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{{short description|British merchant, colonial administrator and politician (1653–1726)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Thomas Pitt
| image               = KnellerPortraitofPitt (cropped).jpg
| image_size          = 220
| office              = [[List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency|President of Fort St. George]]
| term_start          = 7 July 1698
| term_end            = 18 September 1709
| 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 [[fess]]e [[chequy]] [[argent]] and [[azure (heraldry)|azure]] between three [[bezant]]s'']]

'''Thomas Pitt''' (5 July 1653 – 28 April 1726) was a British merchant, colonial administrator and politician who served as the [[List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency|president of Fort St. George]] from 1698 to 1709. Born in [[Blandford Forum]], [[Dorset]], he eventually went to the [[Indian subcontinent]] in the service of the English [[East India Company]] (EIC) and rose to a senior position in the [[Madras Presidency|Presidency of Fort St. George]], administering the EIC's affairs within the region. After a lucrative career in India, Pitt returned to England and entered into a political career, being elected six times to the [[Parliament of Great Britain]]. His descendants would go on to found a political dynasty, with Pitt's [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|grandson]] and [[William Pitt the Younger|great-grandson]] both serving as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister of Great Britain]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/pitt-thomas-1653-1726 |title=Romney R. Sedgwick |access-date=13 September 2018 |archive-date=27 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427124141/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/pitt-thomas-1653-1726 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rosebery |first=Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of |url=https://archive.org/details/chathamhisearly00roseuoft/page/n15/mode/2up |title=Chatham, his early life and connections |date=1910 |publisher=Arthur L. Humphries, London |pages=1–2 |author-link=Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery}}</ref><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>

==Early life==
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. 485–486
[https://archive.org/details/collinsspeerage00brydgoog/page/n494 <!-- quote=john pitt blandford. -->]</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 (died 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 (died 1602) was Sir [[William Pitt (courtier)|William Pitt]] ({{circa|1559}}{{snd}}1636),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/pitt-william-1559-1636|title = PITT, William ({{circa|1559}}{{snd}}1636), of Old Palace Yard, Westminster and Hartley Wespall, Hants. {{pipe}} History of Parliament Online}}</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]] and in the same year helped the [[Siege of Tranquebar (1699)|Danes defeat]] [[Thanjavur Nayak kingdom|Tanjore]]. 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 [[List of governors of Jamaica|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|archive-date=27 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427124141/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/pitt-thomas-1653-1726|url-status=dead}}</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>{{cite web | url=https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjn068 | doi=10.1093/notesj/gjn068 | title=Jane Innes, Wife of Governor Thomas Pitt | date=2008 | last1=Davies | first1=E. J. | journal=Notes and Queries | volume=55 | issue=3 | pages=301–303 }}</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]] (1680–1727), of Boconnoc, eldest son, the father of [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]] (1708–1778) ("Pitt the Elder"), 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]], Wiltshire.
*William Pitt, 3rd son, a twin who probably died in infancy.
*Col. [[John Pitt (British Army officer)|John Pitt]] (1698–1754), 4th son, a distinguished soldier.
*Essex Pitt, eldest daughter, who married [[Charles Cholmondeley (politician)|Charles Cholmondeley]] (1684–1759).<ref>[[Charles Mosley (genealogist)|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 purchased a {{Convert|410|carat|adj=on}} uncut diamond from an Indian merchant named Jamchand in Madras in 1701. According to legend, the diamond had been originally found by an [[Slavery in India|enslaved man]] in the [[Kollur Mine]] near the [[Krishna River]] and was concealed by the slave in a leg wound, which he suffered while fleeing the [[siege of Golconda]]. The slave then made to the Indian coast, where he met an English sea captain and offered him 50% of all profits made on the sale of the diamond in exchange for safe passage out of India. However, the sea captain killed the slave and sold the diamond to Jamchand.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.israelidiamond.co.il/wikidiamond/famous-diamonds/regent-diamond/|title = Regent Diamond - Largest D Color Diamond in the World| date=6 October 2016 }}</ref>

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 |last=Pearce |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfImNwMXDdoC&pg=PA6 |title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War |publisher=Random House |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4090-8908-7 |page=6 |author-link=Edward Pearce (journalist)}}</ref> For two years from 1704–1706, the jeweller Harris laboured in London to hew a {{Convert|141|carat|1|adj=on}} cushion brilliant from the rough stone. Several secondary stones were produced from the cut that were sold to Tsar [[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 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfImNwMXDdoC&pg=PA6 |title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War |date=26 January 2010 |publisher=Random House |isbn=9781409089087 |page=6 |author-link=Edward Pearce (journalist)}}</ref>

==Properties==
Pitt took a lease in 1686 on Mawarden (or Marwarden) Court, at [[Stratford-sub-Castle]] north of Salisbury, and bought lands in the area which were within [[Old Sarum]] borough. His descendants would continue as lessees until 1805.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol6/pp199-213 |title=A History of the County of Wiltshire, Volume 6 |date=1962 |publisher=University of London |editor-last=Crittall |editor-first=Elizabeth |series=[[Victoria County History]] |pages=199–213 |chapter=Stratford-sub-Castle |access-date=24 March 2023 |via=British History Online}}</ref><ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1243256|desc=Marwarden Court|access-date=24 March 2023}}</ref> A bold inscription on the tower of [[St Lawrence, Stratford-sub-Castle|St Lawrence's church]], next to the house, records that he paid for the tower to be rebuilt in 1711; and he also provided furnishings and plate for the church.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Orbach |first1=Julian |title=Wiltshire |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |last3=Cherry |first3=Bridget |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-25120-3 |series=The Buildings Of England |location=New Haven, US and London |pages=681–682 |oclc=1201298091 |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |author-link3=Bridget Cherry}}</ref>[[File:The house at Swallowfield Park (geograph 4365319).jpg|thumb|Swallowfield]]
With the money received in 1717 for his famous diamond, he began to consolidate his properties. Besides Mawarden Court and the Down at [[Blandford St Mary|Blandford]], he acquired [[Boconnoc]] in Cornwall from [[Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun of Okehampton|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.
*[[Robert Roswell 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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606063421/http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/tpitt.html |date=6 June 2011 }}

{{commons category-inline|Thomas Pitt}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|en}}
{{succession box
 | before=[[Thomas Hoby (died 1706)|Thomas Hoby]]<br/>[[Giles Eyre]]
 | title=Member of Parliament for [[Salisbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Salisbury]]
 | with=[[Thomas Hoby (died 1706)|Thomas Hoby]]
 | years=1689–1695
 | after=[[Thomas Hoby (died 1706)|Thomas Hoby]]<br/>[[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]]<br/>[[William Harvey (1663–1731)|William Harvey]]
 | after=[[Robert Pitt]]<br/>[[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]]<br/>[[Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Frankland]]
 | after=[[Sir Thomas Frankland, 3rd Baronet|Thomas Frankland]]<br/>[[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 (British Army officer)|John Pitt]] 1724–26
 | before=[[Robert Pitt]]<br/>[[Sir William Strickland, 3rd Baronet|Sir William Strickland]]
 | after=[[John Pitt (British Army officer)|John Pitt]]<br/>[[George Pitt (1663–1735)|George Pitt]]
}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
 | before= [[Nathaniel Higginson]]
 | title=[[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:17th-century English merchants]]
[[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:Politicians from British India]]
[[Category:Presidents of Madras]]
[[Category:Governors of Jamaica]]
[[Category:Pitt family|Thomas]]
[[Category:18th-century British merchants]]