Richard was a justice for the three hundreds of the Eyre of Macclesfield in Cheshire several times between 1423 and 1436.
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: 3 May 1439.
Place of Death: unknown.
The date is given by Earwaker (2:255 n).
Relationships
Father: John Pigott.
See the Commentary section.
Mother: unknown.
Spouse: Joyce Peshale.
This relationship is given by Ormerod and by Fletcher. Earwaker notes that Richard’s wife was named Jocosa, apparently in the IPM.
Children:
(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project.)
John Pigott (born about 1436 - died 29 January 1512/3) married Ellen de Legh.
Evidence
from the Recognizance Rolls of Chester (appendix to the 37th report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, p. 588):
1423 Richard [Pigot], commission of, as a justice;
1426 Richard [Pigot], a like commission;
1428-33 Richard [Pigot], commission of, as a justice;
12 January 1434/5 Richard [Pigot], John de Caryngton, Kt., Robert de Dokenfeld, John Pygot, and Richard de Radclyf, clerk, to the King, recognizance for 100l. that the said Richard Pygot keep the peace towards Hamo le Mascy, of Rixton.
1434-5 Richard [Pigot], commission of, as a justice;
1436/7 Richard [Pigot], commission of, as a justice;
23 March 1440/1 Richard [Pigot] writ “mandamus” to inquire of what possessions the said Richard died seized.
A deed dated 11 Hen. VI (Ormerod 3:775): Richard Scarret of Pott, after reciting that John Hurle, chaplain, and Ric. Pygott, armig’, gave to him a messuage, with an orchard, &c. called le Halle of Pott for his life, with remainder to the said Ric. Pygott, in fee, regrants all his right therein to the said Ric. Pygott for ever. [Original in the possession of a lady in Macclesfield, in 1875 - Helsby]
An indenture kept at the University of Manchester Library:
TW/783 Indenture, John Pygot of Butley, 31 Jan 1445
Indenture made between Robert Legh of Adlyngton and John Pygot of Butley which witnesses that John grants that he shall take estate by deed or release of Laurence Fyton knight and others of all the lands and tenements in the county of Chester of which they were enfeoffed by John, to have and to hold to John and his heirs, and for default of heirs, the remainder to John Pygot, son and heir of Richard Pygot; and after he has taken estate, he shall not make any further enfeoffment etc. of any part or parcel of the estate, provided that after his death, Laurence and others shall make estate to Janet wife of John to the yearly value of 14s, the remainder to John Pygot the elder and his heirs, and in default of heirs, to John Pygot, son and heir of Richard Pygot; except it shall be lawful to make estate to John Pygot, son and heir of Richard Pygot, and Elyn his wife, of certain lands to the value of 24s, at the will of John Pygot the elder. Dated the last day of January in the twenty third year of the reign of King Henry VI [31 January 1445].
Footnote: And this will is that if John Pygot the elder and John Pygot, son and heir of Richard Pygot, are both without male heirs, the land and tenements shall remain to Nicholas Pygot brother to John Pygot the elder, following the will of John Pygot, father to John Pygot the elder, as appears in a deed made by John Pygot the father.
[I am copying this description of the indenture from a response at a blog. The catalogue description seems only to be a title.]
from the Cheshire Archives catalogue:
22 Aug 1498 ZCHDM/41
Deposition by Richard Clerk, aged 85 and more, before William Parsons,Mayor of Macclesfield and John Parsons [Rural] Dean of the same, and Richard Smyth Vicar of Prestbury: he declared that when he was 16 years old and more, he gathered the tithe corn to the church [ ] from certain lands lying on the west side of the township of Newton, from the water of [ ] end of the said lands following the old way which comes form the hegh in Wilmslow parish [ ] Wideford to a house sometime called the Goldsmith House at the north end of the said lands [ ] from Handforth to Newton Heath; which tithe he gathered within Newton [ ] in the days of Richard Pigot as in the days of Robyn Legh of Adlington son of Rob[ ] of the said Church, until the marriage of [ ] daughter of Sir John(?) Bothe of Bolyn [Bollin]. As the seal of "the said Richard is unknowen" the said Mayor and Dean have set their official seals. Tag, seals missing. Parts of the document are missing.
