Baron Hatherton, of Hatherton in the County of Stafford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Peerage of the United Kingdom

The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...

. It was created in 1835 for the politician Edward Littleton

Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton

Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton PC, FRS , was a British politician, of first the Canningite Tories and later the Whigs. He had a long political career, active in each of the Houses of Parliament in turn over a period of forty years...

, Chief Secretary for Ireland

Chief Secretary for Ireland

The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...

 from 1833 to 1834. Born Edward Walhouse, he assumed in 1812 by Royal license the surname of Littleton in lieu of his patronymic on succeeding to the estates of his great-uncle Sir Edward Littleton, 4th and last Baronet, of Teddesley Hall. He was also heir also to the substantial Walhouse estates and interests, which included Hatherton Hall, near Cannock

Cannock

Cannock is the most populous of three towns in the district of Cannock Chase in the central southern part of the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England....

, then in an exclave of Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...

. His wealth was based landed estates centred on Penkridge

Penkridge

Penkridge is a market town and ancient parish in Staffordshire, England with a population of 7,836 . Many locals refer to it as a village, although it has a long history as an ecclesiastical and commercial centre. Its main distinction in the Middle Ages was as the site of an important collegiate...

 in southern Staffordshire, mines at Great Wyrley

Great Wyrley

Great Wyrley is a parish and town in South Staffordshire, England, with a population of 11,236 at the 2001 census.-Etymology:The word "Wyrley" derives from two Old English words: wir and leah. Wir meant "bog myrtle," and leah meant "woodland clearing," suggesting that Great Wyrley was, at genesis,...

 and Bloxwich

Bloxwich

Bloxwich is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England, with a population of around 40,000 people.-Early history:Bloxwich has its origins at least as early as the Anglo-Saxon period, when the place name evidence suggests it was a small Mercian settlement named after the...

, quarries and sandpits, brick yards and residential housing, mainly in Walsall

Walsall

Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...

.

Lord Hatherton was succeeded by his son, Edward Richard, the second Baron, who represented Walsall

Walsall (UK Parliament constituency)

Walsall was a borough constituency centred on the town of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system....

 in the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 as a Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

. His son, the third Baron, notably served as Military Secretary to the Governor General of Canada

Governor General of Canada

The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

 between 1875 and 1879. The title followed the line of his eldest son, the fourth Baron, until the death of the latter's third son, the seventh Baron, in 1985. The late Baron was succeeded by his first cousin once removed, the eighth and present holder of the title. He is the grandson of Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Charles Christopher Josceline Littleton, third son of the third Baron.

In 1919, the 3rd Lord Hatherton disposed of large estates in the Penkridge area. In many cases, farms were sold to their tenants. The 5th Lord Hatherton made even larger disposals of landed property, selling over 1520 acres (6.2 km²) at Penkridge and 2976 acres (12 km²) in Teddesley Hay in 1953, including the 18th century seat, Teddesley Hall.

Barons Hatherton (1835)

• Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton
  Edward Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton
  Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton PC, FRS , was a British politician, of first the Canningite Tories and later the Whigs. He had a long political career, active in each of the Houses of Parliament in turn over a period of forty years...
  
   (1791–1863)
• Edward Richard Littleton, 2nd Baron Hatherton
  Edward Littleton, 2nd Baron Hatherton
  .Edward Richard Littleton, 2nd Baron Hatherton , was a British peer and Liberal Member of Parliament.Hatherton was the son of Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton, and Hyacinthe Mary Wellesley, eldest illegitimate daughter of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley...
  
   (1815–1888)
• Edward George Littleton, 3rd Baron Hatherton (1842–1930) served as Military Secretary to the late Earl of Dufferin, Governor-General of Canada in 1877. He and his wife, Charlotte Louisa, daughter of Sir Charles Robert Rowley, 4th Baronet had 3 daughters.
• Edward Charles Rowley Littleton, 4th Baron Hatherton (1868–1944)
• Edward Thomas Walhouse Littleton, 5th Baron Hatherton (1900–1969)
• John Walter Stuart Littleton, 6th Baron Hatherton (1906–1973)
• Thomas Charles Tasman Littleton, 7th Baron Hatherton (1907–1985)
• Edward Charles Littleton, 8th Baron Hatherton (b. 1950)

The heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

is the present holder's son the Hon. Thomas Edward Littleton (b. 1977)

The family vault is beneath the altar area of St. Michael's church, Penkridge.