Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pigott, Arthur Leary
PIGOTT, Sir ARTHUR LEARY (1752–1819), son of John Pigott of Barbados, was born in 1752. He matriculated at Oxford, from Trinity College, on 17 Oct. 1778, having in the preceding year been called to the bar at the Middle Temple, where he was elected a bencher in 1799. He commenced practice in the island of Grenada. Subsequently he was appointed by Lord North a commissioner, under the act of 1780, for taking the public accounts. In 1783 he was made K.C., and in May 1787 was appointed solicitor-general to the Prince of Wales. He practised at the common-law bar until 1793, when he migrated to the court of chancery. In the administration of ‘All the Talents’ he became attorney-general (12 Feb. 1806) and knighted, entering parliament on 21 Feb. for Steyning. On the dissolution in the autumn he was returned (26 Oct.) for Arundel, which he continued to represent until his death. As attorney-general he conducted with conspicuous ability the impeachment of Henry Dundas, first viscount Melville [q. v.] He went out of office on the change of administration in March 1807, and was succeeded by Sir Vicary Gibbs. He was a member of committee on the civil list appointed by Lord Castlereagh in July 1819. He died at Eastbourne on 6 Sept. following. His wife survived him.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Royal Kalendar, 1784, p. 173; Gent. Mag. 1819, ii. 371–2; Life of Charles James Fox (1807), p. 294 n; Ann. Reg. 1806, Chron. p. 494; Howell's State Trials, xxix. 606; Members of Parl. (official list); Memoirs of Sir Samuel Romilly, ii. 130, 351–5; Duke of Buckingham's Memoirs of the Court of England during the Regency, ii. 325; Hansard's Parl. Deb. vol. vii.]