Sir Francis Leigh, KB, MP

Sir Francis Leigh (c 1579 - 1625) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1597 and 1622.

Leigh was the eldest of Sir William Leigh of Newnham Regis and his wife Frances Harrington, daughter of Sir James Harington of Exton, Rutland. He entered Middle Temple in 1597 and in the same year was elected Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. By 1600 he was a member of the Antiqarian Society. In 1601 he was elected MP for Oxford. He was knighted with the Order of the Bath in 1603 and was a gentleman of the privy chamber to James I. He was re-elected MP for Oxford in 1604. In 1614 he became master of requests and in the same year, he was elected MP for Leicester. He was High Sheriff of Warwickshire from 1618 to 1619 and by 1621 was a J.P. for Warwickshire. In 1621 he was elected MP for Warwickshire. [1]

Leigh died between 7 February 1625 when he made his will and 6 January 1626 when it was proved.[1] Leigh married Mary Egerton, daughter of Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley before 1601 and had two sons and three daughters. His son Francis became Earl of Chichester.[1]

Biographical notes

• from LEIGH, Francis (c.1579-c.1625), of Newnham Regis, Warws.

Leigh’s mother, in addition to being sister to John Harington II, later Baron Harington of Exton, was a cousin of Mary Sidney, the 2nd Earl of Pembroke’s third wife. It is this relationship, as well as Pembroke’s antiquarian interests, which suggests that the ‘Francis Ley, esquire’, whom Pembroke nominated at Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in October 1597 was the young (in fact under age) Warwickshire gentleman whose particulars appear above. Leigh acquired a powerful patron when he married the lord keeper’s favourite daughter. In 1601 and 1604 Egerton was high steward of Oxford and brought Leigh into Parliament for the city. The burgesses for Oxford were appointed to the committee concerning the parsonage at Rothenstone on 2 Dec. 1601.

Family

• Sir Francis Leigh1
• M, #160858
• Last Edited=21 Sep 2010
• Sir Francis Leigh married Hon. Mary Egerton, daughter of Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley and Elizabeth Ravenscroft.2
• Sir Francis Leigh was invested as a Knight, Order of the Bath (K.B.).3
• Children of Sir Francis Leigh and Hon. Mary Egerton
  • 1.Francis Leigh, 1st Earl of Chichester+3 d. 21 Dec 1653
  • 2.Juliana Leigh+1 d. 1685
• Citations
• 1.[S15] George Edward Cokayne, editor, The Complete Baronetage, 5 volumes (no date (c. 1900); reprint, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1983), volume IV, page 89. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Baronetage.
• 2.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 1673. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 3.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 193. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p16086.htm#i160858
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• The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county; incorporated with a republication of King's Vale royal, and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. By George Ormerod (1819)
• http://www.archive.org/details/historyofcountyp00orme
• http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofcountyp00orme#page/348/mode/1up
• CHART
• Sir THOMAS EGERTON, Knt. lord chancellor of England, baron of Ellesmere, co. Salop. July 21, 1603, viscount Brackley, co. Northampton, Nov. 7, 1616, born about 1540, died in London March 15, 1616-7, buried at Dodleston, co. Cest. marr. 1st ELIZABETH, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft, of Bretton, co. Flint, esq. died 1588, buried at Dodleston.
• CHILDREN
  • MARY, wife of sir Francis Leigh, of Newnham Regis, co. Warwick, K. B. father of Francis L. earl of Chichester, died Ap. 3, 1612, bur. at St. Margaret's Westm.
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• A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and ... By John Burke
• A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and ... By John Burke
• Pg. 309
• LEIGH - BARONS LEIGH, OF STONELEIGH, IN THE COUNTY OF WARWICK.
  • By Letters Patent, dated 1st July, 1643.
• Lineage.
• The ancestors of this noble family assumed their surname from the town of HIGH-LEIGH, in Cheshire, where they were seated before the conquest.
• Pg. 310
• THOMAS LEIGH, who was brought up under Sir Rowland Hill, a rich merchant of London, and Lord Mayor of that city; by whom, for his knowledge and industry, he was made his factor beyond sea; and in that trust deporting himself with the highest integrity, Sir Rowland bestowed upon him the hand of his favourite niece, Alice, daughter of John Barker, alias Coverall, of Wolverton, in the county of Salop, by Elizabeth, his wife, daughter of Thomas Hill, and upon the issue of the marriage he entailed the greater part of his estate. Thomas Leigh subsequently served the office of Sheriff of London, and was Lord Mayor at the death of Queen Mary. He was knighted during his mayoralty, and dying in 1571, was buried in Mercer's Chapel, London, with this epitaph upon is tomb: . . . .
• His widow lived at Stoneleigh to a very advanced age, having seen her chiildren's children to the fourth generation. She died in 1603, and was buried at Stoneleigh, where she had founded an hospital for five poor men, and five poor women, all of them to be unmarried persons, and nominated after her decease by Sir Thomas Leigh, her son, and his heirs for ever. Sir Thomas Leigh had issue by this lady,
  • William (Sir), of Newnham-Regis, in Warwickshire, who m. Frances, daughter of Sir James Harrington, of Exton, in Rutlandshire, and left a son,
    • FRANCIS (Sir, K.B.), who m. Mary, daughter of Lord Ellesmere, Lord Chancellor of England, and left a son,
      • FRANCIS, who was elevated to the peerage as Earl of Chicester (see Leigh, Earl of Chichester).
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• The genesis of the United States: a narrative of the movement in ..., Volume 2 By Alexander Brown
• The genesis of the United States: a narrative of the movement in ..., Volume 2 By Alexander Brown
• Pg. 937
• Lee (Leigh, etc.), Sir Francis, 3. Sub. L37 10s.; pd. L33 6s. 8d. He was the grandson of Sir Thomas Lee, the Lord Mayor of London in 1558, and the son of Sir William, of King's Newenham in County Warwick, by his wife Frances, daughter of Sir James Harington, of Exton. He was made a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of James I.; was M. P. for Oxford, 1601 and 1604-11.
• He married the Hon. Mary Egerton, daughter of Thomas Lord Ellesmere, lord chancellor of England. Their son, Francis Leigh, was created Earl of Chichester.
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• Dictionary of national biography, Volume 32 edited by Sir Leslie Stephen, Sir Sidney Lee
• Dictionary of national biography, Volume 32 edited by Sir Leslie Stephen, Sir Sidney Lee
• Pg. 434
• LEIGH, FRANCIS, first EARL OF CHICHESTER (d. 1653), son of Sir Francis Leigh, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Egerton, viscount Brackley [q. v.], and great-grandson of Sir Thomas Leigh or Lee [q. v.] of Stoneleigh, was born at his father's seat at Newnham Regis, Warwickshire, before 1600. . . . created a baronet by James I on 24 Dec 1618, . . . . whose 'greatest reputation was that the Earl of Southampton married his daughter, who was a beautiful and worthy lady'
• Pg. 435
• He died on 21 Dec. 1653, and was buried in the chancel of Newnham Church. He married, first, Susan, daughter of Richard Norman, esq., by whom he had no issue, and secondly, Audrey, daughter and coheir of John, baron Butler of Bramfield; she died 16 Sept. 1652, leaving two daughters, Elizabeth, second wife of Thomas Wriothesley, fourth earl of Southampton [q. v.], and Mary, wife of George Villiers, fourth viscount Grandison, whose granddaughter married Robert Pitt . . .
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• A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct .. By Sir Bernard Burke
• A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct .. By Sir Bernard Burke
• Pg. 319
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