759, to Mary, widow of Hugh LUMLEY, & daur of Sir Christopher MUSGRAVE, 5th Baronet of Eden Hall, Co Cumberland, by his 1st wife Julia CHARDIN. Lack of any mention of her in Irish property deeds until 1784 suggests this marriage may have been instead to another John PIGOTT, perhaps a nephew.

John PIGOTT died in Dublin, as reported in the Press:
"Deaths - A few days ago, at his lodgings in Dame St, John PIGOTT, Esq, one of the Representatives in Parliament for the Borough of Banagher, King's County."
[The Public Register, or Freeman's Journal, Tue 13 to Sat 17 Dec 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 Dec 1763.
He died intestate, & administration was granted on 14 Feb 1764 to his daughters Francis PIGOTT & Constantia Maria ARMSTRONG. These details come from WJP, & are uncorroborated, probably being sourced by him in the P.R.O., Four Courts, Dublin, among documents well since destroyed.
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Captain John was this blogger's gtx4 grandfather.