Edward Leighton (died 1593)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sir Edward Leighton (c. 1525 – 10 September 1593) was an English politician and a leading figure in Shropshire in the late 1500s. He was the eldest son of John Leighton of Wattlesborough Castle and Joyce Sutton. His younger brother was Sir Thomas Leighton, Governor of Guernsey. The Leightons were among the wealthiest landowners in Shropshire.

Edward studied law at Gray’s Inn, joining in 1541, and he inherited his father’s estates in 1532. His mother later married Richard Lee, MP for Much Wenlock, who became his guardian.

He held several local offices: High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire in 1549 and 1591, and High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1567 and 1587. He was elected as MP for Shropshire in October 1553 and again in 1563, and in 1587 he became custos rotulorum of Shropshire (the county’s keeper of records). He was knighted in 1591.

In the 1580s he was the dominant political figure in Shropshire and worked hard to organize the county’s militia. By 1590 he was described as old and feeble, and he died in 1593, remembered as a man of great fame in the Shire.

Edward Leighton married twice. First he wed Elizabeth Edwards, the widow of Mr. Meverell; later he married Anne Darrell, daughter of Paul Darrell of Lillingstone Dayrell, Buckinghamshire. With Anne he had four sons and three daughters, including his eldest son and heir, Thomas Leighton (d. 1600). The Leightons became the ancestors of the Leighton Baronets of Wattlesborough.