Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pigott, Gillery
PIGOTT, Sir GILLERY (1813–1875), baron of the exchequer, fourth son of Paynton Pigott, who in 1836 assumed the additional names of Stainsby-Conant, was born at Oxford in 1813. His mother was Lucy, third daughter of Richard Drope Gough. He was educated under the Rev. William Carmalt of Putney, was called to the bar at the Middle Temple on 3 May 1839, went the Oxford circuit, and was made counsel to the inland revenue department in May 1854. In 1856 he became a serjeant-at-law, and in the following year received a patent of precedence. As a liberal, he sat in parliament for Reading from October 1860 to October 1863. He advocated reform in the anomalous laws of Jersey, but his proposed bill did not proceed beyond a second reading. In December 1857 he was chosen recorder of Hereford, and on 2 Oct. 1863 was appointed a baron of the court of exchequer, and on 1 Nov. knighted by patent. No judge administered justice with a stricter impartiality. He took a prominent part in the discussion of many social questions. He died at Sherfield Hill House, Basingstoke, on 28 April 1875, after being thrown from his horse.
He married, in 1836, Frances, only child of Thomas Duke of Ashday Hall, near Halifax, by whom he had a family, which included Arthur Gough Pigott and Rosalie Pigott.
The judge published ‘Reports of Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas, on Appeal from the Decisions of the Revising Barristers,’ 1844–6.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Law Times, 1 May 1875, p. 17; Illustr. London News, 31 Oct. 1863 p. 433 with portrait, 8 May 1875 p. 451, 12 June 1875 p. 571; Graphic, 1875, xi. 483, 486, 492; Ann. Reg. 1875, p. 140.]