Page "William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham" Paragraph 6

William's father was Robert Pitt ( 1680 – 1727 ), the eldest son of Governor Pitt, who served as a Tory Member of Parliament from 1705 to 1727.

His mother was Harriet Villiers, the daughter of Edward Villiers-FitzGerald and the Irish heiress Katherine FitzGerald.

Both William's paternal uncles Thomas and John were MPs while his aunt Lucy married the leading Whig politician and soldier General James Stanhope.

From 1717 to 1721 Stanhope served as effective First Minister and was a useful political contact for the Pitt family until the collapse of the South Sea Bubble which engulfed the government.