Sir Warham St. Leger, Sheriff of Kent

Warham St Leger

Sir Warham St Leger (1525?-1597) was an English soldier.

He was second son of Sir Anthony St Leger by his wife Agnes, daughter of Sir Hugh Warham, brother of Archbishop William Warham, and was born probably about 1525. His eldest brother, William, was disinherited; the third brother, Anthony , was made Master of the Rolls in Ireland in 1593. Warham may have served in Protector Somerset's invasion of Scotland in 1547, and he was a prisoner there until January 1550, when he was ransomed.

In 1553 he fought against supporters of Wyatt's rebellion in Kent, and he may have served in Ireland under his father during Mary's reign. About 1559 he was named a commissioner to transfer to England John Bale's manuscripts and books. In 1560 he was sheriff of Kent. He was soon a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and in July 1565 he was knighted. Queen Elizabeth had decided to establish a presidential government in Munster, and in January 1566 St Leger was nominated President of Munster, but locally by Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord Deputy of Ireland; he received instructions dated 1 February, and in the following month was given command of all the levies in Munster. Elizabeth, however, refused to confirm St Leger's appointment. The reason was that St Leger was a bitter enemy of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, and correspondingly friendly with Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond; and the queen accused St Leger of lukewarmness in arresting Desmond early in 1565. St Leger was consequently recalled, and in November 1568 Sir John Perrot became president of Munster.

In 1569 St Leger returned to England, residing at his house in Southwark or Leeds Castle, Kent, and serving as High Sheriff of Kent for 1560. There from 1570 to 1572 he had custody of Desmond and his family (see Desmond Rebellions). He left his wife at Carrigaline, County Cork, a manor he held from Desmond; during his absence it was ravaged by the rebels. He remained in England until 1579, when his repeated petitions for employment and reward were answered by his appointment as provost-marshal of Munster, a new office, the functions of which seem to have been purely military. In this capacity St Leger was actively engaged against the Irish rebels for ten years. On 7 April 1583 he was appointed an assistant to the court of high commission in Ireland, and in the following year he visited England. While there he accused Ormond of treason, and laid before the queen proposals for the government of Ireland. In November 1589 he was succeeded, probably on account of his old age, as provost-marshal by George Thornton, but in 1590 he was governing Munster in the absence of the vice-president.

He was in England again in 1594, and died at Cork in 1597. His will is in the Heralds' College, London.

St Leger married firstly Ursula Neville (d.1575), fifth and youngest daughter of George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny, by his third wife, Mary Stafford, youngest daughter of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, by whom he had five sons and four daughters, including:[1][2]

• Sir Anthony St Leger (d.1603),[3] who succeeded to the estates at Ulcombe, Kent. He married Mary Scott (d.1662), the daughter of Sir Thomas Scott. Their son, Warham St Leger (d. 11 October 1631),[4] who was knighted in 1608, married Mary Hayward, the daughter of Sir Rowland Hayward, by whom he had nine sons and four daughters.[5] He sold Leeds Castle, went with Walter Ralegh to Guyana, and died 11 October 1631, leaving a son Sir Anthony Leger (d.1680), who was made Master of the Mint in 1660.
• Anne St Leger (1555–1636), who married Thomas Digges and was mother of Sir Dudley Digges.[6]

St Leger married secondly Emmeline Goldwell (d.1628), by whom he had a son Walter,[7] who obtained his father's Irish property.

