File:Pitt arms.svg

English: Pitt arms: Sable, a fess chequy argent and azure, between three bezants. Crest: A stork proper. According to Mark Antony Lower: "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". (Source: Mark Antony Lower, The Curiosities of Heraldry, London, 1845, p.185[1]). This original grantee was John Pitt (d.1602), Clerk of the Exchequer (source: Arthur Collins, Collins's Peerage of England, Volume 7, London, 1812, pp.485-6 [2]), a mercer from Blandford Forum in Dorset,^[1] from whose younger son, Thomas Pitt of Blandford (father of Rev. John Pitt), the Pitts of Boconnoc were descended. The eldest son of John Pitt (d.1602) was Sir William Pitt (c.1559-1636), MP for Wareham, who founded the senior line of Pitt of Stratfield Saye in Hampshire, many of whose descendants served as a MP for Wareham and in 1776 acquired the title Baron Rivers. Motto: "Benigno numine", meaning "With the benevolent deity" or "By the favour of the heavens".