page_title: Edward Littleton (died 1629)
section_title: Later years and death
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Littleton (died 1629) / Later years and death
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Michael and All Angels parish church, Penkridge, Staffordshire: Jacobean tomb of two Sir Edward Littletons, father and son. East wall of north chancel aisle. Lower stage: Sir Edward Littleton (died 1610) and his wife Margaret Devereux. Upper stage: Sir Edward (died 1629), and his wife Mary Fisher.
context_page_description: Sir Edward Littleton was a politician from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family and an important Staffordshire landowner of the Jacobean era and the early Caroline era. Although loyal to the monarchy, he seems to have been of Puritan sympathies and was a close ally of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex. He represented Staffordshire in the English parliament of 1624.
context_section_description: In 1625 Littleton's eldest son and heir, also Edward, married Hester Courten, daughter of Sir William Courten, an immensely wealthy London textile merchant and financier, originally from Menen in Flanders. Courten had been immensely generous to the Crown, always desperate for money, but was still only a tradesman. It was some measure of Courten's desire to see his children accepted in English society that he parted with a huge dowry, some £5,000, to the Littletons, still gentry of merely regional importance. It is likely that this made possible the purchase of a baronetcy for the younger Edward Littleton in 1627. Charles I, even more rapacious for money than his father, was selling large numbers of baronetcies through favoured courtiers. There were to be four Littleton Baronets of Pillaton, the title lapsing in 1812.
  By this time, the king's need for money had led to deadlock with both Houses of Parliament and a political crisis that was to become systemic. Charles imposed a forced loan on the country arbitrarily. Essex was one of the leaders of the opposition to this measure. He was stripped of his offices and in July 1627 Littleton was appointed Custos Rotulorum of Staffordshire, the county's senior administrative post, in place of the earl. He relinquished the post voluntarily when Essex was restored to his other offices in December 1628. Meanwhile, Littleton was also appointed commissioner for the forced loan in Staffordshire.
  Littleton died on 25 July 1629 at Pillaton Hall, his Staffordshire home. He was buried the next day in St Michael's church, Penkridge. In his will, dated 1 June 1629, he left his wife 200 sheep, as well as cattle and agricultural equipment. He left instructions that a monument be erected to himself, his wife, his father and mother. This was duly completed by his son, the 1st baronet. an impressive two-tiered structure, it features effigies of Littleton and Mary Fisher on the upper tier, with his parents below. It was installed against the north wall of the chancel, but has since been relocated to the east wall.
caption: Tomb of two Sir Edward Littletons, father and son. East wall of north chancel aisle. Lower stage: Sir Edward Littleton (d. 1610) and his wife, Margaret Devereux. Upper stage: Sir Edward (d. 1629), and his wife, Mary Fisher. Their son, also Sir Edward, became the first baronet in 1627.
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