The Warham St Leger who died in combat in 1600 against Hugh Maguire (Lord of Fermanagh) was his nephew.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warham_St_Leger

______________

• Sir Warham St. Leger, Sheriff of Kent1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
• M, #21987, b. circa 1525
• Father Sir Anthony St. Leger, Sheriff of Kent, Lord Deputy of Ireland9,10,11 b. c 1496, d. 16 Mar 1559
• Mother Agnes Warham9,10,11 b. c 1500, d. 24 Mar 1559
• Sir Warham St. Leger, Sheriff of Kent was born circa 1525 at of Ulcombe & Leeds, Kent, England; 2nd son.2 He married Ursula Neville, daughter of Sir George Neville, Lord Abergavenny, Constable of Dover Castle, Warden of the Cinque Ports and Mary Stafford, circa 1552; They had 5 sons (including Sir Anthony) & 4 daughters (including Jane, wife of William Kingsmill; & Anne (Agnes) wife of Thomas Digges, Esq.)12,2,3,4,6,7,8 His estate was probated on 28 January 1598; He married (2) Emmeline Goldwell. They had 1 son (Walter).5,8
• Family Ursula Neville b. c 1528, d. 1575
• Children
  • Anne St. Leger+13,4,5,7,8 b. c 1555
  • Nicholas St. Leger b. c 1555, d. Sep 1602
  • Sir Anthony St. Leger2,5,8 b. c 1557, d. 19 Dec 1602
  • Jane St. Leger b. c 1559
  • William St. Leger b. c 1562, d. 1574
  • Henry St. Leger b. c 1564, d. 1589
  • George St. Leger b. c 1566, d. 1620
  • William St. Leger14 b. c 1569, d. 1644
  • Mary St. Leger b. c 1571
• Citations
• [S6697] Unknown author, Plantagenet Ancestry of 17th Century Colonists, by David Faris, p. 244; Ancestry of HRH Prince Charles by Gerald Paget, Vol. II, p. 58.
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 630-631.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 171.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 82.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 482.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 325.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 104.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. IV, p. 535.
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 630.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 481.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. IV, p. 534.
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 95.
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 273.
• [S61] Unknown author, Family Group Sheets, Family History Archives, SLC.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p732.htm#i... ______________
• Sir Warham St. Leger1
• M, #371316
• Last Edited=3 Oct 2009
• Sir Warham St. Leger is the son of Sir Anthony St. Leger and Agnes Warham.2
• He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) [Ireland].1 He held the office of Sheriff of Kent in 1560.1 He was ancestor of the St. Legers of Ulcombe, Kent.1
• Citations
• [S37] BP2003 volume 1, page 1160. See link for full details for this source. Hereinafter cited as. [S37]
• [S37] BP2003. [S37]
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p37132.htm#i371316 ________________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 50
• St. Leger, Warham William Arthur Jobson Archbold, Albert Frederick Pollard
• ST. LEGER, Sir WARHAM (1525?–1597), soldier, second son of Sir Anthony St. Leger [q. v.] by his wife Agnes, daughter of Sir Hugh Warham, brother of Archbishop Warham, was born probably about 1525. His mother died on 24 March 1558-9, and was buried in Ulcombe church (cf. Machyn, Diary,. pp. 192, 372). His eldest brother, William, was disinherited; the third brother, Sir Anthony St. Leger, entered Gray's Inn in 1563 or 1568 (Foster, Reg.), was made master of the rolls in Ireland in 1593, and died at Cork early in 1613. Warham may have served in Somerset's invasion of Scotland in 1547, and he was a prisoner there until January 1549-50, when he was ransomed for 100l. (Acts of the Privy Council, 1547-50, p. 373). In 1553 he fought against Wyatt's supporters in Kent (Archaeol. Cant. xi. 143), and perhaps he served in Ireland under his father during Mary's reign. About 1559 he was named a commissioner to transfer to England Bale's manuscripts and books. In 1560 he was