Oliver Pigg (also Pig, Pygg and Pygge) (fl. 1580) was an English Puritan clergyman.
Born about 1551, Pigg was from Essex. He was admitted pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 6 Oct. 1565, and scholar on 8 Nov. 1566. He graduated B.A. in 1568–9.[1][2]
Pigg was rector of All Saints', Colchester, 1569–71 of St. Peter's, Colchester, 1569–79, and Abberton in Essex, 1571–8. In 1578 he was also beneficed in the diocese of Norwich, and in February 1583 was temporarily appointed to the cure of Rougham, Suffolk.[1]
In July 1583 Pigg was imprisoned at Bury St. Edmunds. The charge was of "dispraising" the Book of Common Prayer, especially by putting the question in the baptismal service, "Dost thou believe?" to the parents, in place of the child. In a petition for release to the justices of Bury he declared his "detestation of the proceedings of Browne, Harrison, and their favourers". Before the next assizes he conformed; and after some further minor troubles was discharged.[1]
In 1587, at a meeting held at Cambridge, under the presidency of Thomas Cartwright to promote church discipline, Pigg and William Dyke were nominated superintendents of the Puritan ministers for Hertfordshire. In 1589 he preached in Dorchester, Dorset, and in 1591 was in London.[1]
Pigg wrote:[1]
