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Thomas de Littleton
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Thomas de Littleton
Sir Thomas de Littleton KB SL (or de Lyttleton; c. 1407–23 August 1481) was an English judge, undersheriff, Lord of Tixall Manor, and legal writer from the Lyttelton family. He was also made a Knight of the Bath by King Edward IV.
Thomas de Littleton was the eldest son of Elizabeth Littleton (sole daughter and heiress of Thomas de Littleton, Lord of Frankley, Worcestershire) and of Thomas Westcote or Heuster, esquire, chief prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas. The date of Littleton's birth is uncertain; a MS. pedigree gives 1422, but it probably occurred earlier than this. If, as is generally accepted, he was born at Frankley Manor, it could not have been before 1407, in which year Littleton's grandfather recovered the manor from a distant branch of the family.
Elizabeth Littleton and Thomas Westcote had four sons. Thomas, the eldest son and heir, took his mother's surname – likely as a condition of her marriage-settlement as heir to the manor of Frankley. Two of his brothers, Nicholas and Guy, retained the surname Westcote. Nicholas Westcote married Agnes Vernon, the daughter and heiress of Edmund Vernon, and was an ancestor of the Westcotes of Staffordshire, while Guy Westcote married the daughter of one Greenevill of Gloucestershire and was an ancestor of the Westcotes of Devon and Somerset.
He attended the grammar school attached to the monastery in Worcester. Thus, he is cherished as an alumnus by both descendant educational institutions, today's Royal Grammar School Worcester and The King's School Worcester. He is said by Sir Edward Coke to have "attended one of the universities," but there is no corroboration of this statement.
He was probably a member of the Inner Temple and lectured there on the statute of Westminster, i.e., Donis Conditionalibus. His name appears in the Paston Letters (ed. J. Gairdner, p. 60) about 1445 as that of a well-known counsel, and in 1481/2 he received a grant of the manor of Sheriff Hales, Shropshire, from Sir William Trussell as a reward for his services as counsel.
Sometime before 1468, he purchased Tixall Manor from John Merston, who married an heiress of the De Wasteney family who had previously owned the manor. After Littleton's death, his granddaughter Joan inherited the manor. She married Sir John Aston of Haywood, and the manor would remain in the hands of the Aston family for many generations.
He appears to have been Recorder of Coventry in 1450; he was made Escheator of Worcestershire, and in 1447/8 he was under-sheriff of the same county; he became sergeant-at-law in 1453 and was afterwards a Justice of Assize on the northern circuit. In 1466, he was made a judge of the common pleas and, in 1475, a knight of the Bath.
He died, according to the inscription on his tomb in Worcester Cathedral, on August 23, 1481.
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Thomas de Littleton
Sir Thomas de Littleton KB SL (or de Lyttleton; c. 1407–23 August 1481) was an English judge, undersheriff, Lord of Tixall Manor, and legal writer from the Lyttelton family. He was also made a Knight of the Bath by King Edward IV.
Thomas de Littleton was the eldest son of Elizabeth Littleton (sole daughter and heiress of Thomas de Littleton, Lord of Frankley, Worcestershire) and of Thomas Westcote or Heuster, esquire, chief prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas. The date of Littleton's birth is uncertain; a MS. pedigree gives 1422, but it probably occurred earlier than this. If, as is generally accepted, he was born at Frankley Manor, it could not have been before 1407, in which year Littleton's grandfather recovered the manor from a distant branch of the family.
Elizabeth Littleton and Thomas Westcote had four sons. Thomas, the eldest son and heir, took his mother's surname – likely as a condition of her marriage-settlement as heir to the manor of Frankley. Two of his brothers, Nicholas and Guy, retained the surname Westcote. Nicholas Westcote married Agnes Vernon, the daughter and heiress of Edmund Vernon, and was an ancestor of the Westcotes of Staffordshire, while Guy Westcote married the daughter of one Greenevill of Gloucestershire and was an ancestor of the Westcotes of Devon and Somerset.
He attended the grammar school attached to the monastery in Worcester. Thus, he is cherished as an alumnus by both descendant educational institutions, today's Royal Grammar School Worcester and The King's School Worcester. He is said by Sir Edward Coke to have "attended one of the universities," but there is no corroboration of this statement.
He was probably a member of the Inner Temple and lectured there on the statute of Westminster, i.e., Donis Conditionalibus. His name appears in the Paston Letters (ed. J. Gairdner, p. 60) about 1445 as that of a well-known counsel, and in 1481/2 he received a grant of the manor of Sheriff Hales, Shropshire, from Sir William Trussell as a reward for his services as counsel.
Sometime before 1468, he purchased Tixall Manor from John Merston, who married an heiress of the De Wasteney family who had previously owned the manor. After Littleton's death, his granddaughter Joan inherited the manor. She married Sir John Aston of Haywood, and the manor would remain in the hands of the Aston family for many generations.
He appears to have been Recorder of Coventry in 1450; he was made Escheator of Worcestershire, and in 1447/8 he was under-sheriff of the same county; he became sergeant-at-law in 1453 and was afterwards a Justice of Assize on the northern circuit. In 1466, he was made a judge of the common pleas and, in 1475, a knight of the Bath.
He died, according to the inscription on his tomb in Worcester Cathedral, on August 23, 1481.
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