sheriff of Kent. He was soon a member of the Irish privy council, and in July 1565 he was knighted. Thenceforward he took a prominent part in Irish affairs. The queen had resolved to establish a presidential government in Munster, and in January 1565–6 St. Leger was nominated president, apparently by Sir Henry Sidney, the lord deputy; he received instructions dated 1 Feb., and in the following month was given command of all the levies in Munster. Elizabeth, however, refused to confirm St. Leger's appointment. The reason was that St. Leger was a bitter enemy of Ormonde, and correspondingly friendly with Desmond; and the queen accused St. Leger of lukewarmness in arresting Desmond early in 1565 [see Fitzgerald, Gerald, fifteenth Earl of Desmond]. St. Leger was consequently recalled, and in November 1568 Sir John Perrot [q. v.] became president of Munster.
• In 1569 St. Leger returned to England, staying either at his house in Southwark or Leeds Castle, Kent, where from 1570 to 1572 he had custody of Desmond and his family. He left his wife at Carrigaline, co. Cork, a manor he held of Desmond; during his absence it was ravaged by the rebels. He remained in England until 1579, when his repeated petitions for employment and reward were answered by his appointment as provost-marshal of Munster, a new office, the functions of which seem to have been purely military. In this capacity St. Leger was actively engaged against the Irish rebels for ten years. On 7 April 1583 he was appointed an assistant to the court of high commission in Ireland, and in the following year he visited England. While there he accused Ormonde of treason [see Butler, Thomas, tenth Earl of Ormonde], and laid before the queen proposals for the better government of Ireland. In November 1589 he was succeeded, probably on account of his old age, as provost-marshal by George Thornton, but in 1590 he was governing Munster in the absence of the vice-president.
• He was in England again in 1594, and died at Cork in 1597. His will is in the Heralds' College, London.
• He married: first, Ursula (d. 1575), fifth daughter of George Neville, third baron Bergavenny [q. v.] His eldest son, Sir Anthony St. Leger, succeeded to the estates at Ulcombe, Kent, married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Scott of Scott's Hall, Kent, and was father of Warham St. Leger who was knighted in 1608, sold Leeds Castle, went with Ralegh to Guiana, and died in 1631, leaving a son Sir Anthony (d. 1680), who was made master of the mint in 1660. Of St. Leger's daughters, Anne (1555–1636) married Thomas Digges [q. v.] and was mother of Sir Dudley Digges [q. v.] St. Leger married, secondly, Emmeline Goldwell (d. 1628), by whom he had a son Walter, who obtained his father's Irish property (cf. Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1598–9, p. 326).
• St. Leger must be distinguished from his nephew, Sir Warham St. Leger (d. 1600), eldest son of St. Leger's eldest brother William. He began service in Ireland, according to his own statement, about 1574, and was employed in the defence and government of Leix and Offaly. In August 1584 Maryborough and Queen's County were committed to his charge. He acquired a reputation for valour and activity. In January 1588-9 he visited England to cure a wound which made him lame. While there Elizabeth directed that he should be sworn of the Irish privy council. In 1597 he was sent on a mission to Tyrone, was knighted, and made governor of Leix. On 22 Sept. 1599 he was one of the two to whom the government of Munster was entrusted pending the appointment of a president. On 18 Feb. 1599-1600 he encountered Hugh Maguire [q. v.], and a hand-to-hand engagement took place between the commanders which proved fatal to both (Annals of the Four Masters, vi. 2161). By his wife Elizabeth Rothe of Kilkenny, widow of Henry Davell and Humphry Mackworth, he was father of Sir William St. Leger [q. v.]
