Robert Pitt

Robert Pitt (1680 – 21 May 1727) was a British politician who sat as Member of Parliament for Old Sarum from 1705, a pocket borough controlled by his family. He was the eldest son of Governor Thomas 'Diamond' Pitt, a businessman who had made a fortune while in India. Governor Pitt built the family's wealth on his acquisition of the Pitt Diamond which he then sold on for a large profit. The diamond was brought into Britain in the heel of Robert Pitt's boot. Unlike the rest of his family, who were Whigs, Robert Pitt became a Tory possibly partly in resistance to his domineering Whig father.

Pitt married Harriet Villiers, the daughter of Edward Villiers-FitzGerald and the Irish heiress Katherine FitzGerald.

Robert Pitt is best known for being the father of William Pitt the Elder, a British statesmen who led the country three times between 1756–57, 1757–62 and 1766–68. Another son Thomas Pitt was also an MP who sat for Okehampton. He was also brother-in-law to General James Stanhope, through his sister Lucy Pitt. His grandson William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783.

Robert Pitt (physician)

Robert Pitt M.D. (1653–1713) was an English physician.

Life

The son of Robert Pitt, he was born at Blandford Forum in Dorset; Christopher Pitt the poet was his nephew. He matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, on 2 April 1669, and was elected to a scholarship there in 1670. He graduated B.A. in 1672, was elected a Fellow of his college in 1674 and Dean in 1677, graduated M.A. in 1675, M.B. in 1678, and M.D. on 16 February 1682. He taught anatomy at Oxford, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 December 1682.

In 1684 Pitt settled in London, and was admitted a candidate or member of the Royal College of Physicians on 22 December. He was created a fellow by the new charter of James II, and admitted on 12 April 1687. He was a censor in 1687 and 1702.

Pitt lived in 1685 in the parish of St. Peter-le-Poer, in the city of London; in 1703, and till his death, in Hatton Garden. On the death of Francis Bernard he was, on 23 February 1698, elected physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and held the post until 1707.