William Pitt the Younger intelligence network of spies and informers to crush the United Irishmen. In April 1797, the Pitt government was badly shaken by the mutiny of the entire fleet at Spithead with the sailors demanding a pay increase to match inflation. The Spithead mutiny occurred at exactly the same moment that the French and their Dutch allies were preparing for an invasion of Great Britain which threw the government into a state of panic. To regain control of the fleet, Pitt agreed to sailors' demands for pay increases and to have George III pardon the mutineers. By contrast, the more political "floating
Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry Thomas Innes Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry (c. 1688 – 12 September 1729) was a British politician. He served as Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1728 to 1729. Pitt was the second son of Thomas Pitt, of Boconnoc, and his wife Jane Innes, daughter of James Innes. William Pitt the Elder was his nephew and William Pitt the Younger his great-nephew. Pitt sat as a Member of Parliament for Wilton from 1713 to 1727 and for Old Sarum from 1727 to 1728. The latter year he was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands,