LICHTON, ROBERT [SSNE 2939]

Surname: LICHTON, LICHTONE, LEIGHTOUN, LEIGHTON
First name: ROBERT

Text source

Robert Lichton was the son of lieutenant colonel John Robertson Lichton [SSNE 4360] of Montrose and his wife Catharina Guthrie. Robert Lichton was born in Nyland/Borgå in Finland on 8 June/ 7 July 1631.

Military career: In 1646, Robert Lichton was a common musketeer in the Swedish army. He became a fanrik in Johnstoun's Viborg area regiment between 1649-51. Lichton's promotion continued and he became a lieutenant in 1654 in the Viborg area cavalry regiment. He was again promoted to ryttmastare in P de la Gardie's cavalry regiment in 1655 and to a major in Klas Tott's recruited cavalry regiment in 1657. Lichton became lieutenant colonel in Volmar Wrangel's combined Swedish cavalry regiment in 1665/6. He was lieutenant colonel with Adelsfanan in 1671. He was wounded at the Battle of the Sound in 1674. In 1675 he was made colonel after he proved his Scottish noble origins. These were reconfirmed by a successful supplication to the Scottish Privy Council for a birthbrieve in 1676 (under the name of Collonell Robert Leightoun). Between 1677-9 he was colonel of the new 'adelsfana' regiment, but also lived in Stockholm. In 1679 he was major general of the cavalry. In 1681 he was governor of Reval and Estonia but had some dealings with Gothenburg as the city paid him 1,000 riksdaler in silver coin that year. In 1685 he was lieutenant general and governor of Kronoberg and Jönköping area and during this time had association with Patrick Ogilvie [SSNE 1278]. In 1687 he became president in Åbo's chief court, and member of the war council the same year.

Swedish ennoblement:

Robert Lichton was ennobled in 1652 - Queen Kristina's letter authorising Robert Lichton's naturalisation along with his original documents from Scotland attesting to his noble origins were presented at the meeting of the Swedish nobility's parliamentary estate gathering of 29 October 1652. That month Lichton was recorded as Baron Skällby. Robert Lichton was subsequently introduced into the Riddarhus in 1660 under nr.572. He attended the 1682 Riksdag. In 1687 he was made count and introduced in 1689 under nr.30. He was unable to attend the Riksdag in 1689 and wrote to Marshall Gyldenstolpe complaining that he didn't want his wife's nephew to represent him as he was not of a high enough station. In 1675 Robert Lichton is noted as the owner of a windmill, colloquially known as Spelbomskan (originally set up by a Dutchman, Spijlbom in the first half of the seventeenth century).

Robert Lichton married Beata Rosenstierna, daughter of the royal senior accountant Morten Rosenstierna, in St Nicolai (Storkyrkan) church, Stockholm in 1662. They had no children and he buried her in Maria Kyrka in Stockholm on 21 April 1685.

Through his 1662 marriage to Beata Rosenstierna Robert Lichton came to own a 3-storey building (precise date of construction unknown but likely around 1600) located at Järntorget in Gamla Stan. The couple never lived in the building, which Beata had inherited from her father. It housed the Blå Örnen pub. In 1676 and 1683 Robert Lichton was listed as its owner even though his wife Beata did not die until 1684, implying that she had made the house over to him.

Robert Lichton died in Stockholm on 8 January 1692. There is a portrait of him in Sweden, by D.K. Ehrenstrahl from 1690. He had association with the ethnic Scot, Niclaus Duncan [SSNE 3964]:

Sources: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069825_00131#?c=&m=&s=&cv=130&xywh=1001%2C660%2C4681%2C2699

An explanatory genealogy from the 1670s is found here: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069825_00124#?c=&m=&s=&cv=123&xywh=1102%2C641%2C2709%2C1562

Letters from concerning his wife's affairs can be found here: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069825_00230#?c=&m=&s=&cv=229&xywh=3830%2C3473%2C2093%2C1207

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069827_00001#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-636%2C-138%2C4777%2C2755

