He appointed his three sons and "Sir Xtopher Goldsmytb, parson of Bromagrove, Sir Robert Cank, parson of Enfield, and Robert Oxclyve," to be his executors. The will is dated at Frankley, 22nd of August 1481. being, R9 appears from the date of his death on his monument already quoted, the day preceding that of his death.
Sir Edward Coke has given it as his opinion that Littleton compiled his book of ' Tenures' when he was judge, after the reign of King Edward IV., but that it was not printed during his life ; that the first impression was at Rouen, in France, by William de 'ad instantiam Richardi Pinson,' the printer of Henry VIII., and that it was first printed about the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Henry VII L In a note to the eleventh edition of Sir Edward Coke's 'Commentary,' it is remarked that this opinion is erroneous, because it appeared by two copies in the bookseller's custody that the 'Tenures' were printed twice in London in the year 1528, once by Richard Pinson and again by Robert Redmayne, and that was the nineteenth year of the reign of Henry VIII. It is observed that, to determine with cer
tainty when the Hoban or Rouen edition was published, is almost impossible; but that from the old editions above mentioned it may be collected; not only that the Rohan impression is older than the year 1528, but also, by what occurs in the beginning and end of them, that there had been other impressions of the book in question. However it appears impossible, at this distance of time, to settle with accuracy when the first edition of Littleton's work was printed.
Littleton's work on English tenures is written in Norman French, divided into three books, and addressed to his son, for whose use it was probably intended. He says himself in the Tabula, iu a note following the list of chapters in the first two books, "And these two little books I have made to thee for the better understanding of certain chapters of the Antient Book of Tenures.'" And after the Table of Contents of book iii, he thus concludes :—