{{Short description|British MP}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = John Pitt | image = John Pitt (1704-1787) by William Hoare, The Holburne Museum.png | caption = Portrait of John Pitt by [[William Hoare]] | birth_date = c. 1704 | death_date = 1787 | alma_mater = [[Queen's College, Oxford]] }} [[File:Encombe House - geograph.org.uk - 648833.jpg|thumb|right|Encombe, remodelled by Pitt between 1740 and 1770]] '''John Pitt''' (c.1706–1787) of [[Encombe House]], [[Dorset]] was a British [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for 35 years. He is recorded as having given one speech to Parliament. He is noted for being the first to be appointed to office of the [[Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds]] for the purpose of resigning from parliament.
==Life== John was the fourth son of [[George Pitt (1663–1735)]] MP of Strathfieldsaye and second son by his second wife née Lora Grey of Kingston Maurward nr Dorchester. He was educated at [[Queen's College, Oxford]].
The property enabling [[George Morton Pitt]]'s control of the [[Pontefract (UK Parliament constituency)|Pontefract]] seat came to John Pitt (of Encombe) by remainder but he sold it in 1766.
He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1775.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=16&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27Pitt%27%29|title=Fellow details|publisher= Royal Society|accessdate= 24 January 2017}}</ref>
==Elections to Parliament== Pitt was an MP in two constituencies in his lifetime. In the years 1734–47 and also between January 1748 - November 1750, he was the Member for [[Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)|Wareham]]. This seat had been held by his grandfather [[George Pitt (died 1694)|George Pitt (1625-1694)]] from 1660 to 1679.<ref name=LNJB>Sir Lewis Namier & John Brooke, ''The House of Commons 1754-1790 1 Survey Constituencies Appendices'', History of Parliament Trust, Secker & Warburg, London 1964</ref> Wareham was a [[parliamentary borough]] in Dorset, which elected two MPs to the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]]. The borough contained the town of [[Wareham, Dorset|Wareham]] on the [[Isle of Purbeck]], a market town close to [[Poole Harbour]]. In 1831, the population of the borough was 1,676, and it contained 364 houses.
Between 29 January 1751 - 1761, Pitt was the Member for [[Dorchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Dorchester]].<ref name=LNJB/> Dorchester was a [[United Kingdom constituencies|parliamentary constituency]] centred on the town of [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]] in Dorset. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons.
Between 1761–1768, Pitt was again the Member for Wareham.<ref name=LNJB/>
==Acts== A procedure to allow [[Resignation from the British House of Commons|resignation from the House of Commons]] was invented by Pitt to vacate his Wareham seat, as he wished to stand for [[Dorchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Dorchester]] but could not be a candidate while still an MP. Pitt wrote to Prime Minister [[Henry Pelham]] in May 1750 reporting that he had been invited to stand in Dorchester, and asking for "a new mark of his Majesty's favour [to] enable me to do him these further services".<ref>'Pitt, John' in [[History of Parliament]] 1715–1754, vol II p. 350-1, citing Newcastle (Clumber) [[Manuscript|mss]].</ref> Pelham wrote to [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|William Pitt (the elder)]] indicating that he would intervene with King [[George II of Great Britain|George II]] to help.<ref>'Pitt, John' in [[History of Parliament]] 1715–1754, vol II p. 350-1, citing Chatham Corresp. i. 53–54.</ref> On 17 January 1751 Pitt was appointed to the office of [[Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds]], and was then elected unopposed for Dorchester.
His one reported speech was on a petition of West Country merchants who complained of French encroachments at Newfoundland.<ref name=LNJB/>
==Political appointments== *A [[Board of Trade|Lord of Trade]] 1744–55 *A [[Lord of the Admiralty]] November - December 1756 *[[Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases|Surveyor General of Woods and Forests]]: 1756–63, 1768–86<ref name=LNJB/> [[File:Kingston Maurward House - geograph.org.uk - 707313.jpg|thumb|right|William Morton Pitt's Kingston House]]
==Death== He died in 1787. He had married, on 26 January 1753, Marcia daughter of Mark Anthony Morgan of Cottelstown County Sligo and they had one daughter and four sons<ref name=LNJB/> including [[William Morton Pitt]] of [[Kingston Maurward House|Kingston House, Dorset]]. His daughter, Marcia Pitt, married [[Cholmondeley (surname)|George James Cholmondeley]] (b. 22 Feb 1752, d. 5 Nov 1830), the son of [[Mary Woffington]].
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|gb}} {{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)|Wareham]] | with=[[Henry Drax]] | years = 1734–1747 | before = [[Nathaniel Gould (died 1738)|Nathaniel Gould]] | before2=[[Thomas Tower (MP)|Thomas Tower]] | after = [[Thomas Erle Drax]] | after2=[[Henry Drax]] }}
{{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)|Wareham]] | with=[[Robert Banks Hodgkinson]] | years = 26 January 1748 – November 1750 | before = [[Thomas Erle Drax]] | before2=[[Henry Drax]] | after = [[Whitshed Keene]] | after2=[[Robert Palk]] }}
{{Succession box | before=[[John Browne (1696-1750)|John Browne]]<br />[[Nathaniel Gundry]] | title=[[Member of Parliament]] for [[Dorchester (UK Parliament constituency)|Dorchester]] | with=[[John Damer (1720–1783)|John Damer]] 29 January 1751 –1752 | with2=[[George Clavell]] 1752 – 1754 | with3=[[Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester|The Lord Milton]] 1754 – 1761 | years=29 January 1751 – 1761 | after=[[Thomas Foster (English politician, died 1765)|Thomas Foster]]<br />[[John Damer (1720–1783)|John Damer]] }}
{{succession box | title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)|Wareham]] | with=[[Thomas Erle Drax]] | years = 1761 – September 1768 | before = [[Edward Drax]] | before2=[[William Augustus Pitt]] | after = [[Robert Palk]] | after2=[[Ralph Burton (British Army officer)|Ralph Burton]] }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, John}} [[Category:1700s births]] [[Category:1787 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford]] [[Category:English landowners]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Wareham|Pitt, John]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Dorchester]] [[Category:British MPs 1734–1741]] [[Category:British MPs 1741–1747]] [[Category:British MPs 1747–1754]] [[Category:British MPs 1754–1761]] [[Category:British MPs 1761–1768]] [[Category:Lords of the Admiralty]] [[Category:British fellows of the Royal Society]] [[Category:18th-century landowners]]