Littleton

“ Littleton shook his head and smiled. "It was a case of witchery and fascination. He probably divined how eager you were to help me, and he was glad to yield to the agreeable spell of your wifely devotion."
"Oh, no," said Selma. "I am sure he never guessed for one moment of what I was thinking. Of course, I did try to make him like me, but that was only sensible. To make people like one is the way to get business, I believe."
Littleton's quarter of an hour of exaltation was rudely checked by a note from Mrs. Parsons, requesting an interview in regard to the plans. ”

“ Littleton [14] is good-natured, liberal, hospitable, and anxious to oblige, but he wants tact, and his table is more copious than refined. The house is ugly and in an ugly situation; the rooms are small, but not ill furnished. The dinners were not good, and Luttrell and Nugent were both very angry at the badness of the fare. We had a brilliant chasse. Luttrell left Teddesley on Monday, the Granvilles on Sunday, and Nugent and I on Tuesday; we travelled together to Oxford. ”

“ The area over which this Borough English tenure prevails is an exceedingly wide one. It is found in nearly every part of Europe, except perhaps Italy and Spain—in Germany, Hungary, the Ural mountains, and in Asia as far as the borders of China. Many attempts have been made to explain the custom. Littleton suggests that the youngest son, by reason of his tender age, is not so capable as the rest of his brethren to help himself. It is possible the origin may have come to us from the Tartars, amongst whom this custom of descent to the youngest son also prevails. ”

“ She had expected, as Wilbur's wife, to figure quickly and gracefully in the van of New York intellectual and social progress. Instead, she was one among thousands, living in a new and undeveloped locality, unrecognized by the people of whom she read in the newspapers, and without opportunities for displaying her own individuality and talents. It depressed her to see the long lines of houses, street after street, and to think that she was merely a unit, unknown by name, in this great sea of humanity—she, Selma Littleton, free-born American, conscious of virtue and power. ”

“ Littleton married before the date of the license, in which his wife is named Joan, relict of Sir Philip Chetwynd of Ingestre, Staffordshire, who brought him in jointure the manors of Ingestre and Tixall, and a moiety of the manor of Grendon, Staffordshire, with other estates in the same county, and in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. ”

“ LITTLETON, Sir THOMAS (1422–1481) , judge and legal author, born at Frankley House, Frankley, Worcestershire, in 1422, was eldest son of Thomas Westcote of Westcote, near Barnstaple, whom Coke calls ‘the king's servant in court.’ His mother was Elizabeth, daughter and sole heir of Thomas de Littleton, lord of the manor of Frankley, and esquire of the body to Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V. As heir to his mother, whose estates were more considerable than his father's, he was baptised in her name, though the rest of the family retained that of Westcote. ”

“ A proclamation was meanwhile set forth by Government for their discovery, wherein Robert Winter was described as “of mean stature, rather low than otherwise; brown hair and beard, not much beard, short hair; somewhat stooping, square made, near forty.” Stephen Littleton was “a very tall man; swarthy complexion, no beard or little, brown coloured hair; about thirty.” A neighbour of White’s, named Smart, and apparently smart by nature as well as name, noticed the unusual evidences of prosperity in his neighbour’s dwelling, and shrewdly surmised the reason. ”

“ He married secondly, by license dated 24 Jan. 1666–7, Miss Susan Rich of West Ham, Essex (Chester, London Marriage Licenses, col. 849) . By his marriage with the daughter of Richard Guildford of Chelsea he acquired a large fortune, but he left his widow, who was buried at Chelsea on 14 Nov. 1698, in poor circumstances (Faulkner, Chelsea, ed. 1829, i. 180–2) . His books were sold in 1695 (Hearne, Collections, ed. Doble, Oxf. Hist. Soc., ii. 362) .
In addition to his classical attainments Littleton was a good mathematician, and well skilled in oriental languages and rabbinical learning. ”

