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{{short description|English politician}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Thomas Pitt
| image = Thomaspitt.jpg
| order =
| office = President of Fort St George (Madras)
| term_start = 7 July 1698
| term_end = 18 September 1709
| lieutenant =
| predecessor = [[Nathaniel Higginson]]
| successor = [[Gulston Addison]]
| birth_date = {{birth-date|5 July 1653}}
| birth_place = [[Blandford Forum]], Dorset, England
| death_date = {{death-date and age|28 April 1726|5 July 1653}}
| death_place =
| party =
| spouse =
| profession =
| religion =
| signature = Thomas_Pitt_sign.JPG
}}
[[File:Pitt arms.svg|thumb|Arms of Pitt: ''Sable, a fesse chequy argent and azure between three bezants'']]
'''Thomas Pitt''' (5 July 1653 – 28 April 1726) of [[Blandford St Mary]] in Dorset, later of Stratford in Wiltshire and of [[Boconnoc]] in Cornwall,<ref>[https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/pitt-thomas-1653-1726 Romney R. Sedgwick]</ref> known during life commonly as ''Governor Pitt'',<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/chathamhisearly00roseuoft/page/n15/mode/2up |title=Chatham, his early life and connections |last=Rosebery |first=Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of, 1847-1929 |pages=1–2 |date=1910 |publisher=Arthur L. Humphries, London }}</ref> as ''Captain Pitt'', or posthumously, as ''"Diamond" Pitt''<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/swallowfielditso01russ/page/195/mode/1up |title=Swallowfield and its Owners |date=1901 |last=Russell |first=Constance, the Lady |publisher=Longman's Green & co., London, New York, and Bombay}}</ref> was an English [[merchant]] involved in trade with India who served as [[President of Madras]] and six times as a Member of Parliament. He was the grandfather of [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]] ("Pitt the Elder") and was great-grandfather of [[Pitt the Younger]], both prime ministers of Great Britain.

==Origins==
Pitt was born at [[Blandford Forum]], Dorset, the second son of Rev. John Pitt (1610-1672), Rector of [[Blandford St Mary]] (whose mural monument survives in that church<ref>see image [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/dorset/vol3/plate-119], see transcript in Collins</ref>), by his wife Sarah Jay.<ref>Arthur Collins, Collins's Peerage of England, Volume 7, London, 1812, pp.485-6
[https://archive.org/details/collinsspeerage00brydgoog/page/n494 ]</ref> His second cousin was the poet Rev. [[Christopher Pitt]] (1699-1748) whose mural monument survives in the church of St Peter and St Paul, Blandford Forum, displaying the arms of Pitt: ''Sable, a fesse chequy argent and azure between three bezants''. The earliest prominent ancestor of his family was John Pitt (d.1602) a mercer from Blandford Forum and Clerk of the Exchequer who received a grant of arms,<ref>Collins</ref> from whose younger son, Thomas Pitt of Blandford (father of Rev. John Pitt), the Pitts of Boconnoc were descended. The eldest son of John Pitt (d.1602) was Sir [[William Pitt (courtier)|William Pitt]] (c.1559-1636),<ref>https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/pitt-william-1559-1636 {{Bare URL inline|date=May 2021}}</ref> MP for Wareham, who founded the senior line of Pitt of [[Stratfield Saye House|Stratfield Saye]] in Hampshire, many of whose descendants served as an MP for Wareham and in 1776 acquired the title [[Baron Rivers]].

==In the Mughal Empire==
In 1674, Pitt went to India with the [[East India Company]], and soon began trading for himself as an "interloper" in defiance of the East India Company's legal monopoly on Indian trade. Upon his return to England, he was fined £400 for his actions, although by that time he was already very wealthy and could easily afford the fine. He then proceeded to buy the manor of [[Stratford-sub-Castle|Stratford]], Wiltshire and its surrounding borough of [[Old Sarum]]. With that acquisition he gained a [[Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)|seat]] in the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]], as it was a [[rotten borough]], although his first seat was as the member for [[Salisbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Salisbury]] in the [[Convention Parliament (1689)|Convention Parliament of 1689]]. The purchase of Old Sarum would have a significant effect on English history, as the seat would pass to Pitt's rather influential descendants. Pitt returned to India and eventually was hired by the East India Company.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

In August 1698, Pitt arrived at [[Madras]] as the [[President of Madras|President of the East India Company]] and was entrusted to negotiate an end to the [[Child's War]] with the [[Mughal Emperor]] [[Aurangzeb]]. In August 1699, he had been appointed as the Governor of [[Fort St. George, India|Fort St. George]]. In 1702, when the fort was besieged by [[Daud Khan of the Carnatic]], the [[Mughal Empire]]'s local [[subedar]] (lieutenant),<ref>{{cite book|last=Blackburn|first=Terence R.|title=A Miscellany of Mutinies and Massacres in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yQgt5SYepi8C&pg=PA11|year=2007|publisher=APH Publishing|isbn=9788131301692|page=11}}</ref> Pitt was instructed to seek peace. He later bought out some of the [[Carnatic region]]. He began garrisoning East India Company forts by raising regiments of local [[sepoy]]s by hiring from [[Hindu]] warrior [[caste]]s, arming them with the latest weapons and deploying them under the command of English officers to save Madras, his base of operations, from further [[Mughal (tribe)|Mughal]] harassment.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

