A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pigot, Richard Henry Holms
PIGOT. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 17; h-p., 34.)
Richard Henry Holms Pigot, born 20 July, 1787, is son of the late John Hollis Pigot, Esq., M.D., of Derby.
This officer entered the Navy, 20 June, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board La Pomone 40, Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren, under whom, while cruizing with a squadron on the coast of France, he aided at the capture of many of the enemy’s armed and other vessels, particularly of the frigates Andromaque and Calliope. Continuing employed with Sir J. B. Warren until Sept. 1800, he successively followed him, during that period, into the Canada 74, Téméraire 98, and Renown 74. In the Canada he witnessed the defeat, 12 Oct. 1798, of a French squadron under Commodore Bompart, intended for the invasion of Ireland; and when Midshipman of the Renown, having first accompanied the expedition to Ferrol, he assisted, 29 Aug. 1800, in the boats of a squadron, 20 in number, commanded by Lieut. Henry Burke, at the cutting out, close to the batteries in Vigo Bay, of La Guêpe privateer, of 18 guns and 161 men; which vessel, 25 of whose people were killed and 40 wounded, was, in 15 minutes, boarded and carried, with a loss to the British of 3 seamen and 1 marine killed, 3 Lieutenants, 12 seamen, and 5 marines wounded, and 1 seaman missing. On leaving the Renown in Sept. 1800, Mr. Pigot removed to the Cynthia 18, Capt. Jas. Halves. He went back to the former ship in the following Nov., but, rejoining Capt. Hawes, in Aug. 1801, on board the Camelion 18, continued to serve with him in that vessel and the Roebuck 44, on the Mediterranean station, until April, 1802. After an attachment of three years and a half, on Home service, to the Clyde 38, Capt. John Larmour, Winchelsea, Lieut.-Commander D. Pope, and Moucheron 16, Capt. Jas. Hawes, he was nominated, 13 March, 1806, Sub-Lieutenant of the Adder gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Molyneux Shuldham. He was made full Lieutenant, 22 Oct. in the latter year, into the Kangaroo 18, Capt. John Baker, lying in the Downs; andsubsequently appointed – 14 Nov. 1807, to the Swiftsure 74, bearing the flag of Sir J. B. Warren at Halifax – 27 May, 1811, as Senior, to the Druid frigate, Capts. Thos. Searle and Fras. Stanfell, in which ship he served at the sieges of Cadiz and Tarifa – 31 Dec. 1812, as a Supernumerary, to the San Juan 74, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Chas. Vinicombe Penrose at Gibraltar – and, 31 March, 1814, after 12 months of half-pay, to the San Domingo 74, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir J. B. Warren on the coast of North America. Since the attainment of his present rank, 31 May, 1814, he has been on half-pay. During the war Commander Pigot was often engaged in cutting out the enemy’s vessels. He married, in 1838, Catherine, daughter of the Rev. J. Parsons, Rector of Cossington, Derby, by whom he has had issue one daughter.