“ She had visited the New York shops. These, in her capacity of a God-fearing American, she would have been ready to anathematize in a speech or in a newspaper article, but the memory of them haunted her imagination and left her domestic yearnings not wholly satisfied.
Wilbur Littleton's scheme of domestic life was essentially spiritual, and in the development of it he felt that he was consulting his wife's tastes and theories no less than his own. He knew that she understood that he was ambitious to make a name for himself as an architect; but to make it only by virtue of work of a high order ”

“ Next in order comes tenancy in fee tail, the various classes of which are sketched by Littleton with brevity and accuracy, but he is silent as to the important practice, which first received judicial recognition shortly before his death, of “suffering a recovery,” whereby through a series of judicial fictions a tenant in tail was enabled to convert his estate tail into a fee simple, thus acquiring full power of alienation. ”

“ The intelligence proved to be false; but Du Casse, taking advantage of his absence, got into Havana. In July 1712 Littleton was relieved by Sir Hovenden Walker and returned to England. In November 1715 he was appointed resident commissioner and commander-in-chief at Chatham. ”

“ The appeal of this story lies in its naturalness. The hero, Harold Littleton, is not an impossible conception, but a real man of flesh and blood, faults and virtues. A new phase of American country life is also set forth with great fidelity. ”

“ Littleton is very distinguished looking? I often see him pass the window in the morning."
"Of course I think so," said Selma. "I suppose it would seem flat if I were to say that I admired Mr. Williams's appearance also."
"The truth is no harm. Wouldn't it be nice if we should happen to become friends? We are the pioneers in this block, but I hear three other houses have been sold. I suppose you own your house?"
"I believe not. We have a lease of it."
"That's a pity, because Gregory bought ours on a mortgage, thinking the land is sure to become more valuable. ”

“ Littleton, however, explained to Hyde that he had given this vote and others, which he knew would be obnoxious to the king, for the purpose of disarming the rising distrust of the commons, and of preventing their proposed intention of taking the seal from him. He thereupon planned with Hyde that he would take advantage of the customary recess of the house between Saturday and Monday morning to send the great seal to the king, and himself to follow after. On 23 May Littleton's departure from London was reported to the lords, who immediately ordered him to be taken into custody ”

“ This road, fortified at Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg, Loudon, Littleton, Bedford, Ligonier, and Pittsburg became the great military route from the Atlantic seaboard to the trans-Allegheny empire. ”

“ Lyttelton was descended from William, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Littleton [q. v.] , author of the ‘Treatise on Tenures,’ and upon his father's death inherited the Hagley property, which had been in the possession of the family since 1564. His powerful political connection was the chief cause of his importance in parliament. Through the marriage of his maternal aunt, Hester Temple (afterwards Countess Temple) , with Richard Grenville of Wootton, Buckinghamshire, Lyttelton was first cousin to Richard Temple Grenville, earl Temple [q. v.] ”

“ Littleton, the mansion of the general, stands not far off, a complete emblem of the desolating spirit lamented by the poet, dilapidated and converted into a barrack.
"The chief object of attraction is Lissoy, once the parsonage house of Henry Goldsmith, that brother to whom the poet dedicated his Traveler, and who is represented as the village pastor,
"'Passing rich with forty pounds a year.'
"When I was in the country, the lower chambers were inhabited by pigs and sheep, and the drawing-rooms by oats. ”

“ There is reason to think that Mistress Littleton was not only a sagacious but also a somewhat managing dame, who rode Red Humphrey with a tighter curb than that reckless individual approved. Accordingly, having heard of Poynter’s escape, and taking one person only into his confidence, he repaired to the barn about eleven o’clock that night, and smuggled his cousin and friend away from the barley mow into the pleasanter shelter of his own room in Hagley Park. ”

