Littleton Eyre (5 March 1761–7 May 1789), member of the Convention of 1788, was born in Norfolk and was the son of Margaret L. Taylor Eyre and Severn Eyre, a merchant and lawyer. Both his father and his grandfather, Littleton Eyre (d. 1768), represented Northampton County in the House of Burgesses. After his father's sudden death in 1773, Eyre inherited the 1,570-acre Eyre Hall estate, near Cheriton, in Northampton County, and became a guardian of his youngest siblings. Although some contemporaries spelled his name Lyttleton, he signed his first name as Littleton. He studied at the College of William and Mary, where he was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Eyre represented Northampton County in the House of Delegates in the assemblies for 1784–1785, 1786–1787, and 1787–1788. He sat on the Committee of Propositions and Grievances during each of his terms and also served at various times on the Committees of Claims, for Courts of Justice, and of Privileges and Elections. On 9 August 1785 the governor appointed Eyre a justice of the peace and a commissioner of the Court of Oyer and Terminer for the county.

In the spring of 1788 Northampton voters elected Eyre as one of the county's two delegates to the convention called to consider the ratification of the proposed constitution of the United States. He vouched for the proper election of the two Accomack County delegates after election judges there did not provide returns to the convention. Present throughout the proceedings, which began in Richmond on 2 June, Eyre did not speak in the recorded debates. On 25 June he joined the other federalists in voting against requiring amendment of the Constitution before ratification. Later that day Eyre voted with the majority to ratify the Constitution. On 27 June he joined a minority voting to prevent the states from limiting the taxing powers of Congress.

Littleton Eyre died on 7 May 1789 and was buried in the family cemetery at Eyre Hall. He had never married and divided his extensive estate, which included at least sixty-four slaves, among his surviving brothers and sisters.

Sources Consulted:
Birth date in George Parker and wife, Etc. v. John Eyre, Etc. (1789), Northampton Co. Chancery Causes, 1789-008, Library of Virginia, and in Howard Mackey and Candy McMahan Perry, eds., Vestry Book of Hungar's Parish, Northampton County, Virginia, 1757–1875 (1997), 135; family information with variant birth date of 15 Mar. 1762 from Severn Eyre Bible transcribed in Bible Records: Accomack and Northampton Counties, Virginia (1984), 5:165–166; gravestone inscription in National Youth Administration, "Eyre Hall Graveyard" (typescript, n.d.), p. 2, Works Progress Administration, Virginia Historical Inventory, Library of Virginia; John P. Kaminski et al., eds., The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution: Ratification of the Constitution by the States, vols. 8–10: Virginia (1988–1993), 9:916, 10:1539, 1540, 1557; will and estate division in Northampton Co. Wills and Inventories, 28:135–136, 291–292; obituary in Richmond Virginia Independent Chronicle and General Advertiser, 10 June 1789.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Katharine E. Harbury.

How to cite this page:
Katharine E. Harbury,"Littleton Eyre (1761–1789)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2016 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Eyre_Littleton_1761-1789, accessed [today's date]).

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