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 (1803 ship) and arrived at the Downs on 14 September. Butler sailed "William Pitt" from Torbay on 25 March 1813, bound for Batavia. She was homeward bound when she was lost in a gale while east of Algoa Bay at about midnight on 16 December 1814; there were no survivors. The EIC valued its loss on her cargo at £4502. Citations References William Pitt (1803 ship) William Pitt was a three-decker sailing ship, built in Liverpool in 1803. She made three complete voyages for the British East India Company (EIC), and on the first of these she transported convicts to New South