Pitt, George
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- Pitt, George
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(1721 - 1803), e. s. of George Pitt of Stratfield Saye, Hants; educ. Winchester and Magd. Oxf. 1737; m. 1746 Penelope Atkins; MP 1742 - 74; env. Turin 1762 - 4; cr. B. Rivers of Stratfield Staye 1776 and B. Rivers of Sudeley 1802.
1740 - 2 Turin (Jun. 1740), Milan ( - 19 Sep.), Florence (Oct.), Pisa, Leghorn, Siena, Rome (Nov. - Dec. 1740), Venice, Florence (Mar. 1741), Rome (by 17 Mar. 1741 - Easter 1742) [England by Jun. 1742]
1749
1762 - 4 Turin (6 Mar. 1762 - 28 Apr. 1764)
1771 - 2 Florence (by 26 Oct. 1771), Venice (Nov.), Capua (23 Dec. 1771), Rome (after Jun. 1772)
George Pitt toured Italy as a young man with Edward Holdsworth as his tutor. They arrived in Turin towards the end of June 1740 and after a few days proceeded to Milan, where they remained until 19 September. They spent October in Florence (where Pitt rather fell for Lady Charlotte Fermor, Lord Pomfret's daughter)1 and early in November visited Pisa, Leghorn and Siena with Nathaniel Castleton and Samuel Dashwood. Castleton went on with Pitt and Holdsworth to Rome later that month. In Rome they stayed in the Piazza di Spagna, next door but one to Joseph Spence.2 They returned to Florence in March 1741 and later that month were back in Rome, where they stayed some time. In May they visited Albano and Frascati with the Abb? Grant, Lord and Lady Pomfret and Lord Lincoln, and they were still there in September.3
Pitt had apparently visited Venice earlier that year, his portrait having been drawn by Rosalba Carriera by April 1741, as recorded by James Russel, who went on to praise him: '[he] does not squander away his time and money as too many of our wild young sparks do, in drinking, gaming, &c. but studies very much, and diverts himself with music and drawing; in which last he has made such proficiency that were he in our Academy, I should soon grow jealous of him'.4 Pitt, a handsome man, was also admired by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.5 He was presumably the 'Monsu Pit' listed as living at Rome in the Salciata via di S.Sebastiano at Easter 1741 and 1742.6
Both Horace Walpole and the Rev. Russel said Pitt was going to visit Italy with his wife in 1749,7 but nothing more is heard of such a visit.
In 1761 George Pitt was appointed British envoy at Turin and he resided there between 6 March 1762 and 28 April 1764.8 He was to have gone with his wife, but he went with his mistress 'Amarante'.9 Two years later Louis Dutens said Pitt was returning to England to get a separation from his wife, who had refused to come to to Italy unless he broke off his liaison.(10) In April 1764 George Hobart wrote that Pitt 'is coming home from Turin, they say mad', and Walpole then described him as 'brutal and half mad'.(11)
He may also have been the George Pitt in Florence in 1771 with Salter, 'an English Parson ... a sensible worthy man' and 'Chauford' [James Crauford?];12 in Venice, alone, on 3 November 1771,13 and in Capua with Salter on 23 December.14 In 1772 he was seen in Rome by Patrick Home who confided in his notebook: 'a sensible worthy man ... Mr Geo Pitt. Handsome Figure - Good natured - much addicted to low women'.15
For his wife's separate visits, see Penelope Pitt.
1. Itinerary from Pomfret Corr., 2:116. Spence Letters, 369, 377, 385, 391. Wal.Corr., 30:7 n36; 13:233 n25. 2. Pomfret Corr., 2:116. Spence Letters, 332. 3. Spence Letters, 369,
377n2, 385. Pomfret Corr., 2:291. 4. Russel, Letters, 1:58, 64. 5. Wal.Corr., 17:468 n19; 13:233 n25. 6. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 7. Wal.Corr., 20:58. Add.41169, f.27v (R. Russel, 20 Jul. 1749). 8. Commons 2, 3:282. 9. Wal.Corr., 21:548. Dutens, Memoirs, 2:57. 10. Dutens, Memoirs, 2:55 - 60. 11. Wal.Corr., 23:451. 12. Gazz.Tosc., 26 Oct. 1771. 13. ASV is 759. 14. ASN cra 1259. 15. Home list MSS.