John Leche Nantwich, Under Sheriff of Cheshire

The Under Sheriff of Cheshire (1464)The administration of the county palatine of Chester: 1442-1485

John Leche, esq. of Carden, whose name, with that of his wife, Isabel, daughter and heir of William Johnson, of Farndon, occurs in a deed in the 1st Edward IV. (1461) and again, in the 14th of the same reign, his own name in a certificate under the hands of Thomas, Lord Stanley, justice of Chester, Sir William Stanley, knt. and others, stating what lands of inheritance he was then seised of, and that his dwellinghouse was burnt, with great substance of goods, and all his evidences [1]

On the site of princely Chatsworth stood the homestead of Chetal, the Saxon, who was lord of the manor before the Norman Conquest; the ancient name of Chetesvorde (or, as Lysons says it should be, Chetelsvorde) bearing evidence of such a fact. Could we have known Lysons we would have submitted that this was simply the omission of the letter “1” by that dexterous scribe whose penmanship still excites curiosity after eight hundred years. Some three centuries subsequent to the Norman subjugation, there arose the half stone and timber residence of the Leches,[1] which Sir William Cavendish purchased from the Agards about 1556-7, and evidently pulled down to build the edifice of which there is a painting extant.

[1] Joomla research
[2] Late medieval book-owners named John Leche , April 2012 The Bodleian Library record 25(1)
Anthony BaleAnthony Bale