Robert Lichton

Robert Lichton (1631–1692), also Leighton, Lichtoun, Lichtone, Lyton, Lord of Ulishaven, Forfarshire, Scotland and Lord of Tervik, was a Lieutenant General in the Swedish Army and President of the Superior Court of Justice (hovrätt) at Åbo (Turku).

Career Robert Lichton was born in 1631 at Humsland in Borgå (Porvoo) parish of the Swedish Empire (now Finland) to parents of Scottish and Finnish descent. He was the son of Colonel John Lichtoun of Ulishaven (died 1636) and Catharina Gutherie. When his father fell at the Battle of Wittstock during the Thirty Years' War, Robert, while still a child, inherited his estate of Tervik. He received this honor at just age fifty in 1681 while a Major general. At the Battle of Lund (1676), brave to the point of being foolhardy he was hit by several bullets, none of which were extracted.

Lichton was extremely strong and had a reputation for having a violent temper. He once had to leave the country after killing a regimental surgeon but was pardoned after paying a substantial fine. He sold his lands of Ulishaven in Forfarshire to Sir David Carnegie of Kinnaird for £40,000 Scots and paid his father's creditors.

Sometime after 1675, he petitioned for a "birth brief" to allow him to register his arms with the Lord Lyon King at Edinburgh, which he did. His arms were: Argent, a Lion Rampant gules, armed and langued azur; crest a palm tree vert; motto: "Per adversa virtus" (courage through adversity). His change in motto from the old "Licht On" was probably in reference to his father's restoring the fortunes of this house.

Family He was apparently married but had no male issue.