Family and Education

b. c.1565, 2nd s. of Peter Legh (d.1570) of Prestbury by Katherine, da. of Sir Thomas Venables, of Kinderton, Lancs.; bro. of Peter. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1581; G. Inn 1584, called 1592. m. Katherine, wid. of Thomas Touchet of Whitley, s.p.

Offices Held

Escheator, Lancs. 1597-1608.

Biography

In 1593 Legh contributed 13s.4d. towards rebuilding the gate of Grays Inn; other contributors were John Brograve, attorney of the duchy, and Thomas Hesketh, King’s serjeant at Lancaster and Legh’s predecessor as escheator. Nominated at Wigan either through his brother’s influence with the Gerard family or through his own connexion with the duchy of Lancaster, Legh is as likely as any to have been the ‘Mr. Lea of Lincoln’s Inn’ who sat on the committee considering the poor bill, 22 Nov. 1597. None of the four men of his surname who sat in the 1597 Parliament is known to have been a Lincoln’s Inn man. Legh, identified as one of the Wigan burgesses, was given leave of absence on 10 Dec. ‘for his necessary business’. Legh last performed the duties of escheator 8 Jan. 1608, and died a year later, being buried like all his family at Winwick, Lancashire.

Ormerod, Cheshire, ii(2), p. 677; Somerville, Duchy, i. 467; G. Inn Pens. Bk. i. 99; Lancs. Inquisitions (Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. iii), passim; D’Ewes, 561, 571.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes