1900 - Thomas, Jessie, & Wellesley Pigott

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Thomas Pigott.

Thomas Wellesley Pigott was born on August 6, 1847, in Leixlip, a town on the banks of the beautiful Liffey River in County Kildare, Ireland. Thomas was the eldest of six children, all of whom became engaged in the Lord’s service as medical doctors or missionaries. As a young boy Thomas helped his father, William, present the gospel to the poorest people in the region. During the great Irish revival of 1862, the Pigott’s home was opened wide to all visiting preachers. Thomas was an impressionable 15-year-old boy at the time and the stories he heard shaped his young life and persuaded him to become a wholehearted disciple of Christ.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dublin University, Pigott travelled to China in 1879, settling in Shanxi Province, which was to remain his home for the rest of his life. He was described as “a man of many talents who could fix anything.”[1] In 1883 Pigott was attacked by a burglar in his home. Despite being stabbed, Pigott refused to give up the struggle with the thief and eventually subdued him. With blood pouring from a head wound, Pigott ran to the mission hospital where he fell unconscious in the doorway. He was bed-ridden for several weeks as he recovered from the ordeal.

Jessie Pigott.

At this time two young English sisters arrived as missionaries in Taiyuan. One of them, Miss Jessie Kemp, had worked in India, but the severe heat compelled her to seek a cooler location. She joined Dr. Schofield’s class on ophthalmic surgery and proved to be the best student. In later years she conducted hundreds of successful cataract surgeries. Jessie Kemp and Thomas Pigott enjoyed each other’s company, and they were soon married at Beijing in August 1883.

For the first years of their service in China the Pigotts were associated with Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission, but due to “regrettable causes” they resigned and formed their own non-denominational mission.

Thomas and Jessie Pigott visited England in 1885 and again in 1890, each time returning to China with new missionary recruits. Everywhere Pigott spoke people’s hearts were warmed to the challenge by his straight-forward, God-inspired appeals. In 1896 the Pigotts visited England again, and one of the new workers they brought back to China was a dear personal friend and relative, Ellen Brown. The Pigotts were crushed when the cart Miss Brown was travelling in overturned and crushed her to death.

Wellesley Pigott.

On August 24, 1887, Jessie Pigott gave birth to an adorable son, whom they name Wellesley. The golden-haired boy was deeply loved by the Chinese. Once, during a furlough in England, Wellesley told a friend, “We can’t be martyrs in England, but my father and mother and I might be in China.”[2] His mother also expressed similar sentiments after hearing of the 1895 massacre of missionaries at Gutian. She said, “It makes one feel how short our time for work in this land may be, and long to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit that we may be faithful to the end.”[3]

In May 1896, Thomas Pigott wrote a summary of the 17 years he had spent in China:

“I look back on 1879 when I first reached China, and am filled with thanksgiving and joy at the change God has wrought, and the more than hundred-fold He has given for the labour and treasure expended in this province (Shanxi). When I first reached this province there was not one baptized Christian here, and only two recently opened stations. Now there are many hundreds of converts, many of them earnest, faithful men, and a large number of stations where thousands are brought under Christian influence. How shall we look on the investment of our lives and labour here, even from the near standpoint of one hundred years hence? I am, I can truly say, more grateful every day for the opportunity of serving Christ, and I believe this to be the only true and sober view of life’s realities. The work pressed home now, will make all the difference a few years hence.”[4]

As the Boxer troubles approached, the Pigotts made little mention of it in their letters home, preferring to report on new baptisms and advances in the work. On Sunday, June 24th he preached,

“If God wants us to go home, we are willing. Pray for the Governor of Shanxi and the emperor. China must suffer if she persecutes God’s people. The Jews crucified Jesus, and afterwards were themselves crucified. Any kingdom that persecutes, does it to its own destruction, so we must pray for them. Remember the saints of old in the fire and how God saved them.”[5]

On July 9, 1900, the Pigotts tried to flee Taiyuan. They were captured near the gate and taken to the courtyard of the governor’s palace, where, unbeknown to the Pigotts, all their missionary friends had been slaughtered less than an hour before. The “ground in front of Yu Xian’s compound was soaked in blood, and in cages atop the poles were the severed heads of their friends.”[6] A Christian named Yongzheng survived and later reported that the wicked Governor, Yu Xian, asked Thomas Pigott what country he belonged to. When he replied, “England,” the governor laughed and ordered him to be beaten. Then,

“Mr. Pigott, preaching to the last moment, was beheaded with one blow. As Mrs. Pigott went forward she led her son Wellesley by the hand, but he was stopped at the west gate, while the mother was allowed to proceed…. Those who carried out Yu Xian’s orders were not the Boxers, but a professional executioner and the soldiers. As each head fell, the soldiers, to show their contempt, kicked it along the street.”[7]

Wellesley Pigott with his pony and friends.

George Trench wrote the following tribute to Thomas Pigott, which gives us an insight into the kind of man the slain missionary was:

“The manly form, the radiant expression, the merry laugh, the deep and overflowing enthusiasm for Christ, marked him for a successful missionary. If ever a man lived who was utterly in earnest, it was Thomas Wellesley Pigott. Whenever he returned to this country from his chosen field of labour, his flowing speech, in private and public, was always and only of China and her people, whom he loved so much. It was impossible to remain indifferent or unsympathetic in the presence of such zeal. It wounded his spirit, it grieved him as something unaccountable, inexplicable, that others should not feel the interest, the sorrow, and the joy with which he was filled.”[8]

1. Hefley, By Their Blood, 14.
2. Forsyth, The China Martyrs of 1900, 428.
3. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 239.
4. Broomhall, Last Letters and Further Records of Martyred Missionaries, 15.
5. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 215.
6. Brandt, Massacre in Shansi, 232.
7. Pigott, Steadfast Unto Death, 239-240.
8. Edwards, Fire and Sword in Shansi, 232.