Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Littleton, Edward (fl.1694)
LITTLETON, EDWARD (fl. 1694), agent for the island of Barbadoes, born in 1626, was son of Sir Adam Littleton, bart., of Stoke St. Milborough, Shropshire, by Ethelreda, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Poyntz of North Ockendon, Essex. After attending Westminster School he became a commoner of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1641, graduated B.A. in 1644, and in 1647 was elected fellow of All Souls. Having submitted to the authority of the parliamentary visitors, he proceeded M.A. in 1648, and in 1656 was chosen senior proctor of the university (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 70, 108, 192). He incorporated at Cambridge in 1657. About 1664 he left Oxford, on being called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn. In 1666 he went to Barbadoes as secretary to William, lord Willoughby of Parham, and the king's attorney for that island. Three years later he married a wealthy lady there, and by 1673 owned six hundred acres (Cal. State Papers, America, 1669–74, p. 497). In November 1672 he was placed on a committee to consider and report on the acts of the country (ib. p. 433), and in 1674 was twice elected to a seat in the assembly for St. James's parish (ib. pp. 546, 626). He acted as judge in the island from 1670 till 1683, and returned to London, where he filled the office of agent for Barbadoes.
Littleton wrote: 1. ‘De Juventute oratio,’ 4to, London, 1664 (another edit. 1689), delivered when he was rhetoric reader of the university. 2. ‘The Groans of the Plantations; or a true Account of their … Sufferings by the heavy Impositions upon Sugar and other Hardships,’ &c., 4to, London, 1689. 3. ‘Observations upon the Warre of Hungary,’ 4to, London, 1689. 4. ‘The Management of the Present War against France consider'd,’ 4to, London, 1690. 5. ‘The true Causes of the Scarcity of Money, with the proper Remedies for it,’ 4to, London, 1690 (reprinted in 1692). 6. ‘A Project of a Descent upon France,’ 4to, London, 1691. 7. ‘A Proposal of some ways for raising of Money,’ 4to, London, 1691. 8. ‘A Proposal for Maintaining and Repairing the Highways,’ 4to, London, 1692. 9. ‘The Descent upon France further recommended,’ 4to, London, 1694. Several of his tracts were published anonymously.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 574–5; Reg. of Visitors of Univ. of Oxf. (Camd. Soc.)]