Edward Littleton served as the President of province of Bengal in British India from the year 1701 to 1705. He was one of the most prominent Colonial administrators of the British East India Company. He also acted as Member of Parliament (MP) for Staffordshire, with Sir Walter Bagot, from the year 1685 to 1689. Littleton was later appointed as the President of Bengal Presidency. Before his appointment, the post was held by Sir John Beard, who acted as Chief Political Agent of Bengal Province previously.

The Bengal Presidency was one of the 3 major Presidencies in British India, along with Bombay Presidency and Madras Presidency. It was originally comprised east and west Bengal and was a colonial region of the British Empire in India. The region included the territories of undivided Bengal like West Bengal, Tripura, Orissa, Meghalaya, Bihar, Assam and modern Bangladesh. The Bengal Presidency proper was founded with the signing of the treaties of 1765 between the Nawab of Oudh, the Mughal Emperor and the authorities of the British East India Company. As a result of this, the areas of Orissa, Bihar, Meghalaya and Bengal were placed under the administrative control of the British East India Company.

Bengal Presidency, unlike the British Provinces of Bombay and Madras, integrated the British territories located towards the north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the openings of the river Brahmaputra and the Ganges River. It also incorporated areas in British Punjab and the Himalayas as well. Edward Littleton served in office till the year 1705, when he died, and was succeeded by a council of the British East India Company.

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