BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM. WILLIAM PITT, first Earl of Chatham, was born on the 15th of No. No vember, 1708, in the parish of St. James, in the city of Westminster, He was the second son of Robert Pitt, Esq., of Boconnoc, near Lostwithiel in the county of Cornwall; and of Harriet Villiers, sister of the Earl of Grandison, an Irish peer. His grandfather was Governor of Madras, and subsequently of Jamaica, and sat during four Parliaments for Old Sarum and Thirsk. This gentleman is more generally known as the possessor of the celebrated diamond called the Pitt diamond, which was purchased by the Regent Orleans for the King of France.* William Pitt was sent to Eton at an early age, and placed upon the foundation of that celebrated establishment. Among others whose names subsequently became distinguished, he there had for his contemporaries George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton; Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland; and Henry Fielding. After leaving Eton, Pitt went to Trinity College, Oxford, where he devoted the principal portion of his time to the study of history and the classical writers of antiquity. An early attack of the gout obliged him to quit the University without taking a degree. He then made a tour through France and Italy, for the benefit of his health. On his return to England, he obtained a commission in the Blues, and entered Parliament * This diamond weighed 127 carats; and at the beginning of the last century was considered the largest in Europe. Mr. Pitt's grandfather purchased it for £20,400, and sold it for £135,000. The workmanship, however, of the stone was valued at £10,000. + Mr. Pitt, when a boy at Eton, was the pride and boast of the school. Dean Bland, the master, valued himself on having so bright a scholar, and showed him to his friends, and to everybody, as a prodigy. The following extract from the register of Trinity College, Oxford, is given by Mr. Thackeray, in his Hist. of the Earl of Chatham, p. 3, n. "Ego Gulielmus Pitt Filius Robti Pitt armi: de Old Sarum in comitatu Wilts, natus Londini, in Par: Sancti Jacobi annorum circiter octodecim, admissus sum primi ordinis commensalis, sub tutamine Magri Stockwell, Janrii. decimo die anno Domini 1726." |