James Pigot (1769 – 15 Feb 1843) was a British publisher of directories, and a pioneering publisher of trade directories. He was born in Macclesfield. In 1811 he began publishing trade directories for

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, competing with the firm of R. & W. Dean but later joining with them in 1815 to produce ''Pigot & Dean's Manchester and Salford Directory''. He began publishing ''The Commercial Directory'' in 1814, and expanded to other cities, including London in 1823. He brought his son into his firm Pigot & Co., but his son died in 1840. He made his apprentice Isaac Slater a partner into the firm, which became Pigot & Slater. The titles of the directories varied from ''New Commercial Directory'' or ''National Commercial Directory'', and finally ''Royal National and Commercial Directory and Topography''. His company stopped producing directories for London and the

Home Counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included ...

after 1840 in the face of fierce competition from the firm of Kelly & Co. Pigot died in 1843, and Slater continued publishing directories on his own (after 1852 only for northern England, Scotland, and Ireland). After Slater's own death in 1883, the company was bought by Kelly & Co. in 1892. Pigot is buried in

St. John's Church St. John's Church, Church of St. John, or variants, thereof, (Saint John or St. John usually refers to John the Baptist, but also, sometimes, to John the Apostle or John the Evangelist) may refer to the following churches, former churches or other ...

, Deansgate,

(without an epitaph).

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