Thomas Leighton

Thomas Leighton (c. 1554 – 17 May 1600) was an English soldier and politician. He was the eldest son of Sir Edward Leighton of Wattlesborough Castle and his second wife Anne Dayrell, daughter of Paul Dayrell of Lillingstone Dayrell, Buckinghamshire. He was a nephew of Sir Thomas Leighton, Governor of Guernsey. Both his father and his uncle are said to have enjoyed the trust of Queen Elizabeth I. He was educated at Shrewsbury School (1566) and studied law at the Inner Temple in 1571. He succeeded to his father's estates in 1593. Wattlesborough, the Leighton family home from 1471 to 1711. As a young man, he was a soldier and may have served in the Low Countries. By 1588 he had become captain of the county's trained militia units.