Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pitt, William (1749-1823)
PITT, WILLIAM (1749–1823), writer on agriculture, was born at Tettenhall, near Wolverhampton, in 1749. He was one of the most able of those employed by the board of agriculture in the preparation of the reports on the different counties. He lived first at Pendeford, near Wolverhampton, but removed afterwards to Edgbaston, Birmingham. He died on 18 Sept. 1823, and was buried at Tettenhall. He published: 1. ‘A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Stafford, with Observations on the Means of its Improvement,’ London, 1794, 4to; 1796, 4to; 1808, 8vo; 1815, 8vo. 2. Similar reports on the agriculture of Northamptonshire, 1809, 8vo; Worcestershire, 1813, 8vo; and Leicestershire, to which is annexed ‘A Survey of the County of Rutland. By Richard Parkinson’ (1748–1815) [q. v.], London, 1809, 8vo. 3. ‘On Agricultural Political Arithmetic’ (Essay xxi. in Hunter's ‘Georgical Essays,’ vol. iv., York, 1803, 8vo). 4. ‘The Bullion Debate,’ a serio-comic satiric poem, London, 1811, 8vo. 5. ‘A Comparative Statement of the Food produced from Arable and Grass Land, and the Returns arising from each; with Remarks on the late Enclosures,’ &c., London, 1812, 4to. 6. ‘A Topographical History of Staffordshire,’ &c., Newcastle-under-Lyme, 1817, 8vo.
[Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, p. 74; Loudon's Encyclopædia of Agriculture, p. 1210; Simms's Bibliotheca Staffordiensis, p. 361.]