Talk:Sir Edward Littleton, 1st Baronet

Portrait problem
The portrait on this page is also used for Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Littleton of Mounslow, an entirely different person, albeit a contemporary and distant relative. Who is it really? Sjwells53 (talk) 19:39, 23 June 2011 (UTC)


 * The National Portrait Gallery ref NPG473 have this portrait as of Edward Littleton, Baron Littleton (1589-1645) a kindsman of the Baronet who was also descended from Thomas de LittletonOrdyg (talk) 12:10, 25 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thought as much. A portrait of this quality seems more likely for a peer than a relatively humble baronet. Thanks for checking. Sjwells53 (talk) 18:42, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Rescue work
Despite the issue being flagged up earlier, some of the information in the article really belonged to the famous judge of the same name, a distant cousin of our Sir Edward.

This Sir Edward was relatively minor and he has not yet been covered by the History of Parliament Online, generally the best secondary source for MPs. However, there are a number of useful secondary sources from a century or so ago, not least the Liberal and Labour politician Josiah Wedgwood's account of Staffordshire MPs, which is likely to form a basis for HOPO. Moreover Alumni Oxonienses, the Inner Temple admissions database and the various reference works on the baronetage do cover him, and these lead on to some useful online primary sources, particularly references in the State Papers collections and the records of the Committee for Compounding.

I've corrected obvious confusions and tried to balance the article by making clear that Littleton was actually active in the Parliamentarian cause before going over to the king. I'll now go on and add further detail and references, breaking the article into more manageable sections. Whether one regards Littleton as a tragically ambivalent figure, a traitor or a careerist is a matter for personal judgement, but he deserves enough detail for this to pose itself as a question. He was one of a number of Staffs and Salop MPs who hoped, for whatever reason, to find a middle way and failed. Wedgwood is unusual among local historians in writing from a broadly leftwing perspective, which makes his account both slightly tendentious and very interesting. Sjwells53 (talk) 11:02, 26 September 2017 (UTC)