William Leighton

Sir William Leighton ( ; – buried 31 July 1622) was an English Jacobean composer and editor who published The Teares and Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soule (1614). He was also a politician. Family Leighton was first son of William Leighton (died 1607) of Plaish Hall, Cardington, Shropshire, who was Chief Justice of North Wales, and of his wife Isabella, daughter of Thomas Onslow of London. Leighton married Winifred, daughter of Simon Harcourt, of Ellenhall, Staffordshire, by whom he had one son and two daughters. His wife died in 1616. Leighton seems to have been in poor standing with his own father, who in the latter’s will divided his property between William’s half-brother and William’s then infant son. William was not allowed use of his son’s portion unless he gave “good and sufficient sureties”. Leighton’s biographer ‘J.J.C.’ suggests it was probably because Leighton had been a follower of Elizabeth I’s disgraced favourite the Earl of Essex, to whom Leighton had written letters in 1600. Career For education, Leighton recordedly attended Shrewsbury School in 1577, followed by admission as a law student to the Inner Temple in 1580. Leighton served as MP for Much Wenlock in the l