== President of Madras ==
{{quote box|width=25%|quote=''These native governors ([[Subedar]]s and [[Nawab]]s) have the knack of tramping upon us and extorting what they please of our estate from us...they will never forbid doing so till we have made them sensible of our power.''|source='''Thomas Pitt''', (1699)
}}
Pitt became the President of Madras on 7 July 1698 and remained in his post till 1709.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

In 1698, a new company called ''English Company Trading to the East Indies'' was floated by English merchants with Whiggish affiliations with a capital of £2 million. In August 1699, one John Pitt arrived at Madras and claimed that he had been appointed as the Governor of Fort St George by the new Company on behalf of the Stuarts. However, the Government in England passed an order that the authorities were to receive orders from no-one save those appointed by King [[William III of England|William III]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

On 4 December 1700, the Government of Fort St George banned [[cock-fighting]] and other traditional games, regarding it as the foremost reason for the poverty of the inhabitants of Madras.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Pitt's term of office is known as the 'Golden Age of Madras'. He fortified the walls of Black Town and organised an accurate survey of the city. Pitt is best known for the acquisition of the ''Five New Towns'': [[Tiruvottiyur|Tiruvatiyoor]], [[Kathivakkam|Kathiwakam]], [[Nungambakkam]], [[Vyasarpadi|Vyasarpady]] and [[Sathangadu]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

== Later career ==
In need of money after making gifts to his family, he gave up his seat in parliament in 1716 in favour of the position of [[Governor of Jamaica]]. However, his finances were restored by the sale of a large diamond (later known as the [[Regent diamond]]) and he resigned the position the following year without ever going there. He was soon re-elected to parliament to represent [[Thirsk (UK Parliament constituency)|Thirsk]], and thereafter Old Sarum for the last time, finally quitting parliament in 1726.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/pitt-thomas-1653-1726|title=PITT, Thomas (1653-1726), of Stratford, Wilts. and Boconnoc, Cornw.|publisher=History of Parliament Online|accessdate=13 September 2018}}</ref>

==Marriage and children==
On 1 January 1679/80 Pitt married Jane Innes, a daughter of James Innes of Reid Hall, [[Moray]], by his wife Sarah Vincent.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjn068 Edward J. Davies, "Jane Innes, Wife of Governor Thomas Pitt", ''Notes and Queries'', 253(2008):301-03.]</ref> Jane was a niece of [[Matthias Vincent]], one of Pitt's business associates.<ref name=UKP>{{cite web|title=VINCENT, Sir Matthias (c.1645-87), of, Islington, Mdx.|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/vincent-sir-matthias-1645-87|publisher=UK Parliament|accessdate=27 August 2016}}</ref> By his wife he had at least four sons and two daughters, including:
*[[Robert Pitt of Boconnoc|Robert Pitt]] (1680-1727), of Boconnoc, eldest son, the father of [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]] (1708-1778) ("Pitt the Elder"), twice Prime Minister of Great Britain, the father of [[William Pitt the Younger]] (1759-1806), also Prime Minister.
*[[Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry]] (c.1688-1729), 2nd son, a twin with his fractionally younger brother William, based on an entry to the baptismal records of [[St Lawrence, Stratford-sub-Castle|St. Lawrence, Stratford sub Castle]], Wiltshire.
*William Pitt, 3rd son, a twin who probably died in infancy.
*Col. [[John Pitt (colonel)|John Pitt]] (1698–1754), 4th son, a distinguished soldier.
*Essex Pitt, eldest daughter, who married [[Charles Cholmondeley]] (1684–1759).<ref>Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.</ref>
*[[Lucy Pitt]], 2nd daughter, who married [[James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope]] a soldier and statesmen who served as chief minister during the early years of the reign of King [[George I of Great Britain|George I]].

==Pitt's diamond==
[[File:Regent (diamond) black.png|thumb|The Regent diamond, now on display in the Louvre]]
{{main|Regent Diamond}}
Pitt is best known for his purchase of a 410 carat (82 g) uncut diamond acquired from an Indian merchant named Jamchand in Madras in 1701. The merchant had purchased the diamond from an English sea captain, who had, in fact, stolen the diamond from a servant of [[Abul Hasan Qutb Shah]]. According to another version, the servant found the diamond in one of the [[Golkonda]] mines on the [[Krishna River]] and had concealed it inside a large wound in his leg, which he had suffered as he fled the [[Siege of Golconda]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Pitt bought the diamond for 48,000 pagodas or £20,400, and sent it back to England in 1702 concealed inside his eldest son [[Robert Pitt|Robert]]'s shoe.<ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Pearce|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfImNwMXDdoC&pg=PA6|year=2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4090-8908-7|page=6}}</ref> For two years from 1704–1706, the jeweller Harris laboured in London to hew a 141 carat (28.2 g) cushion brilliant from the rough stone. Several secondary stones were produced from the cut that were sold to [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] of Russia. After many attempts to sell it to various European royals, including [[Louis XIV]] of France, Pitt and his sons went with the diamond to [[Calais]] in 1717. With [[John Law (economist)|John Law]] acting as agent, it was sold that year to the French regent, [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]], for £135,000, becoming one of the [[French Crown Jewels|crown jewels of France]]. Today, "Le Régent", as it came to be known, remains in the French Royal Treasury at the [[Louvre]], where it has been on display since 1887.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

