William Pitt (courtier)

Sir William Pitt (1559 – 29 May 1636) of Old Palace Yard, Westminster, and of Hartley Wespall[2] and Stratfield Saye, both in Hampshire, and of Iwerne Stepleton in Dorset,[3] was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1625.

John Pitt (died 1602) received a grant of arms[1] and according to the heraldic commentator Mark Antony Lower (1845): "The family of Pitt, Earl of Chatham, bore 'Sable, a fesse chequy argent and azure between three bezants (or pieces of money)', in allusion to the office the original grantee held in the Exchequer.

"[6] In mediaeval times the business of the Exchequer was performed on a table covered by a large chequered cloth on which sums of money received were placed and moved around in a primitive form of financial accounting.

[7] The surviving silver plate of St Mary's Church, Iwerne Stepleton, includes a cover-paten with hall-mark of 1638, engraved with arms of Pitt impaling Cadbury.

[11] By his wife he had children including: Pitt died at the age of about 76 at Stratfield Saye[7] and had an imposing monument erected in the parish church by his son Edward.