For correspondence pertianing to Patrick Ogilvie see: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0070024_00253#?c=&m=&s=&cv=252&xywh=1173%2C1853%2C4546%2C2622

Swedish Riksarkiv, P. Sondén, Militärachefer i svenska arméen och deras skrivelser; Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1649/9; 1650/6; 1651/4,9; 1654/2; 1655/10; 1657/5,7; 1666/11; 1671/1; 1675/3; 1676/1; 1677/11; 1678/3,11,12; 1679/2,3,8,9,14; Göteborg Landsarkiv (GLA) Förteckning över Landshövdingens i Göteborg och Bohus Län - Skrivelser till Kungl. Maj:t 1657-1840, 02/10/1681 re 1,000 rdl silver mint paid out to General Robert Lichton by the city of Gothenburg; Swedish Riksarkiv, Föreckning över Landshövdingens i Jönköpings Län Skrivelser till Kung. Maj:t. 1640-1840 - Robert Lichton, 23/08/1676, 06/08/1678, 06/01/1686; Swedish Riksarkiv, Förteckning över Landshövdingens i Kronobergslän Skrivelser till Kung. Maj:t. 1637-1840, vol. III - Count Robert Lichton, 30/10/1678 - 29/08/1687; Swedish Riksarkiv, Eric Dahlbergs Arkiv, vol. XXI, 19/12/1677 and 9 and 12/01/1678 (Stockholm); Stockholms Stadsarkivet, Maria Församling, Register över döda, 1681-1700, p.422. G. Elgenstierna, Svenska Adelns Attartavlor, vol. 4, p.629; Swedish Riksarkiv, Drottning Hedvig Eleonoras Livgedningsakter Arkiv: Skrivelser till general guvernor Gustaf Soop och Carl Gyllenstierna från enskilda personer: B. Till Carl Gyllenstierna - Greve Robert Lichton. 1683-91, K799, 71; Sveriges Ridderskaps och Adels Riskdags-Protokoll, vol for 1652, p.39, p.97.

Svenskt Biografiskt Lexicon, vol.22, p.678; A.A. von Stiernman, Matrikel öfwer Swea Rikes Ridderskap och Adel uppå des begaran wid 1751 (Tiderholm, 1754), p.27; P. Wieselgren, ed. De La Gardiska Archivet, part 10 (Lund, 1838), p.7; H. Marryat, One Year in Sweden including a visit to the Isle of Gotland (London, 1862), vol.2, pp.461 and 463-464; Otto Donner, A brief sketch of the Scottish families in Finland and Sweden (Helsingfors, 1884), p.32; Uppsala Univ. Lib, Stiernman MSS; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 3rd series, IV, 1673-1676, p.528; T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden, (Edinburgh, 1907), p.33. Wilhelm Gabriel Lagus, Åbo hofrätts historia intill den 12 Nov. 1823, Volume 1. p.24. Medusa4-FAKTABLAD.pdf (stadsholmen.se)

For the association with Duncan see: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069583_00084#?c=&m=&s=&cv=83&xywh=455%2C1266%2C5187%2C2991

HouseinStockholm

Service record

SWEDEN, GERMANY: Departed 1648-12-31, as ENSIGN; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, FRANCIS JOHNSTOUN'S VIBORG, FINLAND: Departed 1654-12-31, as LIEUTENANT; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, DE LA GARDIE: Departed 1656-12-31, as LIEUTENANT; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, KLAS TOTT: Departed 1665-12-31, as MAJOR; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, VOLMAR WRANGEL: Departed 1670-12-31, as LT. COLONEL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, ADELSFANAN: Departed 1679-12-31, as MAJOR GENERAL; Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, REVAL AND ESTONIA: Departed 1681-12-31, as GOVERNOR; Capacity GOVERNOR, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, KRONOBERG: Departed 1685-12-31, as GOVERNOR; Capacity GOVERNOR, purpose MILITARY
SWEDEN, KRIGSRAD: Departed 1687-12-31, as MAJOR GENERAL; Capacity COUNCILLOR, purpose MILITARY