Sir Francis Taylor Piggott (25 April 1852 – 12 March 1925) was a British jurist and author. He was the Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1905 to 1912. "Sir F.T. Piggot,"
''The Times'' (UK). 13 March 1925; retrieved 7 January 2013.

Early life

Piggott was born at 31

Lower Belgrave Street Lower Belgrave Street is a street in London's Belgravia district. It runs north-west to south-east and begins as a continuation of Upper Belgrave Street where it meets Eaton Square. It crosses one through-street, Ebury Street, and ends in a t-j ...

, London, the son of the Revd Francis Allen Piggott (d. 1871) of Worthing; his mother, Mary Frances Errebess, daughter of Dr John Hollamby Taylor, died at the time of his birth. He was educated in Paris, at Worthing College and at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

where he obtained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

.Wesley-Smith, Peter
"Sir Francis Piggott: chief justice in his own cause,"
''Hong Kong Law Journal,'' 12 (1982), 260–92; retrieved 7 January 2013.

Career

Piggott was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1874 at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. In 1881 he married Mabel Waldron (1854-1949), the eldest daughter of

Jasper Wilson Johns Jasper Wilson Johns (1824 – 26 July 1891) was a civil engineer, merchant, railway promoter and Liberal Party politician. Johns was the son of Thomas Evans Johns of Cardiganshire and his wife Elizabeth Tudor Avis. Johns became a civil engineer ...

MP, and founder of the Colonial Nursing Association; they had two sons, Francis Stewart Gilderoy Piggott (1883-1966) and Julian Ito Piggott (1888-1965).''Sir Francis Taylor Piggott''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

at Uniset.ca He published ''Law of Torts'' in 1885. In 1887, he was appointed to a three-year term as constitutional adviser to the Japanese Prime Minister

Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samur ...

, while, in 1893, he was Secretary of Sir Charles Russell in the

Bering Sea Arbitration The Bering Sea Arbitration of 1893 arose out of a fishery dispute between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United States in the 1880s. The United States Revenue Cutter Service, today known as the United States Coast Guard, cap ...

. He was Procureur-General of Mauritius from 1893 to 1904, acting as the

Chief Justice of Mauritius The Supreme Court of Mauritius is the highest court of Mauritius and is the final court of appeal in the Mauritian judicial system. It was established in its current form in 1850, replacing the ''Cour d'Appel'' established in 1808 during the Fren ...

in 1895. In 1905 he was appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong and was knighted in the same year. He was compulsorily retired from that post in 1912 at the age of 60. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' obituary referred to: "his energy, enthusiasm, and cultured mind" which "did much to stimulate the study of international law".''

'', 13 March 1925 Piggott published two novels under the penname Hope Dawlish and a ‘musical playlet’. In addition, he wrote books and articles on Japanese arts and exhibited his paintings in London. His legal writings included more than a dozen major books and several articles. On his retirement he intended to write a series of historical and legal works on the law of the sea. Sir Francis Piggott Grave 2016

Peter Wesley-Smith, writing of Piggott for the

, said of him:

"Piggott was genial but tactless, pompous but lacking in dignity, learned but inaccurate, industrious yet impecunious, and admired by a few while reviled by many. His record as a judge is sound, though he failed as a judicial administrator and there were many allegations of his partiality on the bench. Eventually he was required to retire soon after reaching the age of sixty. This was a rude shock to him, even though an amendment, known colloquially as ‘the Piggott Relief Ordinance’, had been made to the local pensions legislation precisely to facilitate his removal. He was chronically short of money; indeed in 1922 he was adjudged bankrupt, with creditors in Hong Kong alone owed £15,000. On losing his Hong Kong post he sought employment in Peking (Beijing), but the Foreign Office advised the Chinese government not to appoint him. His return to Hong Kong to practise at the private bar was considered almost scandalous, and when he left for England in 1914 his passage was paid for out of the vote for the relief of destitutes."

Piggott died on 12 March 1925 at his home, 33 Thurloe Square, London. He is buried in

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

in the grave of his wife's parents.

Selected works

Piggot's writings include about 80 worksWorldCat
"au:Sir Francis Taylor Piggott"
retrieved 7 January 2012. * * * * *

References

External links

br>entry for Piggott
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piggott, Francis Taylor English legal writers English musicologists British Japanologists English knights 1852 births 1925 deaths People from Belgravia Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong British Hong Kong judges Chief justices of Mauritius Burials at Brookwood Cemetery English barristers Members of the Middle Temple British Mauritius judges 19th-century musicologists