Hugh Chisholm Leighton was born to Adam Philips and Isadore Mary (Butler) Leighton on October 28, 1878 in Portland, Maine. He graduated from Williams College in 1902 and married Elizabeth Foster Wilcox (b. September 1887) on November 17, 1908 in Janesville, Rock, Wisconsin. Hugh Chisholm Leighton died on January 6, 1943.