Present Representative, William Joseph Acton, Esq.
Lyttleton of Frankley, Baron Lyttleton 1794; Irish Baron 1776; Baronet 1618.
The name is derived from a place in the Vale of Evesham, where the ancestors of this family in the female line were seated before the reign of Richard I. Frankley came from an heiress of that name in the reign of Henry III. In that of Henry V. Elizabeth, heiress of Sir Thomas Lyttleton, of Frankley, married Thomas Westcote of Westcote, in the county of Devon, Esquire, "but the old knight, her father, desirous to perpetuate his name, (and his purpose failed not,) would not yield consent to the marriage but upon his son's-in-law assured promise that his son, enjoying his mother's inheritance, should also take her name, and continue it, which was justly performed." (Westcote's Devonshire, p. 306.)
Hagley, the principal seat, was purchased in 1564. Mr. John Lyttleton, the head of this family, was implicated in Lord Essex's rising in 1600; but his son, Sir Thomas, was right loyal to the Crown in 1642.
See Leland's Itinerary in Coll. Topog. et Genealog., vol. iii. p. 339; Nash's Worcestershire, vol. i. p. 493; Prince's Worthies of Devon, ed. 1701, p. 583; Wotton's Baronetage, vol. i. p. 306; and Brydges's Collins, vol. viii. p. 316. See also in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries a genealogical account of this family, in the handwriting of Dr. Charles Lyttleton, Bishop of Carlisle, No. 151, 4to.
Arms.—Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable, borne by Thomas Lyttelton in the reign of Henry IV. as appears by his seal.
Present Representative, George William Lyttleton, 4th Lord Lyttleton.
Talbot of Grafton, Earl of Shrewsbury 1442; Earl Talbot 1784; Baron 1733; Earl of Waterford in Ireland 1661.
