ABSTRACT
William, the fourth child of Robert and Harriet Pitt, was bom at Golden Square in the parish of St. James’s, Westminster, about eight o’clock on the morning of Monday, November 15, 1708. His birth was impetuous, like most of his life. Robert, in announcing it to the Governor on the same day, says that his wife intended to have written to him, but was suddenly prevented by the unexpected arrival of this son. Through his grandfather, the Governor, Pitt was of English yeoman stock and belonged by right of conquest to the newly rising class of great City merchants. Most of Pitt’s early childhood was spent at Mawarden Court, given to his parents by the Governor in the year of his birth. Mawarden Court—Parva sed Apia Domino, says the inscription on the portal—is a substantially built house, inhabited by the rector of Stratford-under-the-Castle; it lies a few yards back from the road to Salisbury, and faces towards the little church.
