Francis Taylor Piggott

Sir Francis Taylor Piggott (25 April 1852–12 March 1925) was a British jurist and author. He was the Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1905 to 1912.

Piggott was born at 31 Lower Belgrave Street, London, the son of the Revd Francis Allen Piggott (d. 1871) of Worthing; his mother, Mary Frances Errebess, daughter of Dr John Hollamby Taylor, died at the time of his birth.

He was educated in Paris, at Worthing College and at Trinity College, Cambridge where he obtained a Master of Arts and Master of Laws.

Piggott was called to the bar in 1874 at the Middle Temple. In 1881 he married Mabel Waldron (1854-1949), the eldest daughter of Jasper Wilson Johns MP, and founder of the Colonial Nursing Association; they had two sons, Francis Stewart Gilderoy Piggott (1883-1966) and Julian Ito Piggott (1888-1965). He published Law of Torts in 1885. In 1887 he was a constitutional advisor to Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito in Tokyo.

In 1887 he was appointed to a three-year term as constitutional adviser to the Japanese Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, while n 1893 he was Secretary of Sir Charles Russell in the Bering Sea Arbitration. He was Procureur-General of Mauritius from 1893 to 1904, acting as the Chief Justice of Mauritius in 1895. In 1905 he was appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong and was knighted in the same year. He was compulsorily retired from that post in 1912 at the age of 60.

The Times obituary referred to: "his energy, enthusiasm, and cultured mind" which:

"did much to stimulate the study of international law in days when it needs to be studied more severely than ever, and it may well be that, in the perspective that finally tests the authority of jurists, his labours will secure a permanent place."

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