LEIGH AND LEGH OF HIGH LEGH

1. EAST HALL AND ITS CHAPEL

The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, dating from 1581		Millennium Stone in the Chapel Grounds

Sir Peter Leicester in his Historical Antiquities mentions the chapel at East Hall as being built by Thomas Legh of High Legh in 1581. He described it as a chapel of ease in the township, within the parish of Rostherne. Richards in his Old Cheshire Churches, gives a full account of the chapel together with black and white photographs. It is believed to be on the site of an earlier one belonging to East Hall. Richards reviews the often contradictory claims of earlier historians as to the earlier chapel or chapels on the site. It may be that the earlier chapel is one mentioned in Domesday but there is then a 200 year gap before documentary evidence in Legh papers for there being a chaplain in 1280. The is no documentary evidence for a chapel on the site before 1408. The current chapel has a bell inscribed "T. Legh of High Legh, Esquire, 1580, Recast 1878"

The Legh Family of East Hall

According to Magna Britannia (D. & S. Lysons, 1810) the Leghs of East Hall had continued in uninterrupted male descent from Edward de Lega to the current George John Legh mentioned below. The male line of the elder branch failed about the time of Edward IV (1461-1483). In the reign of Henry VIII, Thomas Legh of Northwood, who was a descendant of a younger son of John Legh, and lived about the time of Edward II (1307-1327), pursued his claim and after a long legal battle succeeded to the East Hall estate.  Either this Thomas or his son rebuilt the hall in the reign of Elizabeth I.

The hall is mentioned in Cheshire Country Houses, by Peter de Figueiredo and Julian Treuhertz, Phillimore, Chichester, 1988. The Leghs had an Elizabethan mansion of which only the chapel remains. The house was replaced by one designed by John Hope and built between 1781 and 1784 for Henry Cornwall Legh. It was altered to the design of John Nash by G. J. Legh in the period 1797 to 1818. The grounds were landscaped by Repton who was able to move the Knutsford to Warrington road (now the A50) farther from the house. An Italianate stone lodge from this house survives. The hall was demolished in 1963.

The Legh family have lived in the area since the time of William II. The male line ended in the 20th century on the death of Sydney Cornwall Legh. (Sources were Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancs. and Cheshire, Vol. 101, 1949, page 108 and Legh of High Legh in Landed Gentry 1965.)

The descent of the Legh family extant in the 18th and early 19th centuries is outlined briefly below, drawn from Burke's Landed Gentry of 1906 and Ormerod's The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester.

• 1. Richard Legh of East Hall, Sheriff 1695, buried Rostherne, 29 December 1705.
  + Mary, daughter of Thomas Legh of Adlington. She was buried at Rostherne on 30 November 1702. They had five daughters and one son, Henry.
  • 2.  Henry Legh of East Hall, born 1679, buried Rostherne, 29 November 1757.
    +   Letitia, daughter of Randle Brooke of Norton Priory, Bart. in 1701. She was buried at Rostherne on 3 February 1758. The couple had three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, Richard, died in infancy, and the third son, Henry, died unmarried. The second son, George, succeeded.
    • 3. George Legh, born 10 July 1703, buried Rostherne, 31 January 1780.
      +  Anna-Marie, daughter and heiress of Francis Cornwall, Baron of Burford in Shropshire, born 14 April 1711 and buried at Rostherne, 10 July 1741. They had two sons and two daughters.
      • 4.   Henry Cornwall Legh of High Legh, born 24 Mary 1734, Sheriff 1786, died 15 March 1791.
        +    Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Robert Hopkinson of Heath, Yorks., in 1761. She died 21 April 1808 aged 70 and was buried at Rostherne. This couple had three sons and two daughters.
        • 5. George J. Leghof High Legh, born 1768, High Sheriff of Cheshire, 1805 and died 17 March 1832.
          + Mary the daughter of John Blackburne Esq. of Hale, MP on 14 July 1803. She was born on 11 March 1785 and died 10 June 1856. They had six sons and eight daughters.
          • 6.  George Cornwall Legh of High Legh, MP, born High Legh, 30 August 1804. There is a portrait of George Cornwall Legh at Wythenshawe Hall, noting that he was MP for Cheshire from 1841 to 1873. He was a Whig and was first returned for N. Cheshire in 1841 when in conjunction with Mr. W. Tatton Egerton he defeated Mr. E. J. Stanley.
            +  Louisa Charlotte, daughter of Edward Taylor of Kent on 5 July 1828. She was born 22 March 1806 and died 3 October 1873.
            • 7. George Cornwall Legh, born December 1847 and died 1848.
          • 6. Henry Cornwall Legh, MA, 2nd son, of Welshampton, Shropshire, clerk in Holy Orders, born 4 August 1811, died 24 November 1847.
            + Mary daughter of Martin Williams, Esq. on 7 March 1838. She was born 2 September 1813. They had one son and four daughters.
            • 7. Henry Martin Cornwall Legh, Esq. heir presumptive to his uncle, George Cornwall Legh, at the time of Ormerod's History of Cheshire. Henry was Lieu. Col. Grenadier Guards, born Hale Hall, Lancashire, 14 November 1839.
          • 6.  John Cornwall Legh, born 8 June 1814 and died 1815.
          • 6.  John Cornwall Legh, born July 1815 and died 1823.
          • 6.  Richard Cornwall Legh, born 10 June 1818 and died in Malta in 1876
          • + Tommasina Antonia, daughter of Frederick Sedley, Esq., on 28 June 1852. She was born 26 April 1836. They had three sons and one daughter.
          • 6.  Edmund Cornwall Legh, CB, born 14 October 1821, Lieu. Col. commanding 97th Regiment of Foot, served in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, died in India on 3 June 1859.
          • + Julia, daughter of Neville Parker, Esq. of Fredricton, New Brunswick, Master of the Rolls of New Brunswick, married 20 July 1852.
            • 7. Neville Edmund Cornwall Legh, Lieu. RN, b 16 Jan 1854, died 21 June 1902, unmarried.
            • 7. Maria Helena Cornwall Legh, born 20 May 1857, founded Misson of St. Barnabas, Kusatsu, Japan, where she died unaware of the war 18 Dec 1941, unmarried. Had the very distinguished Japanese 6th Order of the Sacred Treasure.
        • 5. Cornwall Legh, died in infancy.
        • 5. Henry Cornwall Legh, died unmarried aged 22 in 1795.
        • 5. Elizabeth Dorothea, died unmarried in 1777.
        • 5. Anna Maria married Thomas Pitt of St. James Westminster and had two sons, George John who took the name Legh and Henry Cornwall Pitt, who died unmarried in 1793.
      • 4. Henry Langton Legh.
      • 4. Letitia Legh
      • 4. Anna Legh.

