on 5 Sept. 1769. He entered the navy in May 1782 with his father on board the Jupiter, followed him to the Formidable, and from October 1783 to August 1785 served on board the Assistance on the North American station, with Sir Charles Douglas. He was afterwards in the Trusty, flagship of Sir John Laforey, on the Leeward Islands station, and passed his examination on 31 Aug. 1789. On 21 Sept. 1790 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Colossus with Captain Hugh Cloberry Christian [q. v.], in the Channel, and in 1793–4 was in the London with Captain (afterwards Sir) Richard Goodwin Keats [q. v.] On 10 Feb. 1794 he was promoted to the rank of commander and appointed to the Swan sloop on the Jamaica station; from her, on 1 Sept. 1794, he was posted to the Success frigate, and in July 1797 was moved to the Hermione of 32 guns. He is said to have been already known as a man of harsh and tyrannical disposition, and the crew of the Hermione, with many Irishmen and foreigners in it, was one peculiarly apt to be affected by the wave of mutiny which swept over the service in 1797. The story afterwards told, which there is no reason to disbelieve, was that on the afternoon of 21 Sept., when they were reefing topsails, Pigot called to the men on the mizen-topsail yard that he would flog the last man down. Two of them, in the hurry to avoid the promised flogging, lost their hold, fell on the quarter-deck, and were killed; on which Pigot exclaimed, ‘Throw the lubbers overboard.’ The same night the crew rose, cut down the officer of the watch, killed Pigot by repeated blows and stabs, killed or threw overboard all the officers, with the exception of the master, gunner, carpenter, and a midshipman, and took the ship into La Guayra. There they handed her over to the Spaniards, who fitted her out as a ship of war under their own flag. In the following year she was gallantly recaptured after a most determined resistance [see Hamilton, Sir Edward]. In the course of the next few years many of the murderers were hanged and gibbeted. The several courts-martial did not err on the side of mercy.
[Brenton's Naval History, ii. 436; Schomberg's Naval Chronology, iii. 75; Passing Certificate, List-books, and Minutes of Courts-martial (especially vols. 83, 85, and 86) in the Public Record Office.]
PIGOT, Sir ROBERT (1720–1796), lieutenant-general, second son of Richard Pigot of Westminster, by Frances, daughter of Peter Goode, was born at Patshull, Staffordshire, in 1720. George, lord Pigot [q. v.], and Admiral Hugh Pigot (1721?–1792) [q. v.] were his brothers. Entering the army, he served with the 31st regiment of foot (now 1st battalion the East Surrey regiment) in Flanders, and was present at the battle of Fontenoy; the 31st was among the regiments whose conduct is noted with commendation in despatches in the ‘London Gazette.’ In October 1745 the regiment landed at London, proceeding in 1749 to Minorca for three years, and being subsequently stationed in Scotland.
Pigot, who became captain on 31 Oct. 1751, major on 5 May 1758, lieutenant-colonel on 4 Feb. 1760, and colonel on 25 May 1772, was transferred in 1758 to the 70th regiment of foot. This regiment had been formed from the 2nd battalion of the 31st, in which Pigot was then the senior captain. He was with the 70th in the south of England and in Ireland till he joined the 38th regiment of foot (now 1st battalion of the South Staffordshire regiment), of which he became lieutenant-colonel on 1 Oct. 1764. In 1765, after a foreign service of fifty-eight years, the 38th returned from the West Indies; in 1774 it re-embarked for North America; on 19 April 1775 it was engaged at Lexington, and on 17 June at the fiercely contested battle of Bunker's Hill, where the regimental casualties were, killed and wounded, nine officers and ninety-nine non-commissioned officers and men. Pigot was in command, and distinguished himself so highly that George III promoted him to be colonel of the 38th on 11 Dec. 1775. He was gazetted major-general on 29 Aug. 1777. In 1778 he held a command in Rhode Island, and in the same year he succeeded his brother George, lord Pigot of Patshul, as second baronet. The latter left him a share in the celebrated Pigot diamond. He became lieutenant-general on 20 Nov. 1782, and died at Patshull on 2 Aug. 1796. He married, on 18 Feb. 1765, Anne (d. 1772), daughter of Allen Johnson of Kilternan, co. Dublin, and by her he had a daughter, Anne, and three sons—George, his successor, afterwards a major-general in the army; Hugh, a captain in the royal navy; and Robert (d. 1804), lieutenant-colonel of the 30th foot (Gent. Mag. 1804, i. 480).
[Army Lists; Cannon's Records of the 70th Regiment; Pringle's Records of the South Staffordshire Regiment; Ann. Reg.; Gent. Mag. 1796, ii. 106; Playfair's British Family Antiquities, vol. vii.]
PIGOTT, Sir ARTHUR LEARY (1752–1819), son of John Pigott of Barbados, was born in 1752. He matriculated