Commentary
Richard’s parentage
Richard was a younger son of John Pigott of Butley, who died in 1427. Three men named John appear in the evidence below, so I refer to them as follows:
John (I): Richard’s father, d. 1427.
John (II) “the elder”: Richard’s brother. He appears as John Pygot of Butley in 1429 and 1445 and seems to have died in or shortly before 1457 (see the page for John Pigott, d. 1512/3).
John (III): Richard’s son and heir, d. 1512/3.
Direct evidence
1418 indenture. Renaud (1895, p. 12) describes an indenture of 1418 concerning the Butley Pigotts and the rents and profits of the manor and church of Prestbury: “The indenture is drawn between the abbot on the one part and John Pigot and the chaplain and Richard Pigot on the other, Richard being designated son of John Pigot, a genealogical fact hitherto left doubtful in the descent of this family.” I have not seen the original.
Suit of 1429/30. Fletcher (p. 70) says that Richard, the third son, appears with his brother John Pigot of Butley, and Sir John le Grosvenor, in a suit brought by William de Bromley, lord of Badington, in 8 Henry VI (cited as 1429; that regnal year began 1 September 1429, so the date may be 1429 or 1430). I have not seen the original. If Richard is expressly named as John’s brother, this is strong evidence.
Indenture of 31 January 1444/5 (University of Manchester Library, TW/783, known to me only through a description copied from a blog; the catalogue gives only a title). In this indenture John (II), “the elder”, provides that his lands pass in default of his own heirs to John, son and heir of Richard Pygot. A footnote then adds Nicholas, brother of John the elder, who inherits only if both Johns are without male heirs, in accordance with the will of John (I). The description does not expressly call Richard John the elder’s brother. The relationship is inferred from the order of the remainders: Richard’s son comes before Nicholas, which fits Richard being the elder of the two. It also confirms that John (III) had a wife named Elyn (Ellen) by 1445.
Circumstantial evidence
The manor of Butley. Butley appears in the 1512/13 inquisition of Richard’s son John (III) and in the 1536 inquisition of his grandson Robert. This fits the remainder in the 1445 indenture, which would pass the Butley lands to Richard’s line.
Other lands. Land held by John (I) turns up later in the hands of Richard or his descendants:
John (I) held a messuage in Dukinfield in 1427. In 1515, Richard’s grandson Robert Pygott of Chetwynd was party to a case involving a messuage there.
The Butley Pigotts held land in Smethwick, and Robert was party to a case in 1518 concerning a messuage and land there.
The 1427 inquisition mentions land in Newton. A damaged deposition of 1498 (Cheshire Archives ZCHDM/41) mentions the tithe of lands in Newton “in the days of Richard Pigot”, which suggests, though it does not prove, that Richard held land there.
Richard held land in Prestbury in 1430 (Ormerod 3:750).
Richard held “le Halle of Pott” (Pott Shrigley) from c. 1432–33 (Ormerod 3:775). The 1470 quitclaim by John (III) concerns lands in “Potshryglay” once held by Richard.
Richard’s wife
Joyce Peshale (or Peshall), daughter of Richard Peshale and granddaughter’s line of the Richard Peshale who married Joan of Chetwynd before 1343. Ormerod, Fletcher and Williams (2021, p. 165) name her as Richard’s wife. Williams says she brought Chetwynd, Shropshire, to the Pigotts. Earwaker gives her name as Jocosa.
References
Earwaker, J.P. East Cheshire Past and Present. (1880).
Fletcher, Rev. W.G.D. “The Sequestration Papers of Thomas Pigott of Chetwynd” in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (Series 3, Volume 6; 1906).
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).
Renaud, Frank. “Early History of Prestbury Parish Church and Manor, Cheshire” in Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society. v. 13 (1895).
Williams, Gareth (2021). The Country Houses of Shropshire. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer.