Admiral Sir Hugh Pigot (1775 – 29 July 1857) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who served in the
French Revolutionary
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...
and
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, and the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
.
Biography
Early life and career
He was born the
illegitimate
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...
Robert Pigot
Sir Robert Pigot, 2nd Baronet (20 September 1720 – 1 August 1796) was a British Army officer during the American Revolutionary War.
Life
Robert Pigot was born in London, England in 1720. His two brothers were George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, ...
Henry Pigot
General Sir Henry Pigot GCMG (1750 – 7 June 1840) was a British Army officer.
Military career
Born the son of Admiral Hugh Pigot, Pigot was commissioned as a cornet in 1769. He served in the Netherlands in 1793 and, following the Siege of Mal ...
and the notorious Captain Hugh Pigot. His brothers Richard and George both had distinguished careers in the army, rising to the rank of general and major respectively.
Pigot entered the Navy on 1 May 1788, first serving aboard the 50-gun fourth-rate ship , under the command of Captain
Erasmus Gower
Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (3 December 1742 – 21 June 1814) was a Welsh naval officer and colonial governor.
Naval career
Gower, aged 13, joined the Royal Navy in 1755 under the patronage of his uncle, Captain John Donkley. He was present at ...
, and the flagship of Rear-Admiral John Elliot, Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland. Later in the year he moved into the sloop , Captain Edward Pakenham. He then served for three years in home waters under Captain Andrew Snape Douglas, as a midshipman in the frigate , and in the
guard ship
A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea.
Royal Navy
In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...
s and . In 1792 he sailed for the Mediterranean aboard the 50-gun , flagship of Rear-Admiral Samuel Granston Goodall, who he followed into the 98-gun ship in May 1793.O'Byrne (1849), pp. 905–906
Following the evacuation of Toulon in December 1793, he was appointed acting-lieutenant of the
74-gun
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...
, Captain Andrew Sutherland (mariner), then served for a short period as midshipman in the ''Princess Royal'', and in the 100-gun , flagship of Admiral William Hotham. He was officially promoted to lieutenant on 12 November 1794 to serve aboard the sloop , under the Captains the Honourable
Henry Hotham
Vice-Admiral The Honourable Sir Henry Hotham (19 February 1777 – 19 April 1833) was officer of the British Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary, Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812, was later a member of the Board of Admira ...
, Shuldham Peard, and Edwards. His next appointments were to the , Captain John Pakenham; the frigate , under Captains Ralph Willett Miller and Edward Hamilton; the 74-gun , flagship of Vice Admiral
Sir Richard Onslow
Sir Richard Onslow (1601 – 19 May 1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England, House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1664. He fought on the Roundhead, Parliamentary side during the English Civil War ...
; and the , Captain John William Spranger. In those ships he served in the Mediterranean, Newfoundland, the North Sea, Baltic, and Jamaica stations. Promoted to commander on 29 April 1802, Pigot commanded the
brig-sloop
In the 18th century and most of the 19th, a sloop-of-war in the Royal Navy was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. The rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above; thus, the term ''sloop-of-war'' enc ...
off Seaford from 24 August 1803, until promoted to
post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain ...
on 8 May 1804.
Post-captain
On 27 March 1805 Pigot commissioned the sloop at Sheerness, but remained in her only for three months.
He commanded the
sixth rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works a ...
, and then from 28 June 1806 the 32-gun
fifth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal ...
, both in the West Indies. On 5 April 1807 ''Circe'' captured the French privateer ''Austerlitz'' of 18 guns and 125 men. On 2 March 1808, he captured the island of
Marie-Galante
Marie-Galante ( gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Mawigalant) is one of the islands that form Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of . It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 ...
, and on 31 October, off
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...
, he captured the of 16 guns and 79 men, 7 of whom were killed and 8 wounded, with a loss to the ''Circe'', having come under fire from a battery on the
Diamond Rock
Diamond Rock (french: rocher du Diamant) is a 175-metre-high (574 ft)Guadeloupe at the start of 1809 in the latter ship. On 10 February 1809, ''Latona'' assisted in the capture of French frigate ''Junon'', of 46 guns and 323 men, whose fire wounded six of ''Latona''s crew. The exertions and activity Pigot displayed in erecting jury-masts, and putting the prize into a seaworthy state, gained him the warm official thanks of the senior officer present, Captain George Scott, of the ''Horatio''. On 17 April 1809 Pigot witnessed (and was much praised for his spirited exertions during the chase which preceded) the surrender of the French 74-gun ship ; and on 18 June in the same year took part in the capture of the , pierced for 42 guns, but having only 14 of her main-deck armament mounted, with a complement of 174 men, and a cargo of sugar, coffee, etc.
Pigot then moved into the frigate , in which he spent the next four years stationed in the West Indies and at Halifax. In her, during the
War of 1812
The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...
against the United States, he destroyed the 8-gun letter of marque ''Wampoe'' on 28 April 1813, and the 20-gun
privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
''
Holkar
The Holkar (Pronunciation: o(ː)ɭkəɾ dynasty was a Maratha clan of Dhangar origin in India. The Holkars were generals under Peshwa Baji Rao I, and later became Maharajas of Indore in Central India as an independent member of the Mara ...
'' on 11 May 1813. On 20 April 1814 he captured the , of twenty 32-pounder carronades, two long 18-pounder guns, and 171 men. From the end of 1814 he commanded the 50-gun , and then the frigate , on the coast of North America, before returning to England in August 1815.
Post-war career and honours
On 3 November 1825 Pigot was appointed Superintendent of the Coast Blockade, commanding the 74-gun ship , and then from 15 September 1829 the , serving on The Downs station. On 9 March 1831, he took command of the , serving in the Mediterranean for the next three years. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 26 September 1831, and in 1834 made a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH) and at the same time a
Knight Bachelor
The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are th ...
. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 10 January 1837. From 16 May 1844 to 1 July 1847 Pigot was Commander-in-Chief on the Cork Station. He was made a
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...
on 8 July 1847, and was promoted to vice-admiral on 6 August 1847. and was promoted to admiral on 4 July 1853. He retired to
Chieveley
Chieveley is a village and large civil parish centred north of Newbury in Berkshire, close to the M4 motorway and A34 road. Chieveley services are within the parish.
Geography
A map of 1877 gave the area as . The landscape is of gently ro ...