Sir Edward Littleton, 4th Baronet

Sir Edward Littleton of Pillaton Hall, 4th Baronet, (c. 1727–1812) was a long-lived Staffordshire landowner and MP from the extended Littleton/Lyttelton family, who represented Staffordshire in the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of the United Kingdom for a total of 28 years. The last of the Littleton Baronets of Pillaton Hall, he transferred the family seat from eponymous Pillaton to Teddesley Hall, and died childless, leaving the estates to his great-nephew, Edward Walhouse, who became Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton.

Edward Littleton, the 4th Baronet, was the son of Fisher Littleton' and Frances Whitehall. Edward's year of birth is generally given as 1727, although occasionally as 1725. The later date seems more likely, as he was still considered a minor as late as 1749. His mother, Frances, was the daughter and coheir of James Whitehall of Pipe Ridware, a village close to Rugeley, Staffordshire. His father had not been a baronet or head of the family, and Edward's line of succession went back to Sir Edward Littleton, 2nd Baronet.

The 3rd and 4th Baronets were cousins and both grandsons of the 2nd Baronet, who died in 1709. He had married twice and had at least 19 children. However, his eldest son, by his first marriage to Mary Wrottesley, naturally named Edward, predeceased him in 1706. The 3rd baronet was therefore a grandson, a son of the deceased Edward. The 3rd baronet died childless in 1742. This necessitated passing the title and estates to another line of descent from the second baronet. Fisher Littleton, his third son by his second wife, Joyce Littleton, was indubitably legitimate (unlike their earlier children), and had married relatively late in life. Fisher was actually a few years younger than his nephew, the Baronet. He had a young son, conveniently called Edward, who might succeed to the Littleton estates and titles.

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