• [There is considerable confusion between the various Sir Warham St. Legers, and they can only be satisfactorily differentiated by a careful comparison of the numerous references to them in the Cal. of Fiants (Rep. of Deputy-keeper of Records in Ireland) and Cal. State Papers, Ireland; even in the indexes to these they are confused. There is no certain evidence for the existence of the Warham St. Leger who, according to Metcalfe, was knighted in 1583. See also the St. Leger pedigree in Wykeham-Martin's Hist. of Leeds Castle, which is materially corrected by The Royal Descent of Kingsmill, contributed by Dr. T. K. Abbott to Miscell. Genealog. et Heraldica; Harl. MS. 1425, f. 54; Carew MSS.; Cal. Hatfield MSS.; Cox's Hibernia Anglicana; Fynes Moryson's Itinerary; Life and Letters of Florence McCarthy Reagh; Smith's Hist. of Cork; Journ. of the Cork Hist. and Archaeol. Soc. i. 200, 235, ii. 23, 38; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors, vol. iii.; Pacata Hibernia, ed. Standish O'Grady, 1896; O'Sullevan-Beare's Hist. Cathol. Iberniae Compendium; Collins's Letters and Memorials of State, i. 32-3, ii. 125, 134, 180; Brown's Genesis U.S.A.; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xi. 6, 7, 7th ser. xi. 386.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/St._Leger,_Warham_(DNB00) _________________
• Sir Warham St. Leger
• Birth: 1525 Ulcombe, Kent, England
• Death: 1599
• He married Ursula, 5th dau. of George Nevill, Lord Abergavenny. He was Sheriff in 1560. He was a member of the Irish Privy Council at the time of Queen Elizabeth. He inherited Leeds Castle from his father. Some accounts say he returned to England in 1594 and died there in 1597. Some accounts say he was killed in Ireland in 1599. They had four children: Sir Anthony, Sir Warham, Ann who married Gen. Thomas Digges, and another daughter who married Kingsmill. He left Leeds Castle to his son Sir Anthony.
• "Warham Saint Leger, Knt., of Ulcombe, co Kent, Sherriff of Kent, second son of Anthony Saint Leger, Knt., Lord Deputy of Ireland, by Agnes, daughter of Hugh Warham, of Croydon. They had five sons and four daughters."
• Source: Source: Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-Century Colonists by David Faris, pp. 244-246.
• Saint Leger Sources: St. Leger: the family and the race by Mya Frenz St. Leger (Shopwyke Hall, Sussex: Phillimore, 1986); Pedigree and will extracts by W. H. Welply, 1949; National Society Magna Charta Dames and Barons; Records of Hunt, St. Leger, Urann, Wood and allied families by Alma Funk Wood, 1954; St. Leger family of Kent: genealogical notes, extracts of parish registers, 1669-1799 by Frank Tyler, 1988; St. Leger Pedigree 1066-1862, 1987; The Proprietors of the Northern Neck, 1926; Early Digges Family Progenitors & Some Descendants: from Kent in the Old England to the New World, America; 1984; County Genealogies Pedigrees of the Families in the County of Kent by William Berry, 1830; Lineage of the Counts of Anjou from Ingelger to Geoffrey Plantagenet by Charles Shepard, 1923; All Saints Church Ulcombe, Kent; Doneraile Court and the St. Legers; The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.
• Family links:
• Parents:
• Anthony St Leger (1496 - 1559)
• Agnes Warham St Leger (____ - 1559)
• Spouse:
• Ursula Neville St Leger (____ - 1575)
• Children:
  • Anne St Leger Diggs (____ - 1636)*
  • Anthony Saint Leger (____ - 1603)*
• Sibling:
• William St Leger (1524 - 1582)*
• Warham St. Leger (1525 - 1599)
• Burial: Unknown
• Find A Grave Memorial# 125435170
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=125435170 _________________________
• DIGGES, Sir Dudley (1583-1639), of Philip Lane, London and Chilham Castle, Kent
• b. May 1583,1 1st s. of Thomas Digges† of London and Wingham, Kent and Anne, da. of Sir Warham St. Leger of Leeds Castle, Kent.2 educ. Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1600, BA 1610;3 household of Abp. Whitgift by 1602;4 travelled abroad (France) 1604;5 G. Inn 1618 and 1631.6 m. aft.1607, Mary (d.1631), da. and coh. of Sir Thomas Kempe of Olantigh, Wye, Kent, 8s. (2 d.v.p.) 3da.7 suc. fa. 1595;8 kntd. 29 Apr. 1607.9 d. 18 Mar. 1639.10 sig. Dudly Digges.
• .... etc.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/di... ______________________