Pitt Street, George Town have lived here for centuries. Pitt Street was named after William Pitt the Younger, who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1783 and 1801. When Captain Francis Light founded Penang Island in 1786, he renamed the island the "Prince of Wales Island" in honour of the Prince of Wales, the new settlement of George Town after King George III and the first street within the settlement after himself. Worried that Prime Minister William Pitt may have felt offended as nothing was named after him, Light felt compelled to name Pitt Street after him. Pitt Street, created soon after
William Pitt Preble William Pitt Preble William Pitt Preble (November 27, 1783 – October 11, 1857) was an American lawyer, judge, diplomat and businessman. He was one of the first Justices of the Maine Supreme Court and U.S. Minister to the Netherlands. William Pitt Preble was born in York, Maine (Maine was then a part of Massachusetts) on November 27, 1783. He graduated from Harvard University in 1806, received a master's degree from Harvard in 1809, studied law, and began a practice in York. In 1811 he was appointed County Attorney for York County. First a Democratic-Republican, and later a Democrat, in 1814