Lizzie Piggot

Image: Left photo: Lizzie Piggot sits in her kitchen reading a book in the 1950s
Right photo: Lizzie and Henry. Credit: NPS
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Lizzie Pigott was born to Leah Abbott (who later took on the name Pigott) August 28, 1889 on Portsmouth.

Lizzie was one of several children, the most well-known being Henry Pigott with whom she lived for her entire life.

On the 1910 census, she was listed as a dressmaker, but people in the village remembered her fondly as someone who cut hair for other residents, played the accordion, and sang.

She was noted for keeping a spotless house and kitchen for herself and Henry, and she also helped Henry collect oysters and fish.

Lizzie suffered a stroke and was disabled for a number of years before her death, during which time Henry cared for her.
She died September 12, 1960 and is buried in the Babb Cemetery on Portsmouth.
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Elizabeth, or “Lizzie”, Piggot was a member of the only Black family in the village of Portsmouth in its last years.

Like other villagers, she spoke with the local dialect, known as the Down East Brogue, attended services at the Methodist church and visited with other residents of the village.

She is especially remembered for being an “oysterman” out on the sounds during the early part of the 20th century.

Women didn’t normally do the hard labor of tonging up oysters, but Lizzie and her mother and sister did.

Oystering was one of the hardest, most dangerous jobs on the Pamlico Sound, but this did not stop Lizzie from taking her own sail skiff and tongs out on the oyster bottoms, oystering all day long, meeting the oyster buy boat to sell her take and then come back to shore just like the men did.

Lizzie is not only remembered for her hard work as an oysterman, but also for being the village’s unofficial barber. Many of the younger Portsmouth villagers remember going “down the banks” to the Pigott house for haircuts.

Lizzie was also known for her accordion playing, her hymn singing and was said to make the island’s best “light rolls”, those airy, soft and tender dinner rolls. Lizzie was also noted for growing the loveliest flowers on the island.

Although the community bonds within Portsmouth mostly bridged the color line of the time, away from Portsmouth on the mainland this line was more evident.

In the late 1950s or very early in 1960, Lizzie had ended up in the old hospital in Morehead City in what was known as the “colored ward” in the hospital’s basement.

While in the hospital Lizzie was visited by her friends from Portsmouth.

The other patients in the ward couldn’t understand “why all these white people were coming to visit that black woman” and, even more confusing for them, “treating her like family!”

Lizzie lived the rest of her life in her Portsmouth village home. Upon her death she was buried in the Babb family cemetery behind the Portsmouth Methodist church.
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Photo: Lizzie and Henry from the National Park Service.

Photo: Lizzie Piggot sits in her kitchen reading a book in the 1950s
Image credit: courtesy of NPS
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Read about the Henry Pigott House
Portsmouth Village
Cape Lookout National Seashore
Historic Structure Report
Link: http://npshistory.com/pub.../calo/hsr-henry-pigott-house.pdf
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