tured in Bedfordshire, and on 26 Nov. the first part of his sentence was inflicted with shocking barbarity. The second part appears to have been remitted, as it is not mentioned in the ‘Epitome’ (cf. Gardiner, Hist. vii. 151 n). Consigned to the ‘ffleet, where he was most cruelly used a long time, being loged day and night amongst the most desperately wiked villaines of ye whole prison,’ he remained a prisoner till 1640, when he was released by the Long parliament, his fine cancelled, and 6,000l. voted him in compensation for his losses and inhuman treatment. In 1642 he was appointed keeper of Lambeth House, then turned into a state prison, and though his health was shattered he lived till 1649. He was a puritan of the narrowest type, and in controversy a man of ‘violent and ungoverned heat,’ but he was amiable to his family and friends, and, it is said, ‘was never heard to speak of his persecutors but in terms of compassion and forgiveness.’
Leighton was twice married, his second wife being a daughter of Sir William Musgrave of Cumberland, who had been twice a widow. He had four sons, James, Robert [q. v.], Elisha, afterwards Sir Elisha [q. v.], and Caleb, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Sapphira. A portrait of Leighton is preserved in the print room at the British Museum, ‘wearing a skull cap and a collar in an oval.’
[Irving's Scottish Writers; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans; Masson's Life of Milton; Stevens's Hist. of Scottish Church, Rotterdam; Gardiner's Hist. of England; Granger's Biog. Hist. ii. 181–182.]
LEIGHTON, ALEXANDER (1800–1874), editor of ‘Tales of the Borders,’ was born at Dundee in 1800. After distinguishing himself at Dundee academy he studied medicine at Edinburgh and settled there, first working as a lawyer's clerk and then as a man of letters. The ‘Tales of the Borders,’ a series of short stories, still popular among the Scottish peasantry, was projected at Berwick-on-Tweed in 1834 by John Mackay Wilson [q. v.], on whose death in 1835 his brother continued the work for a time. Shortly afterwards an Edinburgh publisher named Sutherland became proprietor, and Leighton was appointed editor and chief story writer; the series was completed in 1840. He received assistance from Hugh Miller [q. v.], Thomas Gillespie (1777–1844) [q. v.], and others. Reading widely he had an extensive, if not very accurate, knowledge of many subjects, including metaphysics and especially Hume's philosophy. He died 24 Dec. 1874.
In 1857 Leighton re-edited the complete ‘Tales of the Borders,’ and this was reissued in 1863–4, 1869 (with additions), and in 1888. In 1860–1 he published two series of ‘Curious Storied Traditions of Scottish Life,’ in 1864 ‘Mysterious Legends of Edinburgh,’ in 1865 ‘Shellburn,’ a novel, and in 1867 his interesting ‘Romance of the Old Town of Edinburgh.’ Other of his works are: ‘Men and Women of History,’ ‘Jephthah's Daughter,’ ‘A Dictionary of Religions,’ and a Latin metrical version of Burns's songs, which Carlyle praised. Various writers submitted their books to his editing, and he probably wrote whole volumes to which others prefixed their names.
[Daily Scotsman, 26 Dec. 1874; Irving's Eminent Scotsmen.]
LEIGHTON, CHARLES BLAIR (1823–1855), artist, born on 6 March 1823, was son of Stephen Leighton and Helen Blair, his wife. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a silver-engraver for seven years, but abandoned engraving at the end of his apprenticeship. He always devoted his spare time to drawing and the study of anatomy, and became a student of the Royal Academy. He painted portraits and figure-pieces, and was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy. Leighton also practised for a time in lithography, and worked with his brother, George Cargill Leighton, in the chromolithographic business of Leighton Brothers. Leighton died on 6 Feb. 1855, aged 31. He married, in April 1849, Caroline, daughter of Thomas Boosey, music publisher, by whom he left two daughters, and a son, Edmund Blair Leighton, who has obtained some distinction as an artist.
[Private information.]
LEIGHTON, Sir ELISHA (d. 1685), courtier, was the younger son of Alexander Leighton (1568–1649) [q. v.] During the civil war he rose to be a colonel in the royalist army, was arrested in August 1647 at Kingston-on-Thames, and imprisoned in Windsor Castle, and after the king's execution he joined the royalist party abroad. The Duke of Buckingham took him into his employ (Nicholas Papers, Camd. Soc., i. 289, 301). In the autumn of 1649 the Duke of Lorraine sent him to England to enlist soldiers for the royal cause. On his proceedings becoming known to the council of state, he was closely examined in November of that year, and warned that he was likely to be proceeded against as a spy (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 399). In December 1650 Charles appointed him secretary for English affairs in Scotland (Nicholas Papers, i. 206, 208, 212). After the battle of Worcester he escaped to Rotterdam with Buckingham in
