| 2. |  Major George Pigot, 1820 Settler was born on 5 Jun 1771 in Westminster, London, England; was christened on 3 Jul 1771 in Saint Anne Soho, Westminster, London, England (son of Lord George Pigot and Catharine Hill); died in Jun 1830 in 'Pigot Park', Blaauwkrantz, Albany, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was buried in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Other Events and Attributes:
- 1820 Lineage: Yes
- Settler ID: 2534
- Occupation: a Gentleman Farmer and retired Army Officer
- Residence: Chieveley, Berkshire, England
- Settler: 13 Dec 1819, Gravesend, Kent, England
- Immigration: 2 May 1820, Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Notes:
Sheila Gordon wrote:
"A small point of accuracy - Elizabeth Tomkinson was step-mother to Sophia and Catherine, having married George in 1819 shortly before setting out for South Africa. The name of the mother of Sophia and Catherine (and there was a brother George, Lieutenant RN, who died at sea in 1826) is, so far as I have been able to discover, unrecorded."
Sheila also supplied the following info found off a now defunct website:
Major George Pigot
"Looking through some old deeds a few years ago, I noticed that one of the houses had been sold in about 1817 or 1818 by a Major George Pigott of Fox Earth, together with several other properties, including the Hope & Anchor Inn, Cellarhead, to one Jervis Forrester. Jervis Forrester himself was declared bankrupt in 1839 & the properties sold at Auction (see Archive section item C0090). Fox Earth (House) is located on the A520 Weston Coyney to Cellarhead road, well set-back on the left hand side and is now a nursing home.
Recently I had some time and searched the internet for the said, Major Pigott. He is recorded as Captain Pigott in an 1804 “A General Itinerary of England & Wales … “(London to Leek) as residing at Fox Earth. As I soon found, there are lots of Pigotts (with variations Pigot, Piggot) to be found in the internet. One of those being a Major George Pigot , who emigrated to the Eastern Cape, South Africa in 1820 with a whole group of followers (known as the Pigot Party). He is usually described as being a gentleman farmer of Chieveley, Berkshire and a retired Major of Dragoons. He was one of the sons of George Pigot 1st Bt. Patshull (near Wolverhampton) who met a sticky end as Governor of Madras in 1777. In view of the spelling with one ‘t’, I thought it was a different person until I found that his daughter, Eliza Sophia (who wrote a Journal about her early years in South Africa), is recorded as being born at Fox Earth, Staffordshire on 9th May 1804.
Fox Earth is recorded as being leased to George Lambert Clifford in 1811 (he married Mary Coyney on 6th April 1812) and Major Pigot presumably left the house at that time.
So, regardless of the different spelling, it looks like this could be the same Major George Pigot(t) who seems to have sold his Caverswall/Weston Coyney properties in 1817/1818 having moved, or returned, to Berkshire in 1811(?) and then sailed to South Africa with his settler party in December 1819.
I tried to trace which dragoon regiment Capt/Major George Pigot might have belonged to but there were obviously a huge number of military Pigots active in all sorts of conflicts and the Christian name was not normally recorded e.g. only Capt. Pigot. One such Major Pigot lead me to the court martial proceedings of Lt. General Whitelocke who severely bungled an attempt by the British to capture Buenos Aires from the Spanish in 1807. A Major Pigot of the 9th Light Dragoons was recorded as having to take command of the 6th Light Dragoons upon the death of its commander. I don’t know if it was the same Pigot, but the trial record makes amazing reading, even today.
Maybe someone knows what brought Capt./Major Pigot to this relatively remote part of North Staffordshire. Anyway, it does show how much local historical information can be found in the internet these days."
-----------
Following my posting last year, I had been wondering why Major Pigot (ex-dragoons, gentleman farmer of Chieveley, Berkshire, etc) should have been living in such an out of the way place as Fox Earth, in an area which is rather cold, wet and windy, even by British standards, so I recently took time to search the internet for more information.
I think the answer may be found in the connection between the Pigots of Peplow, Hodnet, Salop, to the Hill family of Pepperhill, Longford, Salop, two places which are only a few miles apart. Major Pigot’s father Lord George Pigot (1719-1777), never married but left several children by different women, including George, Richard & Hugh by a Catherine Hill.
The Hill’s themselves also had family connections with the Coyney family of Weston Coyney.
Anthony Hill (b.1690) married Catherine Coyney (dau. of Mark (or Sampson?) Coyney) in 1710 and had four children:
- Richard b.1729.He married Mary Clarke, only daughter of William Clarke of Caverswall.
- Edward b. 1725
- Bridget b. 1722
- Catherine b. 1711
Edward Hill married and had five children:
- Walter William (b.1765)
- George (d. 1801 in Martinique)
- Catherine (d. 1832): married to Vincent Newton (who died 1814 aged 88)
- Elizabeth: married a Mr Tomkinson of Harrietts Haye, nr. Codsall Wood, Wolverhampton.
- Mary (b. 1763)
Walter William Hill married his cousin, Mary Catherine Coyney, only daughter of Edward Coyney in 1788 and changed his family name to Hill-Coyney. Their only daughter Mary (again) married George Lambert Clifford in 1812 and they moved into Foxearth (for a while at least), which Major Pigot must have vacated at that time.
So who was Catherine Hill, Major Pigot’s mother? He was born in1771 so assuming his mother was about 20-25 at the time, she would have been born around 1750-55 & possibly have been the daughter of Richard Hill or Edward Hill noted above. Richard Hill married Mary Clarke from Caverswall and had one son (with no reference to daughters).
I assume, therefore that she was Edward Hill’s daughter Catherine and Walter William’s older (by 10-15yrs) sister. That would make Walter William, Major Pigot’s, uncle. Catherine is recorded as being married to Vincent Newton (from another prominent Roman Catholic family) but he was much older than she was (born about 1726), so perhaps they married later & he didn’t mind the three (born out of wedlock) children she had, noting also that the children’s father Lord George Pigot had already died in Madras in 1777.
Fox Earth would have been owned by the Hill-Coyney’s and probably leased (or sold) by Walter William to Major Pigot (his nephew).
In a Rootsweb contribution, it is noted that in the 1841 Census there were Hugh Pigot (55+), Elizabeth Pigot (35+) and Mary Hill (75+) living at Chieveley Cottage. Mary would seem to be the Mary Hill above (b. 1763) i.e aunt to Major Pigot & sister to Catherine & Walter William.
I didn’t find anything explaining the link to Chieveley, Berkshire (rather than Salop or Staffordshire). Perhaps Catherine brought up her 3 sons there and it was possibly linked to the Newton’s rather than the Pigot’s or Hill’s??
Also, Major Pigot married a second time (just before departing to S.Africa in 1819) an Elizabeth Tomkinson. Perhaps she was a daughter of Elizabeth Hill who married the Mr Tomkinson of Harrietts Haye, Codsall Wood, nr. Wolverhampton, which happens to be close to Patshull (which had been purchased by Lord George Pigot). Possibly therefore, Major Pigot also married his cousin."
Name: George Pigot
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 5 Jun 1771
Baptism Date: 3 Jul 1771
Baptism Place: Saint Anne Soho,Westminster,London,England
Father: George Pigot
Mother: Catharine
FHL Film Number: 918606
Ancestry.com. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
Original data: England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.
MILI:
Description: Dragoon Guards
Settler:
Pigot's party on the Northampton
Buried:
Description: Rev William Carlisle
George married Mary Ann Adams on 18 Jul 1796 in Patshull, Staffordshire, England. Mary was born about 1775 in Greenstead, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
|
- 1826
