Family and Education

bap. 21 June 1694, 4th s. of Sir Edward Leighton, 1st Bt., M.P., of Wattlesborough, Salop being 1st s. by his 2nd w. Jane, da. of Daniel Nichol, alderman of London. educ. Wadham, Oxf. 1710; I. Temple 1711. m. 8 June 1717, Jane, da. of Nathaniel Thorold of Lincoln, wid. of Capt. Michael Barkham, 2s. 2da.

Offices Held

Exempt and capt. 1 Life Gds. 1716, guidon and maj. 1717, cornet and maj. 1720-37; lt.-col. 4 Drags. 1737; res. 1749.

Biography

Declining a rich family living in Shropshire, Leighton entered the army, serving at Fontenoy in 1745 and in Scotland in 1746. In 1747 he was invited to stand for Hereford by a group of townsmen, who were ‘unable to secure the services of a resident squire’.1 Returned after a contest, he was classed as Opposition. Two years later he sold out of the army ‘as belonging to the Prince’, who made his son an equerry and his wife a bedchamber woman to the Princess of Wales. After the Prince’s death he went over to the Government, speaking for them on the army, 28 Nov. 1751. In 1752 he applied to Pelham for the post of governor of Tilbury, but did not secure it, though Pelham commented on his application: ‘He does and will do well in Parliament’.2

Leighton did not stand again. He died January 1765.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: A. N. Newman

Notes

• 1. Duncomb, Herefs. iii. 169-70.
• 2. Pelham to Newcastle, 8 May 1752, Add. 32727, f. 130.