PITT, George Morton (1693-1756), of Twickenham, Mdx.

Pitt’s father, who was for many years in the service of the East India Company, was first cousin to George Pitt of Strathfieldsaye. After an English education he became a merchant at Fort St. George. Brought in by his kinsman, Governor Thomas Pitt, at Old Sarum in 1722, he vacated his seat early in 1724 by accepting a minor office. A few months later he went back to Madras, where he held important and lucrative positions under the East India Company for eleven years.Diary of Wm. Hedges, ed. Henry Yule (Hakluyt Soc. lxxviii), iii. Pitt ped. facing pp. xxix, lxxxix-xci, clix, clxi-clxii. Resigning as governor in 1735 with a considerable fortune, he bought an estate at Twickenham and looked for a seat in Parliament. This he secured in January 1740 by buying up, for £9,600, the whole of Sir William Lowther’s interest at Pontefract, consisting of 86 burgages and several freeholds in the borough.Joshua Wilson to Visct. Galway, 30 Jan. 1740, and ‘An account of Mr. Pitt’s and Lord Galway’s estates at Pontefract’, 1743, Galway Pprs. cited by Colin Bradley, ‘Parl. Rep. Pontefract, Newark and East Retford, 1754-68’ (Manchester Univ. M.A. thesis). He and his ally, Lord Galway, who had a similar interest, with 22 additional burgages, jointly held, were thus able to exercise complete control of Pontefract, for which Pitt was twice returned unopposed, voting with the Administration in all recorded divisions. He did not stand in 1754, giving his seat to his friend Sambrooke Freeman, and died 9 Feb. 1756. Under his will the Pontefract burgages passed to his daughter, Harriet, afterwards wife of Lord Brownlow Bertie, M.P., with remainder to his kinsman John Pitt of Encombe, who sold them in 1766.PCC 47 Glazier.