       

* Mary Cornwall Legh.    I have been contacted by Shigeru and Michiko Nakamura in Japan, who are interested in Mary's life. Mary was born in Canterbury in 1857 and went to Japan about 1907 as a self-paid SPG missionary. Having obtained a piece of land in Kusatsu in 1915 she provided medical and spiritual help to lepers until 1936, when her health was failing. She died in Japan in 1941. Mary wrote over a dozen books for children. Any further information from readers would be gratefully received. The information in the tree above on Mary is from Raymond Richard's artice in THSL&C mentioned below.

Additional Sources.

Stuart Raymond in Cheshire a Genealogical Bibliography, Vol 2. quotes the following sources on the Cornwall Legh family, neither of which I have consulted.

The Cornwall Leghs of High Legh: approaches to the inheritance patterns of North-West England, by Evelyn Lord, in the Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 73 (2), 1991, pp. 21-36, includes pedigree from 13th to 20th centuries.

The Chapels of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John at High Legh, Cheshire with an account of the Cornwall-Legh and Egerton-Legh families, by Raymond Richards, in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 101, 1949, 97-136, includes a folded pedigree from the medieval period to 19th century. There are more details in this pedigree on Mary Cornwall Legh than in the article in Ormerod's History of Cheshire.

2. WEST HALL AND ITS CHAPEL

St. John's, High Legh, the third church on this site. (Grid Ref. SJ 701841)

De Figueiredo and Julian Treuhertz give a brief mention of West Hall at High Legh. It was a half-timbered building and is shown, as it was in 1814, in Ormerod's History of Cheshire. Shortly after this period it was either enlarged or completely rebuilt in red brick. West Hall was demolished in 1935.

There had been a chapel near the hall since 1408 but this fell into disrepair. A new chapel was built on the site in 1816 to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo. It was designed by Thomas Harrison of Chester. This building had a classical appearance with four columns at the front. While being restored in 1891 the chapel was destroyed by fire and replaced by St. John's as shown in the photograph above. (Sir Peter Leicester notes that there was formerly an ancient chapel of ease belonging to the family of Leigh of West Hall in High Legh built about the time of Henry IV (1399-1413).  However, by the 1670s, he claimed that it had been converted to others uses.)

The Leigh Family of West Hall

D. & S. Lysons in Magna Britannia, give details of the relationship of several branches of the Legh and Leigh families and the notes below shown indented are simplified from this source. The Leighs of West Hall arrived in High Legh about 70 years after the Leghs of East Hall.

"Egerton Leigh of West Hall in High Legh and Twemlow, Esq. is descended from Richard Lymme who in the late 13th century married Agnes the daughter and sole heiress of Richard de Legh. Agnes had a second husband, William Venables, and they had a son, John, who (also) took the name of Legh and settled at Booths. William Venables was descended from Gilbert Venables the first baron of Kinderton who held land in Cheshire under Hugh Lupus after the Norman Conquest.

