Sir William Lytton DL JP (29 September 1586 – 14 August 1660) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

from 1640 to 1648. He supported the

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

Early life

Lytton was born on 29 September 1586. He was the eldest son of Sir Rowland Lytton of

Knebworth Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden ...

, and Anne ( St John) Corbert. Before his parent's marriage, his mother was the widow of

Robert Corbet Captain Robert Corbet RN (died 13 September 1810), often spelled Corbett, was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars who was killed in action in highly controversial circumstances. Corbet was ...

, MP for

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

.P.W. Hasler (editor): History of Parliament Online: Members 1558-1603 - CORBET, Robert (1542-83), of Moreton Corbet, Salop - Author: A. M. Mimardière
accessed September 2013. His paternal grandparents were Rowland Lytton, Governor of the Castle of Boulogne, and the former Anne Carleton (a daughter of George Carleton and sister to George Carleton). His maternal grandfather was

Oliver St John, 1st Baron St John of Bletso Oliver St John of Bletsoe, 1st Baron St John of Bletso (c. 1522 – 21 April 1582) was an English peer. Personal life He was the son of Sir John St John (Bedfordshire MP) (born 1498) of Bletsoe (Bedfordshire) and Spelsbury (Oxfordshire) a ...

and, his first wife, Agnes Fisher. After his grandmother's death, his grandfather married

Elizabeth Chamber Elizabeth Chamber, better known as Elizabeth Stonor (died after 8 December 1602), was a lady-in-waiting to each of Henry VIII of England's six wives, and was the '' Mother of the Maids'', with responsibility for the conduct of the young maids of ...

, a lady-in-waiting to each of King Henry VIII's six wives. He was educated at

Westminster school (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

from 1601 to 1602, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1603 to 1607 before travelling abroad to France, Italy and the low countries from 1608 to 1609 with

William Borlase William Borlase (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769) ...

and William Cecil.

Career

He succeeded his father in 1615, inheriting the Knebworth estate. He was knighted on 25 July 1624 and appointed

High Sheriff of Hertfordshire The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...

in 1625 serving until 1626. He was Deputy Lieutenant of the county from 1625 to 1630. In 1628, Lytton was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Hertfordshire. In April 1640, he was re-elected MP for Herefordshire in the Short Parliament and then in November 1640 for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. Lytton supported the Parliamentary cause in the Civil War and was one of the commissioners sent by Parliament and received by King Charles who tried to negotiate peace at Oxford in 1643, (They failed to reach terms and the war was to continue for three more years). Lytton was excluded from parliament under

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

in 1648.

Personal life

On 24 February 1612, Lytton married firstly Anne Slaney, the only child of Stephen Slaney of Norton, Shropshire (son of Sir Stephen Slaney). Before her death in 1626, they were the parents of one son and seven daughters, including: * Margaret Lytton (1613–1689), who married Thomas Hillersdon, of

Elstow Elstow is a village and civil parish in the English county of Bedfordshire. John Bunyan was born here at Bunyan's End, which lay approximately halfway between the hamlet of Harrowden and Elstow's High Street. History Countess Judith, niece o ...

. After his death, she married Sir Thomas Hewett, 1st Baronet, of Pishiobury, in . * Rowland Lytton (–1674), MP for Hertfordshire; he married Judith Edwards, daughter of Humphrey Edwards. After her death, he married Rebecca ( Chapman) Lucy, daughter of Thomas Chapman and widow of

Sir Richard Lucy ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

* Mary Lytton (b. 1622), who married Sir Henry Anderson, 1st Baronet of Penley. After his death, she married Sir Edward Gostwick, 3rd Baronet in 1646.George Edward Cokayne, editor, ''The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes'' (no date (c. 1900); reprint,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume I, page 100. * Dorothy Lytton (d. 1703), who married her cousin

Sir John Barrington, 3rd Baronet Sir John Barrington, 3rd Baronet (1605 – 24 March 1683) of Barrington Hall, Essex was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1645 and 1679. Life Barrington was the eldest son of Sir Thoma ...

, MP for Newtown. * Jane Lytton, who married Sir Thomas Bosville.Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.''

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina ...

U.S.A. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

(Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 2, page 2440. Around November 1644 He married secondly Ruth ( Barrington) Lamplugh (d. 1645), daughter of Sir Francis Barrington, 1st Baronet of

Barrington Hall, Essex Barrington Hall is a Grade II* listed 18th-century English country house in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, England. Barrington Hall is built in red brick, in both two and three storeys, with a balustraded parapet and a number of ornamentally shaped Du ...

and widow of Sir George Lamplugh of

Kirby Sigston Kirby Sigston is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England, approximately east of Northallerton. The village is situated on the Cod Beck river, and the wider parish contains the hamlet of Jeater Houses ...

. On his death he was buried at Knebworth and succeeded by his son Rowland. A monument was not erected until 1705, this being to the design of Edward Stanton.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.367

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lytton, William 1586 births 1660 deaths Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 High Sheriffs of Hertfordshire Deputy Lieutenants of Hertfordshire Burials at Knebworth Knights Bachelor Members of the Parliament of England for Hertfordshire