William Bagot, 1st Baron Bagot

Blithfield Hall, c.1850

Bagot was born on 28 February 1728. He was the eldest son of Sir Walter Bagot, 5th Baronet, and his wife Lady Barbara Legge. Among his siblings were Charles Bagot (who married Catherine Legge), the Rev. Walter Bagot of Pype Hayes Hall (who married Anne Swinnerton and, later, Mary Ward), Richard Bagot (who married a daughter of Viscount Andover) and the Right Reverend Lewis Bagot, Bishop of St Asaph.[1]

His paternal grandparents were Sir Edward Bagot, 4th Baronet and the former Frances Wagstaffe (daughter of Sir Thomas Wagstaffe of Tachbrook). His maternal grandparents were William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth. His niece, Jane Margaret (daughter of his brother Walter by his second wife, Mary Ward) married the English judge Sir Edward Vaughan Williams in 1826 and they were the grandparents of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.[2]

He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated Master of Arts in 1749 and Doctor of Civil Law in 1754.[3]

Bagot then sat as a Tory Member of Parliament for Staffordshire from 1754 to 1780. In 1768, Bagot succeeded to the Baronetcy of Blithfield, Staffordshire, and to the family estate at Blithfield Hall on the death of his father.[4][5]

On 17 October 1780 he was raised to the Peerage of Great Britain as Baron Bagot, of Bagot's Bromley in the County of Stafford.[6]

On 20 August 1760, Bagot was married to Elizabeth St John (c. 1744–1820) in Wroxham. She was the eldest daughter of John St John, 2nd Viscount St John and the former Anne Furness (only child by his first wife of Sir Robert Furnese, 2nd Baronet) and sister of Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke and Gen. Henry St John. Together, William and Elizabeth had nine children, including:[7]

• Edward Bagot (1763–1773), who died of scarlet fever.[7]
• Walter Bagot (1766–1773), who also died of scarlet fever.[7]
• Barbara Bagot (1768–1773), who also died of scarlet fever.[7]
• William Bagot, 2nd Baron Bagot (1773–1856), who married Hon. Emily FitzRoy, fourth daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton, in 1799. After her death he married 1807 Lady Louisa Legge, eldest daughter of his cousin George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth and his wife Lady Frances Finch (second daughter of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford).[7]
• Hon. Sir Charles Bagot (1781–1843), who married Lady Mary Wellesley-Pole, eldest daughter of William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington and Katherine Forbes (eldest daughter of Adm. Hon. John Forbes, a son of George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard, and Lady Mary Capell, a daughter of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex).[7]
• Hon. Richard Bagot (1782–1854), the Dean of Canterbury and Bishop of Bath and Wells and Oxford who married Lady Harriet Villiers, the eighth daughter of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey.[7]
• Hon. Louisa Bagot (d. 1834), who married her cousin Walter Sneyd (d. 1829) in 1786.[7]
• Hon. Henrietta Bagot (d. c. 1807)[7]
• Hon. Frances Bagot (d. 1806), who married, as his first wife, Gen. Hon. Sir Edward Paget, the fourth son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge.[7]

He died in London on 22 October 1798, aged 70, and was succeeded by his eldest son William. Lady Bagot died in 1820.[7]

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages