Sir John Lyttelton (1520–1590)


Sir John Lyttelton was an English nobleman, politician, knight, and landowner from the Lyttelton family during the Tudor period.

Biography

John Lyttelton was the son of Sir John Littleton, son of Sir William Littleton, knighted after the Battle of Stoke, and his second wife, Mary Whittington, in turn the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas de Littleton, justice and author of Littleton's Tenures. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir Gilbert Talbot of Grafton, Worcestershire. John Lyttelton's brother, George, became a prominent lawyer; there is a monument to him in St John the Baptist Church, Bromsgrove.
John Lyttelton was of age in 1541. He was made Constable of Dudley Castle and keeper of the old and new parks there in 1553. He was knighted by Elizabeth I at Kenilworth in 1566. He was a Member of the Council of Wales and the Marches, a Deputy Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace for Worcestershire.
He purchased the manor of Halesowen from Lord Robert Dudley in 1558. He bought the manor of Hagley from John St. Leger in 1565. These together with Frankley and Upper Arley were the core of the family estate. Save that Upper Arley devolved away from the male line, this has remained in the hands of the family ever since, though parts were sold off in the 20th century.

Family and descendants

He married Bridget Pakington, the daughter of Sir John Pakington, by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth Littleton, who in 1564 married Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire.
He was succeeded by his son Gilbert, who was the father of John and Humphrey.