John Legh was the common ancestor of the following branches of the Legh family of which the first seven were in Cheshire.

1. Legh of Sandbach, who became extinct after two generations.
2. Legh of Booths, of whom Willoughby Legh was the representative in 1810 with the Leighs of West Hall also as descendants of this branch.
3. Leigh of Oughtrington, who are descended from John a younger son of Richard Leigh of West Hall as a result of his marriage to an heiress in the reign of Edward IV. Trafford Trafford, Esq. of Oughtrington was the lineal descendant of this branch but assumed the name Trafford in compliance with the will of a maternal uncle.
4. Legh of Adlington, who became extinct by the death of Charles Legh in 1781 were descended from Robert, a younger son of the first John Legh of Booths.
5. Legh of Baguely were descended from Sir William Legh, a younger son of the second Sir John Legh of Booths but became extinct in 1688.
6. Legh of Lyme were descended from Piers, a younger son of Robert Legh of Adlington mentioned above, and became extinct by the death of Thomas Peter Legh of Lyme in 1797.  (He was succeeded at Lyme by his eldest illegitimate son, Thomas (1792-1857) who had no male heirs.  In 1857, the estate went to Thomas Legh's nephew, William John, the son of Thomas Peter Legh's second illegitimate son, William.  William John became the 1st Lord Newton.)
7. Legh of Ridge arise from John a younger son of Sir Peter Legh of Lyme, who married the heiress of Alcock of Ridge.
8. Leigh of Ifell in Cumberland, extinct from about 1600
9. Leigh of Middleton in Yorkshire.
10. Leigh of Egginton in Derbyshire, Rinshall in Staffordshire, Stoneley in Warwickshire and Addlestrop in Gloucestershire all derive their descent from a younger son of the first Legh of Ridge."

Ormerod shows the Leigh family of West Hall descending from Thomas de Legh, who died in 10 Edw. II (1317).  The male heirs married into the Massy family of Winsham, the Leicesters of Nether Tabley, the Booths of Dunham Massy and the Davenports of Davenport.  Below I trace the family from the late 17th century by which time the family name was written as Leigh. Several members of the family were clergy with connections to Lymm in Cheshire. The first Egerton Leigh married three times and had a total of 11 sons and 7 daughters. The following tree is based on the pedigrees shown in the histories of Ormerod and the Lysons.

