Sir Edward Littleton, 1st Baronet (c. 1599 – c. 1657) was a 17th-century English Baronet and politician from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family, the first of a line of four Littleton baronets with Pillaton Hall as their seat. He initially joined the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. Having tried unsuccessfully to find a third way, he switched his support to the Royalist cause – a decision that led to his financial ruin, as large debts made it impossible to redeem his estates from sequestration after the victory of Parliament. Background and education Edward Littleton was born in 1599 or 1598: he was recorded as 18 years of age when he enrolled at Oxford University in 1617. He was the son of Sir Edward Littleton of Pillaton Hall, near Penkridge, Staffordshire and Mary Fisher, daughter of Clement Fisher of Packington, Warwickshire. Both of Littleton's parents came from the middling landed gentry. His mother, Mary, came from the neighbouring county of Warwickshire, where the Fishers held the manor of Packington in chief and the advowson of the parish church. Clement, her father, had succeeded to his lands in 1571 and died on 23 October 1619, leaving as heir his son Sir Robert. However, his widow, also Mary, continued to occupy the manor house with her other daughter Anne Dilke. It seems that there was considerable family tension, not least because Clement's widow soon died, making it difficult for Sir Robert to get the will executed. In 1621 he accused his deceased mother and widowed sister of wasting timber on the estate and received letters of administration only in May 1623. There had already been a succession of four Edwards Littleton at Pillaton Hall and there were to be many more in the Shropshire branch of the family. The first baronet is easily confused with these, and also with Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Lyttelton, one of the Shropshire branch of the family, who was an older contemporary and frequently in attendance at Parliament at the same time. The Littletons of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire were all alike descendants of Thomas de Littleton, an eminent 15th-century judge and jurist. The spelling of the name has now been regularised but numerous variants were current in the 16th and 17th centuries and the various branches of the family were not distinguished orthographically. The Staffordshire Littletons had often been turbulent, like their Worcestershire cousins. Edward Littleton's paternal