Pitt owned a piece of land called a [[copyhold]], and the lord of this land was entitled to Pitt's most valuable possession after his death. If he had not sold the diamond, it would have been confiscated as a [[heriot]], a form of [[death duty]].

His association with the jewel earned him the nickname "Diamond" Pitt.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pearce|first=Edward|authorlink=Edward Pearce (journalist)|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfImNwMXDdoC&pg=PA6|date=26 January 2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=9781409089087|page=6}}</ref>

==Properties==
[[File:The house at Swallowfield Park (geograph 4365319).jpg|thumb|Swallowfield]]
With the money received for his famous diamond, he now began to consolidate his properties. Besides Mawarden Court at [[Stratford Sub Castle]] and the Down at Blandford, he acquired [[Boconnoc]] in Cornwall from [[Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun|Lord Mohun]]'s widow in 1717, and subsequently Kynaston in [[Dorset]], Bradock, Treskillard and Brannell in [[Cornwall]], [[Woodyates]] on the border of Dorset and Wiltshire, [[Abbotts Ann|Abbot's Ann]] in Hampshire (where he rebuilt the church) and, subsequently his favourite residence, [[Swallowfield Park]] in Berkshire, where he died in 1726.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}

==Sources==
*Moore, Gloria. ''The Anglo-Indian Vision'', 1986.
*[[R.R. Palmer|Palmer, R.R.]], ''et al.'' ''A History of the Modern World'', 2004.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofthomaspitt00daltuoft |title= The life of Thomas Pitt |last=Dalton |first=Cornelius Neale, Sir, 1842-1920 |date=1915 |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
*[http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/tpitt.html Royal Berkshire History: Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt]

{{commons category-inline|Thomas Pitt}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|en}}
{{succession box
| before=[[Thomas Hoby (born 1642)|Thomas Hoby]] [[Giles Eyre]]
| title=Member of Parliament for [[Salisbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Salisbury]]
| with=[[Thomas Hoby (born 1642)|Thomas Hoby]]
| years=1689–1695
| after=[[Thomas Hoby (born 1642)|Thomas Hoby]] [[Thomas Mompesson|Sir Thomas Mompesson]]
}}
{{s-par|gb}}
{{succession box
| title=Member of Parliament for [[Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Sarum]]
| years=1710–1716
| with=[[William Harvey (1689–1742)|William Harvey]] 1710–13
| with2=[[Robert Pitt]] 1713–16
| before=[[Robert Pitt]] [[William Harvey (1663–1731)|William Harvey]]
| after=[[Robert Pitt]] [[Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Strickland]]
}}
{{succession box
| title=Member of Parliament for [[Thirsk (UK Parliament constituency)|Thirsk]]
| years=1717–1722
| with=[[Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Frankland]]
| before=[[Ralph Bell (MP)|Ralph Bell]] [[Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Frankland]]
| after=[[Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Frankland]] [[Sir William St Quintin, 4th Baronet|William St Quintin]]
}}
{{succession box
| title=Member of Parliament for [[Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Sarum]]
| years=1722–1726
| with=[[Robert Pitt]] 1722
| with2=[[George Morton Pitt]] 1722–24
| with3=[[John Pitt (colonel)|John Pitt]] 1724–26
| before=[[Robert Pitt]] [[Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Strickland]]
| after=[[John Pitt (colonel)|John Pitt]] [[George Pitt (1663–1735)|George Pitt]]
}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
| before= [[Nathaniel Higginson]]
| title=[[Madras Presidency|President of Madras]]
| after=[[Gulston Addison]]
| years=7 July 1698 – 18 September 1709
}}
{{s-gov}}
{{succession box | title=[[Governor of Jamaica]] | before=[[Lord Archibald Hamilton]]| after=[[Peter Heywood]] | years=1716–1717}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Thomas}}
[[Category:1653 births]]
[[Category:1726 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Blandford Forum]]
[[Category:People from Swallowfield]]
[[Category:English businesspeople]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for Salisbury]]
[[Category:English MPs 1689–1690]]
[[Category:English MPs 1690–1695]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Old Sarum]]
[[Category:British MPs 1710–1713]]
[[Category:British MPs 1713–1715]]
[[Category:British MPs 1715–1722]]
[[Category:British MPs 1722–1727]]
[[Category:People of British India]]
[[Category:Presidents of Madras]]
[[Category:Governors of Jamaica]]
[[Category:Pitt family|Thomas]]

Thomas Pitt - Revision history

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