“ Althorp, who had withdrawn his resignation, however, declared that as they were both in the same position, it was impossible for him to continue in the government unless Littleton continued also (ib. pp. 24, 101–3) . Littleton thereupon consented to remain in office, and on 18 July supported the introduction of the new Coercion Bill, from which the court-martial and the meeting clauses were omitted (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. xxv. 160–9) . ”

“ Littleton had married a daughter of Barnham Goode, under-master of Eton School, and left her a widow 'with three infant daughters, without a home, without a fortune.' The new vicar, in his pity for their destitute condition, allowed the family to remain for a time in their old home, and the story runs that 'some time after a neighbouring clergyman happened to call and found Mrs. ”

“ When, on 16 Aug., the parliamentary commissioners were about to proceed to Edinburgh nominally to treat with the Scottish parliament, Littleton was asked to pass their commission under the great seal, but he demurred in the absence of directions from the king. On 9 Sept. 1641 he voted against the refusal of the lords to communicate their resolution on divine service to the commons. He firmly refused to put the great seal to the proclamation for arrest of the five members in January 1642, and entreated to be allowed to resign (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 252) . ”

“ Gregory Williams and party occupied a private box at the Empire Theatre last Tuesday evening, which will be another straw toward helping them to carry out their project of attracting attention. I like the face of your new friend, my dear. I mean to say that she looks unaffected and honest, and as if she had a sense of humor. With those three virtues a woman can afford to have some faults. I suppose she has hers."
Littleton felt that Selma was disposed to fancy her neighbor, but was restrained by conscientious scruples due to her dislike for society concerns. ”

“ After the Restoration he established a school at Chelsea, London. On 3 Feb. 1669 he was admitted rector of Chelsea (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 586) . In gratitude for the benefactions to the church there of his friend, Baldwin Hamey the younger [q. v.] , Littleton appended to his ‘Latin Dictionary’ some verses in praise of Hamey, and after Hamey's death printed his essay ‘On the Oath of Hippocrates,’ 1693 (Munk, Coll. of Phys. ed. 1878, i. 211, 215) . ”

“ They are convinced that a waggon road could be made across Laurell Hill, not so bad as that from Fort Littleton to this place, & that there is water and grass all the way, but little forage between the two mountains. The slope of the Alleghany is the worst, the country between that and Laurell Hill is passable, and this last mountain, (of which they have made a sample—) is very easy to cross: all the guides & officers who were on the Ohio agree that from Lawrell Hill onwards there are no further difficulties; it is a chain of hills easy to cross. ”

“ It is indeed the only possible approach to a scientific arrangement of the intricate “estates in land” known to English law. He classifies estates in land by reference to their duration, or in other words by reference to the differences between the persons who are entitled to succeed upon the death of the person in possession or “tenant.” First of all, he describes the characteristics of tenancy in fee simple. This is still as it was in Littleton’s time the largest interest in land known to the law. ”

“ After discussing in their logical order other freehold interests in land, he passes to interests in land called by later writers interests less than freehold, namely, tenancies for terms of years and tenancies at will. With the exception of tenancy from year to year, now so familiar to us, but which was a judicial creation of a date later than the time of Littleton, the first book is a complete statement of the principles of the common law, as they for the most part still exist, governing and regulating interests in lands. ”

“ Next follows an elaborate discussion upon what are called estates upon condition—a class of interests which occupied a large space in the early common law, giving rise on one side to estates tail, on another to mortgages. In Littleton’s time a mortgage, which he carefully describes, was merely a conveyance of land by the tenant to the mortgagee, with a condition that, if the tenant paid to the mortgagee a certain sum on a certain day, he might re-enter and have the land again. ”

“ Busy people in a large city are obliged to argue that new-comers should win their spurs, and that great minds, valuable opinions, and moving social graces are never crushed by inhumanity, but are certain sooner or later to gain recognition. Therefore after being very cordial and expressing the hope of seeing more of her in the future, every one departed and left Selma to her duties and her opportunities as Littleton's wife, without having the courtesy to indicate that they considered her a superior woman. ”