Background
Leighton was the younger son of Sir Baldwin Leighton, 7th Baronet, of Loton Park, and his wife Mary Parker.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Leighton was the younger son of Sir Baldwin Leighton, 7th Baronet, of Loton Park, and his wife Mary Parker.
He was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford. He then attended Inner Temple and was called to the bar on 18 November 1861, proceeding to the Oxford Circuit.
He is also known as an antiquarian and author His diaries record a trip to India and Ceylon in 1867-1868 and the pair visited Australia in 1868 where Leighton produced many original sketches. In 1869 his father passed on to him the Sweeney estate at Oswestry which had come to his mother through the Parker family.
He became Justice of the Peace for Shropshire in 1869 and also Deputy Lieutenant.
He was also a Captain of the 15th Shropshire Rifle Volunteers which he remained until 1888
Leighton owned brickworks at Sweeney, near Oswestry, which he leased to the Oswestry Coal & Brick Company Limited. before 1880, then to the Sweeney Brick Company
Limited., and after 1885 it was leased to Kay & Hindle Limited. as the Sweeney Brick & Terra-cotta Works. In 1875, he purchased Llwyd"s Mansion, an impressive timber framed building in the centre of Oswestry dating from 1604, which was then renovated and divided into shops.
He was then elected for Oswestry and held the seat until his death.
In 1888 he was Honorary Commissioner for South Australia at the Paris Exhibition 1888, and he was author of Records of Oswestry. His Shropshire houses: past & present. Illustrated from drawings (1901) was complete and in the printer"s hands at the time of his.
He died of pneumonia at his London home aged 63, having hastened to vote in the Commons over the Coal Duty Bill.
He was buried in Street Oswald"s parish churchyard at Oswestry. Leighton married Jessie Marie Williams-Wynn, daughter of Herbert Bertie Watkin Williams-Wynn on 28 August 1873.
Their son Bertie Parker Leighton (1875–1952) was also Member of Parliament for Oswestry for many years and inherited the Sweeney Estate.
21st United Kingdom Parliament. 22nd United Kingdom Parliament. 23rd United Kingdom Parliament.
24th United Kingdom Parliament.
25th United Kingdom Parliament. 26th United Kingdom Parliament.
27th United Kingdom Parliament]
In 1874 Leighton stood unsuccessfully for Bewdley but at a by-election in 1876 he was elected Member of Parliament for North Shropshire and held the seat until it was reorganised in 1885. Leighton was an antiquary and active member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings which was founded by William Morris and Philip Webb in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian England.