William Pitt (courtier)
Sir William Pitt (1559 – 29 May 1636) of Old Palace Yard, Westminster and of Hartley Wespall and Stratfield Saye, both in Hampshire, and of Iwerne Stepleton in Dorset, was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1625. Origins Pitt was the eldest son of John Pitt (died 1602), Clerk of the Exchequer to Queen Elizabeth I and a mercer from Blandford Forum in Dorset, by his wife Joan Swayne, a daughter of John Swayne. John Pitt (died 1602) received a grant of arms and according to the heraldic commentator Mark Antony Lower (1845): "The family of Pitt, Earl of Chatham, bore 'Sable, a fesse chequy argent and azure between three bezants (or pieces of money)', in allusion to the office the original grantee held in the Exchequer. The Fanshawes also bore chequy, &c., for the same reason." In mediaeval times the business of the Exchequer was performed on a table covered by a large chequered cloth on which sums of money received were placed and moved around in a primitive form of financial accounting. William Pitt's younger brother was Thomas Pitt of Blandford, from whom the Pitts of Boconnoc were descended,