THE PITFIELD FAMILY OF DORSET

For some fifty years, my distant cousin Hugh Pitfield and I have been researching our Pitfield genealogy. We have amassed a huge amount of data and many detailed profiles of family members and the relationships. Hugh has published the genealogy in a free indexed file of some 160 pages that can be consulted online. It can also be downlaoded for free from www.pitfield-family.co.uk. The Dorset History Centre also has a copy.

The earliest reference to a Pitfield in Dorset is John Pitfolde who is listed in the Ttx returns for the parish of Allington in 1525 and 1545. His son Robert c1516-1586 was a yeoman holding extensive lands in the area around Bridport. His will (1583, proved 1586) is detailed and lists his surviving nine sons, his landholdings and other property. The name Pitfolde gradually became standardised as Pitfield in the seventeenth century.

The sons of Robert Pitfolde by his first wife (name unknown) were Richard, died 1597, George, died 1618, Robert, died 1605, Andrew, died 1586, Thomas, died 1602, John the Elder, died 1629. They also had a daughter Eleanor who married Richard Harris alias Tucker. Robert had further sons by his second wife, Joan, and they were Henry, died 1637, John the Younger, died after 1625 and Sebastian died 1613. All these sons married and had extensive families of their own, thus the Pitfield family in Dorset grew and spread further afield; today there are thousands of descendants of Robert all over the world.

In the late seventeenth century the family was mainly clustered in the villages of West Dorset and some spread into East Devon. As well as Allingtron, they were in Whitchurch Canonicorum, Askerswell, Burton Bradstock, Marshwood in Dorset; in Devon there were Pitfields in Colyton and Bedminster. These were mostly farmers and landowners and some of their properties are still farmed by family members to this day. 

The Pitfield family must have been wealthy and prominent as John the Younger made a spectacular marriage to Anne Zouche of the noble family. Their son Sir Charles Pitfield became active in the City of London and acquired large areas of Shoreditch and Hoxton. Pitfield Street is still there today. Sir Charles’ female heirs married into the Sturt family of More Crichel and so the estates passed out of the Pitfield family.

Sebastian (1570-1613), Robert’s youngest son, owned a farm called Curtops in Allingston and further land in Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire. He was also a sea Captain and took part in the Battle of Secembra in Portugal in 1602; for this he received a substantial reward from the Treasury.

Sebastian became a family name and can be found as late at the 1940s. Robert’s great-great-grandson, another Sebastian (1625-1685), fought with Thomas Fairfax in the Civil War and was present at the siege of Corfe Castle. He was later an ‘intruder’ priest at Bishops Candle before settling as a clergyman in Warblington, Hampshire where there are ghost stories involving him.

The family continued to expand during the eighteenth century both within England and abroad. Adventurous Pitfields sought their fortunes in the American colonies, the  Caribbean and later Australia. Some of the Americans were Empire Loyalists and moved to Canada during the American Revolution; this group became very wealthy and prominent and remain so in the fields of banking and politics in Canada.

While some family members prospered, others were not so fortunate. Some were transported to Australia for petty theft while one John Pitfield (1733-1811), a debtor of Whitchurch Canonicorum, languished for seven years in Dorchester jail. However, he was released eventually as his debt was paid - by King George III no less! When the king visited the area, he paid the debt and ordered John to be released.

With the onset of the Napoleonic Wars, several Pitfields served in the Royal Navy. These included Jacob Pitfield of Symonsbury (b1796) who reached the rank of lieutenant having seen action in the Mediterranean, the Americas, the Caribbean, Africa, and the home waters, defending Kent.

Jacob’s cousin, Lieutenant Joseph Edward Chilcott Pitfield (1788-1858) of Buckland Ripers, joined the navy in 1807. In 1809 his ship was captured and he became a prisoner of the French. He bravely escaped and continued to see action. After the end of the war, he participated in the Bombardment of  Algiers, in a joint operation with the United States Navy to free citizens enslaved by the Barbery States. Joseph’s service medal awarded in 1847 is in Hugh’s possession.

By the nineteenth  century a very large family group had developed in the Symondsbury area. It had extensive landholdings which became the Symonsdbury Estate. Key amongst the family was John Pitfield (1770-1838) whose large ledger gravestone can be found immediately in front of the principal entrance to Symondsbury Church. The family was closely integrated into the community of the village with complex marital and land ownership links to other families such as the Symonds, Udals Popes and Ropers.

A further very large family group (from which I am descended) grew in Fordington and Dorchester; this family will be the subject of a future article.

With industrialisation surpassing agriculture in the latter part of the nineteenth century, members of the Pitfield family, like many others, dispersed further from their Dorset roots. They moved to industrial centres nearby such as Southampton and further afield. Today there are relatively few Pitfields is Dorset but the family has played a crucial part in the development of the county over many centuries.