George Morton Pitt

George Morton Pitt (1693 – 9 February 1756)^[1] was a British politician and administrator who served as the President of Fort St George from 1730 to 1735.

George Morton hailed from the well-known Pitt family of England: like his family predecessor Thomas Pitt, he became Governor of the Madras Presidency at Fort St. George. He succeeded James Macrae in this post on 14 May 1730.^[2] Little appears to be known of him; he is barely mentioned in the annals of the East India Company.

As President of Madras

Pitt became Governor in 1730 when his predecessor James Macrae had to quit in ignominy after being accused of corruption. Pitt arrived at Madras from Fort St David on May 14, 1730 and immediately took over as President. He carried on the proceedings against Macrae. A few days after becoming President, he repealed the government prohibition on the export of silver introduced by Macrae.

To make up for the discrepancies in the coins issued by the British East India Company in comparison with those issued by the Nagapattinam mint, Pitt introduced a new coin equal in size, weight and quality with the Nagapattinam pagoda. This coin, which had the letter "M" punched on its to differentiate it from the Nagapattinam pagoda, was called a "M" pagoda.

During his Presidency, the Dubashes or the chief merchants of the Company became powerful and influential. One of them, Alaganathan Pillai, built the Ekambareshwar Temple during Pitt's tenure. Another dubash, Sunkurama, had a garden at the bend of the Cooum river south of Periampet which was taken over by the British in 1735 for the construction of a new weaver's village called Chintadripet. By that time Sunkurama had fallen into disgrace and was succeeded by his colleague Thambu Chetty as the chief merchant. The Government resolved in October 1734 to erect a weaving town in the site of Sunkurama's garden and to permit only spinners, weavers, washers, painters and the necessary attendants of the temple to settle in the village. A cowl was granted on these terms and Bemala Audiappa Narayana helped in the peopling of the village, which grew to contain nearly two hundred and fifty families within two years after its foundation.

He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontefract from 1741 to 1754.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)
2. ^ Thomas Seccombe, ‘Macrae, James (c.1677–1744)’, rev. I. B. Watson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 , accessed 14 Jan 2008

• Corporation of Chennai website