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Pigott Manuscripts

 Collection

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Papers of Harriett Pigott, consisting of:

  1. Diaries and personal notebooks
  2. Correspondence and literary work
  3. Miscellanea.

Dates

  • Creation: 1685-first half of the 19th cent.

Extent

10.46 Linear metres (86 boxes)

Language of Materials

  • English
  • French
  • Italian

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MSS. Pigott b. 1.]

Please see our help page for further guidance on citing archives and manuscripts.

Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. Pigott b. 1-5, c. 1-6, d. 1-31, e. 1-9, f. 1-9, g. 1-25

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 13345

Abstract

Manuscripts of Harriet Pigott (1775-1846), traveller and writer.

Biographical / Historical

Miss Harriett Pigott was of an old Shropshire family, the Pigotts of Chetwynd. Two of her uncles (Robert and Charles, both d. 1794) were ardent reformers both in political and social matters. Her father, who married a Miss Arabella Mytton (d about 1779), was rector of Chetwynd. Harriet was born on 9 April 1775, and according to her own account was unhappily brought up and unkindly treated by some members of her own family. Having a small independence, she travelled about in the latter half of her life, and by her good looks, wit and sprightliness made friends wherever she went, and was a welcome guest at fashionable tables, especially in London and Paris. She was at Brussels in the summer of 1815, and her diaries show that she moved in good society in Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and France, as well as England and Scotland. In her anonymous work, The Private Correspondence of a Woman of Fashion (London 1832, 2 volumes) may be found an autobiography from 1814 to 1816, and in her Records of Real Life in the Palace and the Cottage (London 1839, 3 volumes) a similar account for 1817-1819 and 1832-1833. From 1840 until her death in July 1846 she lived in England, having on 9 March 1844 been received into the Roman Catholic Church. Details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Other Finding Aids

Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. IV, nos. 23409-23494.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The collection was bequeathed to the Library by Harriett Pigott in 1846. It arrived at the Library in July 1847.

Title
Pigott Manuscripts
Status
Published
Author
Collection Level Description by Emily Tarrant; EAD version 2020 by Kelly Burchmore
Date
EAD version 2020
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository

Contact:
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom