George Morton Pitt

George Morton Pitt (died 1756) was an administrator of India.

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. [Thomas Seccombe, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17740 ‘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] Little appears to be known of him; he is barely mentioned in the annals of the East India Company.

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.

References

* [http://www.chennaicorporation.com/aboutcoc/che_history10.htm Corporation of Chennai website]