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- From "The House of Commons, 1690-1715" by David Hayton, Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley
LEIGHTON, Sir Edward, 1st Bt. (c.1650-1711), of Wattlesborough Castle, Salop.
Shropshire 1698-1700
Shresbury 20 Dec 1709-1710
b. c.1650, 1st surv. s. of Robert Leighton of Wattleborough Castle by Gertrude, da. of Edward Baldwin of Diddlebury, Salop. educ. Shrewsbury 1661: Christ Church, Oxf. matric. 5 Aug 1668, aged 18; I. Temple :1669. m. (1) 24 May 1677, Dorothy (d. 1688), da. of Sir Job Charlton, 1st Bt., of Ludford, Herefs., 3s. 4da.; (2) 29 Jul 1693, Jane, da. of Daniel Nicholls, merchant, of London, 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 1689; ch. Bt. 2 Mar. 1693.
Freeman, Ludlow 1681: Sheriff, Salop 1692-3.
Leighton was a wealthy country gentleman whose family had been established in Shropshire since before the Conquest, having acquired Wattlesborough Castle, some eight miles from Shrewsbury, in the late 15th century. His father had sat for Shrewsbury in the Cavalier Parliament, and had been listed as opposing the administration of Lord Danby (Sir Thomas Osborne), although he appears subsequently to have collaborated with the government of James II. Leighton was himself named in 1687 as a suitable person to be added to the commission of the peace for Shropshire, a proposal which was approved by the commission of regulation.
Leighton stood both at Shrewsbury and for the county in 1695 on the Whig interest, putting up for knight of the shire at the last moment, after his defeat in the town, but losing there as well. At the next election he took the place of the retiring Whig knight and was return unopposed with a Tory. He was classed in September 1698 as a supporter of the Country party, but voted against the bill to disband the army on 18 Jan 1699. Generally an inactive Member, he was given leave of absence on 25 Mar 1699 and again on 9 Mar 1700. An analysis of the House of early 1700 listed him as being in the interest of the Earl of Bradford (Francis Newport).
Leighton did not stand again until 1708, when he failed at first in an attempt to overthrow the powerful Tory faction in Shrewsbury. Leighton petitioned, however, and in December 1709 his petition was upheld, although the decision was criticized at the time, even by a Whig, as having been grounded in little more than party prejudice. He voted in the following year in favour of the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell, and either he or his son Edward Leighton was one of the ten Whig gentlemen of Shropshire who in April 1710 signed an open letter to the lord lieutenant of the county, complaining against the way in which the Tories in Shrewsbury had gone about drawing up an address to the Queen in Sachereverell's favour. The impeachment proved to be an important issue in the 1710 election, in which Leighton lost his seat, he and a Whig colleague being defeated by two Tories.
Leighton died in April 1711 and was buried at Alderbury, Shropshire, on 6 Apr. Wattlesborough Castle was bequeathed to his second wife for her lifetime, whereupon Edward Leighton, his eldest son and principal heir, removed the family residence to London Park, close by.
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