Robert Pigott (c. 1736 – 7 July 1794) was an English food and dress reformer. He was a radical in politics and manners. He sold his estates in England in 1776, and moved toSwitzerland where he supported theFrench Revolution, promotedvegetarianism and made pronouncements on dress.

Pigott was born atChetwynd Park, Shropshire,^[1] and baptised on 24 March 1738/39 at Shrewsbury St Julian's, Shropshire.^[2] He was the son of Robert Pigott and his wife Anne Peers, and the grandson ofRobert Pigott MP.^[3] He wasHigh Sheriff of Shropshire in 1774. In 1776, he imagined that theAmerican Revolutionary War betokened the ruin of England, and sold his Chetwynd and Chesterton estates, worth £9,000 a year. He retired to the continent, where he became acquainted withVoltaire,Franklin, andBrissot. He lived mostly inGeneva, but occasionally visited England. He became a zealousPythagorean, as a vegetarian was then called, and was a follower of the quackJames Graham (1745–1794) and his electric bed.^[4]

Pigott was enraptured by theFrench Revolution, especially in its more extravagant aspects. He protested againstSieyès's press bill, and published his protest, which he had read to the revolutionary club atLyon. In an appendix to this he advocated a vegetarian diet for prisoners as being calculated to reclaim them. AtDijon in 1791 he condemned the use of bread, recommending potatoes, lentils, maize, barley, and rice. In the spring of the following year he protested against hats, arguing that they had been introduced by priests and despots, and that they concealed the face and were gloomy and monotonous, whereas caps left the countenance its natural dignity, and were susceptible of various shapes and colours. For some weeks the cap movement was very popular in Paris, but the remonstrance addressed byPétion to theJacobin club put an end to it. Thebonnet rouge introduced later had no connection with Pigott. He considered buying and occupying a confiscated estate in the south of France, butMadame Roland, who had doubtless met him at Lyon and was amused at his oddities and fickleness, predicted that he would only build castles in the air.^[4]

In 1792 he probably settled atToulouse. He died there on 7 July 1794, leaving a widow, Antoinette Boutan.^[4]

• John Oswald, Scottish philosopher, poet, journalist, political theorist, and revolutionary, known for his known for his support of the French Revolution and his advocacy of vegetarianism. He was killed in action during theWar in the Vendée in 1793.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Pigott, Robert".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 45. London:Smith, Elder & Co.

• 1730s births
• 1794 deaths
• English vegetarianism activists
• Vegetarianism writers
• English social reformers
• 18th-century English writers
• 18th-century English male writers
• British radicals
• Dress reformers

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