John Pigott

Events

Date of Birth: about 1436.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Earwaker (2:255) gives his age as 5 at his father’s IPM in 1441.

Date of Death: 29 January 1512/3

Place of Death: unknown.

In his inquisition post mortem, John is stated to have died on the Saturday next before the Feast of the Purification of St. Mary the Virgin “last” past.

Relationships

Father: Richard Pigott.

Richard is recorded as John’s father in a 1470 deed. 

Mother: Joyce Peshale.

Ormerod gives this relationship, based on Richard’s inquisition post mortem. Richard died 3 May 1439.

Spouse: Ellen de Legh. Married on the Feast of the Trinity 1439.

Earwaker (2:255) gives the date, which is clearly that of a marriage contract.

Children:

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)

Robert Pigott (born before 1462 - died 15 December 1535) married (1) Mary Blount; married (2) Jane Pontesbury, widow of John Onley.

George Pigott married Catherine Henshaw.

Evidence

from the Recogizance Rolls of Chester (appendix to the 37th report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, p. 588):

23 May 1459   John [Pigot] son of Richard, Thomas Glegge, John Tildesley, William Whitmore, and Henry Litherlonde, to Joan, who was the wife of John Pygot, and John Wareyn, recognizance for 105 marks.

from the National Archives catalogue:

DDD 2/36

Deed

17 May 1470 

Parties: 1. John Pygot son and heir of Richard Pygot Esq. Robert Legh of Adlyngton senior, John Smyth chaplain.

2. Robert Downes senior Esq., Geoffrey Downes.

Quitclaim of party 1's claims upon all the lands in Potshryglay once held by Richard father of John Pigot.

1472 Letters of attorney:

(Shropshire Archives 972/1/1/215)

7 Jan 1472

Dated: Tyberton (Tibberton), 7 Jan 11 Edw IV

Parties: 1 Thomas Barker and Joan his wife, and 2 William Bailey (Baylye) and Thomas Adams

Description: 2 to deliver seisin to William Young (Yonge) knight, George Mainwaring (Maynwarynge), Thomas Charlton esquires, Humfrey Barber (Barbur) and John Warre, chaplain, of a tenement in Tyberton according to the charter of enfeoffment made by 1.

Witnesses: William Newport (Neuport), John Cotes (Cootys), John Chetwynd (Chetwyn), John Piggot (Pygote), William Chetwyn, William Colwich (Colwyche), esquires, Thomas Cherrington (Charynton), John Horne

A 1483 grant:

(Shropshire Archives 6000/16191)

“Noverint Universi” etc. John Hayecourt and Philip Hayecourt grant to William Yonge, 'Militus', his heirs and assigns a messuage in Newport which they had from Humphrey Ekynton lord of Ekynton.

Witnesses: Johane Chetwynde, John Pygot of Chetwynde, Henry Cotes, William Chetwynde, Armigerus, John Salter and many others. Dated at Newport, 25th September, I Richard III (1483).

John Pigott appears on a 15th century list of names which is probably of jurors for Salop. (Shropshire Archives 52/37/A)

A 1501 grant:

(Shropshire Archives 6000/16170)

"Sciant presentes" ect. William Colwick of Newport, gentilman grants to Richard Lyngst(on) clericus, rector of the church of Worthen, William Chetwyn, senior of Aston, Armiger, and Roger Lyngston, gent. his messuages and tenements in the Lordship of Newport, Pymmeley and Stoke over Terne in County Salop, and in the town or lordship of Okeley and Little Chatwall in County Staffordshire.

Witnesses: John Pygot, Armiger; John Chetwyn of Aston; Michael Selmon of Moreton and Roger Chetwyn of Aston, gent; George Lee, Baliff of Newport, Thomas Lee of Chatwall and William Hardemon of Stoke on Tern, and others.

Dated at Newport, 18 March, 16 Henry VII, (1501).

John’s inquistion post mortem:

Abstract DKPR (1878, p. 214)

1512-13, March 20.

Robert Pigot, writ of livery, setting forth the finding of an inquisition, viz., that John Pygott died seized in his demesne, as of fee-tail-male of the manor of Buttelegh, and of 24 messuages, one water-mill, five hundred acres of land, a hundred acres of meadow, five hundred acres of pasture, forty acres of wood, two hundred acres of heath, a rent of 9s. 10d., one pair of gloves and one lance in Buttelegh, yearly value forty marks, held of the Earl of Chester, as of the manor of Macclesfield, by the twentieth part of a knight’s fee; that the said John Pygot died on the Saturday next before the Feast of the Purification of St. Mary the Virgin “last” past, and that Robert Pygot was his son and heir. [4 & 5 Hen. 8. m. 4 (1).]

Commentary

I am identifying two Johns that Ormerod separates (John Pigott of Butley and John Pigott of Chetwynd). Helsby (Ormerod 3:666) notes that “John Pygot of Buttelegh (supposed son and heir) [of an earlier John Pigot] occurs in 1503, in an Inq. of Peter de Dutton, who held of him lands in Waverton. With this exception, he has not once occurred in any public document through the long space of half a century.” I suggest that this is because he was identical with John Pigott of Chetwynd, and was based in Chetwynd.

Helsby notes a 1457 commission "for the arrest of fourteen yeomen and gentlemen 'for using threatening language to Joan, who was the wife of John Pygot.' Among those persons was a John Pygot, who cannot be supposed to have been Joan's husband, but who it is apprehended was her step-son; and by the common terms of these documents from the earliest times, it is highly probable that she had then recently become a widow, and that the dispute was over her dower-lands. As it was not customary to enrol all writs and letters, except on special occasions, the usual writ de diem is not to be found; but most likely an Inq.p.m. was taken in 1457. About eighteen months after, a writ of mandamus was issued (perhaps upon the writ de diem, or in consequence of the Inq.p.m. being unsatisfactory), to 'inquire of what lands John Pygot had died seized.' This is dated Ap. 3, 1459, and on Oct. 16, 1461, another writ of mandamus was issued to 'inquire of what lands John Pygot of Butteley armiger had died seized.' This was a few months after the accession to the throne of Edward the Fourth - a disturbed period, which may account for these several Inqs."

Helsby goes on to state that it may be the case that there were two inquisitions, and that the John Pigott who died in 1512 may have been the grandson rather than the son of the one who died in 1457. I suspect that in fact the John Pigott who died in 1457 had no sons, that the John Pigott named in the 1457 commission was the son of the elder John's brother Richard, and that the John who was the son of Richard succeeded to the manor of Butley and  land in Chetwynd.

References

Earwaker, J.P. East Cheshire Past and Present. (1880).

Ormerod, George; Peter Leycester; William Smith; William Webb; and Thomas Helsby. The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale royal and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. (London: G. Routledge, 1882).

The Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1878).