LEIGH (LEE), Anthony.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

At the time of the 1563 Parliament the manor of Taunton, temporarily out of the hands of the bishops of Winchester, was leased to Sir Francis Knollys, and it is quite probable that he nominated both Members. Sir Francis’s mother, Lettice, married as her second husband Sir Robert Lee of Burston, Buckinghamshire, and there is a strong possibility that Anthony Leigh, whose identity is uncertain, came from this family. However, he does not seem to have been a son of Lettice’s second marriage—and thus Sir Francis’s half-brother—for he is not mentioned in her will.1

The possibility that Leigh was a local man cannot be ruled out, as several such were returned for the borough during the reign, but no local family of this name has been found. An Anthony Leigh, of Devon, was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1556 and probably became escheator of Devon and Cornwall in 1594, but there is nothing to connect him with Taunton.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: M.R.P.

Notes

This is the Crown Office list spelling: no return survives.

  • 1. CPR, 1560-3, p. 16; DNB (Knollys, Sir Francis); Recs. of Bucks. iii. 242.