THE PITT FAMILY OF BLANDFORD ST. MARY. 169 



Parliament. Business calls soon necessitated a return to 

 India, though he does not appear to have vacated his seat. 

 At this point comes the curious and sudden change in his 

 career when the Company at last gave up the contest with 

 him and others, whom they had regarded as " interlopers," 

 and after negotiating a purchase of all their interests, enrolled 

 them as members ; and then finding the value of Pitt's 

 experience and talents, gave him, in 1689, the commanding 

 position of Governor of Madras. The appointment was made 

 while he was in England, and he landed as Governor Pitt in 

 1698, which is the date at which the Dropmore Papers begin. 

 These are the papers collected by Lord Grenville, whose 

 wife was the last of this branch of the family. They are now 

 in the possession of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., and were lately 

 published by Historical MSS. Commission. 



During all these years Pitt seems to have prospered greatly 

 in money matters, and from 1688 onward we find him eager 

 to invest money in land in the West Country, and mentioning 

 Dorset, Wilts, and Berks with particular favour. We have 

 already mentioned his purchase of Old Sarum, where a 

 memorial of him still exists in the restored church tower, 

 which bears his name in large capitals, and the Manor House 

 now the Vicarage where he often resided and his son 

 after him, which bears an inscription over the door, as placed 

 by him, Parva sed apta domino. His agent in all these 

 purchases was Sir Stephen Evance, and in one of his letters 

 to this gentleman in 1704 we find the first mention of land 

 purchased in " the place where I was born," Blandford St. 

 Mary, but what land this was I have been unable so far to 

 ascertain. He says that he wishes his wife " to receive 

 income from his land at Old Sarum and Blandford S. Mary, 

 and that he will not allow her or her children one penny 

 more, and that he may tell her that if she cannot live on that 

 she may starve, and all her children with her." But it is 

 quite clear that at this time he had not secured the old Manor 

 of the parish, which had been possessed by the family of 

 Chettle since the time of the Dissolution of the Clerkenwell 



