Harriett Pitt

Harriet Pitt
Born	1748?
Died	10 December 1814
Nationality	British
Known for	actress and mother to an acting family
Partner(s)	Charles Dibdin

Harriet Pitt (1748? – 10 December 1814) was a British actress and dancer.

Pitt was born to Ann Pitt who was an actress. In 1758 she was appearing doing recitations. The theatrical career did not involve major parts but she did appear at the Drury Lane Theatre and the Covent Garden Theatre.

Her first child was George Cecil Pitt (baptised 1767 – 1820), fathered by George Anderson. George Cecil Pitt became a musician and was the father of the dramatist George Dibdin Pitt, who as a young man took Dibdin as his middle name in honour of his uncles, Harriet's later sons.

She established a relationship with Charles Dibdin who already had a family and together they had three children. The eldest was the songwriter Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin who was born in 1768, the next was a daughter known also as Harriet Pitt, in 1770 and another son and songwriter was Thomas John Dibdin who was born in 1771.

Harriet gave birth to Thomas in Russell Court, Covent Garden, he was named after his father's librettist Isaac Bickerstaffe and their character Mungo in an afterpiece entitled The Padlock. Charles Dibdin made his theatrical debut opposite his elder brother Thomas John Dibdin in David Garrick'sThe Jubilee in 1775. Soon after this performance, his parents separated, and Charles changed his surname to Pitt. David Garrick was Thomas's godfather and he looked after the family when the elder Charles Dibdin abandoned this family too. Harriet entrusted the upbringing of her children to her brother, Cecil, and he sent both boys away to a boarding school at Barnard Castle. The school kept them there even during the holidays and Thomas did not return for five years.

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