On 25 Feb. 1771 Lord Sandwich, first lord of the Admiralty, wrote to John Robinson:1Abergavenny mss.
When I saw you last I forgot to talk to you about the borough of Rochester ... I think you may on very reasonable terms get a bad man out and a good man in his room into Parliament.
When William Gordon took the Chiltern Hundreds, Pye stood as Government candidate and was returned after a contest. Naturally he voted with Government, even on Grenville’s Election Act, 25 Feb. 1774; but appears never to have spoken in the House. He was defeated at Rochester at the general election of 1774. Philip Stephens, secretary to the Admiralty, wrote to Lord Hardwicke, 7 Nov. 1774:2Add. 35612, f. 114.
With respect to Rochester I may fairly say, they are a set of ungrateful rascals, but indeed they had conceived an utter aversion to our Admiral Sir Thomas Pye, and I find they would have taken anybody who offered himself in preference to him.
Pye’s correspondence with Sandwich is purely naval; there are many references to him in the letters of George III, but as commander-in-chief Portsmouth, not as M.P. Here is a passage from one of Pye’s letters to Sandwich, dated 28 Apr. 1773, which seems typical of the man:3Sandwich Pprs. i. 36.
Give me leave my Lord to make one observation more and I have don—and that is when you peruse Admiral Pyes letters you will please not too scrutinize too close either to the speling or the grammatical part as I allow my self to be no proficient in either, I had the mortification to be neglected in my education, went to sea at 14 without any, and a man of war was my university ... I therefore attempt to state facts only and value my self upon nothing but my integrity and zeal ... ever makeing my own interest a secondary consideration, have therefore only to brag though poor am honest.
Pye died 26 Dec. 1785.