[1] Pessagno belonged to a family of vicecomital rank long established in Genoa.
[2] His wife, Leona, belonged to the powerful Fieschi family, and his brother Emanuele became the hereditary admiral of Portugal in 1317.
[2] When the Lords Ordainers forced the Florentine firm of the Frescobaldi into bankruptcy before the end of the year, Pessagno was in a position to become, as a royal document of 5 April 1312 styles him, "the king's merchant" (mercator regis).
[2] On 16 February 1313, a Frescobaldi agent could write that Pessagno "fears nobody … and is so generous in the court … that everybody likes him".
[1] During the Great Famine of 1315–17, Pessagno imported grain from the Mediterranean, much of it for the castles on the Scottish border.
[1] During the War of Saint-Sardos rumours circulated that Pessagno was planning a naval attack on England with Genoese and Portuguese ships.
After the fall of Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer in October 1330, Pessagno returned to England and was with the royal court at Christmas.