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PIGOTT, John (c.1550-by 1627), of Gray's Inn, London and Edlesborough, Bucks.
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b. c.1550, 5th s. of Francis Pigott of Stratton, Beds. by his 2nd w. Margery, da. of Sir John St. John of Bletsoe, wid. of Henry Grey (d.1545) of Towcester, Northants.; half-bro. of Thomas I. educ. St. John’s, Camb. 1566; G. Inn 1570, called 1581, pensioner 1584. m. (1) Winifred, da. and h. of Thomas Sankey of Edlesborough, Bucks., 2s. 3da.; (2) 1592, Winifred, da. of Ambrose Dormer of Ascot and Milton, Oxon., wid. of Sir William Hawtrey of Chequers, Bucks., 3da.
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Biography
Pigott was a London lawyer, still described as of Gray’s Inn as late as 1591. In a Chancery suit two years later, however, he was described as of Edlesborough, where the death of his first wife had left him in sole possession of a manor. Pigott’s returns for Bedford doubtless resulted from his local connexions. At Bodmin it was probably Sir Robert Cecil who brought him in, for no ascertained reason unless perhaps to reinforce the lawyers in the House. The lawyers in the 1601 Parliament were collectively appointed to over a score of committees dealing with the main issues of the day (monopolies, 23 Nov.; Dunkirk pirates, 3 Dec.; and the export of ordnance, 8 Dec.), legal matters, and a variety of other topics.
Pigott’s second marriage, which followed speedily upon his first wife’s death, was to a wealthy widow. Her first husband’s father claimed that he had settled the manor of Tetchwick in Ludgershall, Buckinghamshire (worth more than £200 a year) on her for life, instead of a sum of £500 previously agreed. By an oversight, the recognizance which had bound him to pay the £500 had not been discharged but remained ‘in extremity of law in full force’, and Pigott pressed for its enforcement. Pigott had probably been dead for some time by 1627, when his son was selling off the Edlesborough estate.
VCH Bucks. iii. 352; Vis. Beds. (Harl. Soc. xix), 46, 53, 132; G. Inn Pension Bk. i. 49, 63; Vis. Oxon. (Harl. Soc. v), 142; APC, xxii. 162; D’Ewes, 634, 635, 641, 642, 647, 649, 651, 657, 658, 662, 666, 668, 672, 674, 677, 681; C/347/64; C2 Eliz/H11/51.
