James Pigot (1769-1843) was born in Macclesfield and is first recorded in 1794 as an engraver and printer in Manchester. He engraved the map of Manchester for R. & W. Dean’s ‘Manchester Directory’ of 1804. In 1811 he began his own business but continued to issue the ‘Manchester Directory’ every two years in partnership with Dean. Moving to London, he opened premises at 24 Basing Lane and began publishing directories of the whole country. At this point he was trading as Pigot & Co. in partnership with the bookseller Charles Elkins of London. The partnership’s first directory was the ‘London and Provincial New Directory’ for 1822-23. The third edition of 1826-27 was according to the title ’embellished with a new series of Elegant Maps …’ however, it only contained those of the six home counties.

The firm went on to cover the whole of the country. This regional volume contains eleven counties of the south east and binds them together with that for London itself. Between the two sections are ten pages of the current Post Office Regulations outlining all of the receiving houses and rates etc. There follows 116 pages of lists. These include those conveying by Royal Mail, Post Coach, Railway and Water. Further lists include Public Carriers and the Inns at which they stop, ‘Wharfs and Quays’, also public buildings, companies, baths, markets, hackney coach rates, an extensive list of banks, newspapers and insurance companies. This is fold by over 100 pages of advertisements. A fascinating record of the workings of early Victorian England. Beresiner (1983) pp. 177-80; Carroll (1996) 88; Smith (1982) pp. 187-9; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).