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George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot


George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot (4 March 1719 – 11 May 1777) was twice the British President of the British East India Company (India).

Pigot was the eldest son of Richard Pigot of Westminster, by his wife Frances, daughter of Peter Goode, a Huguenot who had come to England in the late seventeenth century. Frances was a "tirewoman" to Queen Caroline. His brothers were Admiral Hugh Pigot (1722–1792) and Sir Robert.

Pigot entered the service of the East India Company in 1736, at the age of 17; after nineteen years he became governor and commander-in-chief of Madras in 1755. Having defended the city against the French in 1758-1759 and occupied Pondichéry on behalf of the company, he resigned his office in November 1763 and returned to the Kingdom of Great Britain, being made a baronet in 1764. In the following year he obtained the seat of Wallingford in the Parliament of Great Britain, and this he retained until 1768; in 1766 he was created an Irish peer as Baron Pigot, of Patshull in the County of Dublin. From 1768 until his death he sat in the British House of Commons for Bridgnorth.

After Peplow Hall, Shropshire his seat was Patshull Hall, Staffordshire. Returning to India in 1775 to occupy his former position at Madras, Pigot was at once involved in a fierce quarrel with the majority of his council which arose out of the proposed restoration of Thuljaji, the rajah of Tanjore. The governor was arrested by order of his opponents and was still a prisoner when he died.


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