14 Facts About Thomas Pitt

Thomas Pitt was an English merchant, colonial administrator and politician who served as the president of Fort St George from 1698 to 1709.

Thomas Pitt was born at Blandford Forum, Dorset, the second son of Rev John Thomas Pitt, Rector of Blandford St Mary, by his wife Sarah Jay.

In 1674, Thomas Pitt went to India with the East India Company, and soon began trading for himself as an "interloper" in defiance of the East India Company's legal monopoly on Indian trade.

Thomas Pitt then proceeded to buy the manor of Stratford, Wiltshire and its surrounding borough of Old Sarum.

Thomas Pitt returned to India and eventually was hired by the East India Company.

In 1702, when the fort was besieged by Daud Khan of the Carnatic, the Mughal Empire's local subedar, Thomas Pitt was instructed to seek peace.

Thomas Pitt later bought out some of the Carnatic region.

Thomas Pitt began garrisoning East India Company forts by raising regiments of local sepoys by hiring from Hindu warrior castes, arming them with the latest weapons and deploying them under the command of English officers to save Madras, his base of operations, from further Mughal harassment.

Thomas Pitt fortified the walls of Black Town and organised an accurate survey of the city.

Thomas Pitt is best known for the acquisition of the Five New Towns: Tiruvatiyoor, Kathiwakam, Nungambakkam, Vyasarpady and Sathangadu.

Thomas Pitt was re-elected to parliament to represent Thirsk, and thereafter Old Sarum for the last time, finally quitting parliament in 1726.

Thomas Pitt purchased a 410-carat uncut diamond from an Indian merchant named Jamchand in Madras in 1701.

Thomas Pitt owned a piece of land called a copyhold, and the lord of this land was entitled to Thomas Pitt's most valuable possession after his death.

Thomas Pitt took a lease in 1686 on Mawarden Court, at Stratford-sub-Castle north of Salisbury, and bought lands in the area which were within Old Sarum borough.