• 1. Thomas Leigh, buried Rostherne, 22 June 1676. He married in 1660.
  + Mary, daughter of William Austine of the City of Westminster. She was buried at Rostherne on 15 June 1714.
  • 2.  Austin Leigh, died unmarried, buried Rostherne 30 July 1724.
  • 2.  Peter Leigh, Rector of Whitchurch in Shropshire and Lymme, vicar of Great Budworth, buried Rostherne, 18 March 1719.
  • + Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Egerton of Tatton, born 15 January 1678, died 30 June 1720, buried Rostherne. This couple had four sons and five daughters. This tree follows mainly the line of the eldest son, Egerton Leigh.
    • 3. Egerton Leigh, LL.D, Rector of Lymme in Cheshire and Middle in Shropshire, canon of Hereford, baptised Rostherne, 30 March 1702, died at bath. He married three times.
    • + Ann, (first wife), daughter and co-heiress of Hamlet Yates of Crowley. She was buried at Rostherne on 26 April 1734. The couple had four sons and three daughters.
      • 4.  Peter Leigh, LL.B, Rector of Lymme, and of Middle in Shropshire, died 1758 and buried at Ledbury in Shropshire.
        +  Mary, daughter and heiress of Henry Doughty, Esq. of Broadwell, Gloucestershire. They had 5 sons and three daughters.
        • 5. Peter Leigh, eldest son, died young, buried Rostherne 6 December 1750.
        • 5. Egerton Leigh of West Hall in High Legh and of Twemlow, 2nd son and heir, was baptised at Lymme and died 23 June 1833.
        • + Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of Francis Jodrell of Yeardsley and Twemlow, married at Rostherne on 21 September 1778. She died 18 March 1807. They had three sons, Egerton, Peter and Jodrell, shown below, and six daughters.
          • 6. Egerton Leigh of West Hall, High Legh, and Broadwell, Gloucestershire, eldest son and heir, was born 23 August 1779 and baptised at Davenport in Cheshire. He was High Sheriff in 1836 and died 6 October 1865.
          • + Wilhelmina, daughter of Geo. Stratton, Esq. of Tew Park, Oxfordshire. They married at Charlbury in Oxfordshire on 20 November 1809. She died 24 November 1849. The couple had 1 son, Egerton, and six daughters, viz. Eleanor, born 1811; Anna Elizabeth, born 1812; Beatrice Julia; Caroline; Emma, who died in infancy; and Augusta.
            • 7. Egerton Leigh of West Hall in High Legh and Jodrell Hall, born 7 March 1815. MP, Captain of the Queen's Bays and Lieu. Col. 1st Cheshire Militia. High Sheriff 1872.
            • + Lydia Rachel, daughter and co-heiress of John Smith Wright, Esq. of Balcote Lodge, Notts., married at St. George's Hanover Square, 20 Sept. 1842. They had five sons, the eldest being Egerton born 13 July 1843, and a daughter.
          • 6. Peter Leigh, clerk, Rector of Lymme, born 19 August 1782, baptised at Goostrey on 25 October 1782, married at Daresbury 10 November 1812 to Mary, dau. of Thomas Blackburn LL.D, clerk, warden of Manchester College, living without issue in 1816. He married secondly Miss Stuart and died without issue at Torquay on 10 March 1841.
          • 6. Jodrell Leigh, became and admiral RN, born 15 January 1790, baptised Goostrey, 27 February 1790. He inherited Broadwell Manor House and died without issue at the West Hall 27 October 1863.
          • 6. Mary-Anne Leigh, born 28 July 1780, wife of Hon. James Abercrombie, MP, speaker of the House of Commons and later Lord Dunfermaline. They had only one child, a son, who died without issue. Mary-Anne died in 1873.
          • 6. Charlotte Leigh, wife of Joseph Jellicoe of London and Finchley. She died in 1823.
          • 6. Emma Leigh, wife of John Smith, Esq., MP of Blinden Hall in Kent.
          • 6. Augusta Leigh, wife of J. Dumbleton, Esq., of Hall Grove, died without issue in 1851.
          • 6. Caroline Leigh, died unmarried.
          • 6. Harriet Leigh, died unmarried and buried Rostherne, 31 August 1809.
        • 5. Thomas Hodges Leigh, died young buried at Rostherne on 16 September 1757.
        • 5. Peter Neve Leigh, died young and buried at Broadwell in Gloucestershire.
        • 5. Timothy Leigh, died unmarried in the East Indies.
        • 5. Mary Leigh, married Robert Lancaster, clerk of Arlsey in Bedfordshire.
        • 5. Anne Leigh, married John Frodsham, captain RN.
        • 5. Elizabeth, living but unmarried in 1816.
      • 4. Egerton Leigh, MA, rector of Lymme, canon res in 1770 and in 1797 chancellor of Lichfield and in 1770 archdeacon of Shropshire.
      • + 1st wife of Egerton Leigh MA was Letitia, daughter of Geo. Legh of East Hall, who died without surviving issue.
      • + 2nd wife of Egerton Leigh MA was Theodosia, daughter of Ralph Leycester of Toft, by whom he had issue, Susanna, who married another Ralph Leycester of Toft, Theodosia, living unmarried in 1816, Harriet who died without issue, and other chidren who died in infancy.
      • 4. Of the remaining children of Egerton Leigh and Ann Yates, Thomas and Hamlet died without issue, Ann married twice and Mary and Elizabeth died unmarried.
    • + 2nd wife of Egerton Leigh, LL.D was Elizabeth Drinkwater . She had six sons John, William, Austin, Samuel, George, and William and two daughters, Hester and Jane. All of whom died without legitimate issue.
    • + 3rd wife of Egerton Leigh, LL.D was Casandra Phelps. She had one son, Henry, who died without issue, and three daughters, of whom Cassandra and Catherine died without issue and Ariana was unmarried in 1816. .
    • 3. Thomas Leigh, clerk MA, Rector of Murston in Kent and of St. Mary's in Canterbury, bapt. Rostherne 9 March 1706 and married Jane, dau. of Wm. Barnes of Oxford and widow of Tho. Allett, Esq.
    • 3. Peter Leigh, baptised Whitchurch, 18 January 1711, Chief Justice of South Carolina. Married Elizabeth, dau. of W. Latus of Manchester by whom he had among other issue, Egerton Leigh, who was created a baronet in 1773.
    • 3. John Leigh of Manchester, Middle Hutton and Hurst near Ashton-under-Lyne, baptised Rostherne, 12 September 1703. Married at Stretford 31 December 1730 and died Hurst, 19 December 1738, buried in Collegiate Church at Manchester.
    • + Silence, dau. of John Wagstaffe of Glossop in Derbyshire and Manchester and Stretford in Lancashire. She was baptised at the Collegiate Church in Manchester on 26 December 1714. This couple had three sons, John, Peter and Egerton, shown below and three daughters, Bertha, Mary and Elizabeth. Silence married second to Robert Thyer, librarian to Chetham's Library, on 9 December 1741 and died in 1750.
      • 4. John Leigh of Manchester, manufacturing chemist, born 31 March 1734, married at the Collegiate Church 17 May 1772 and buried there on 23 July 1797 aged 63.
      • + Lydia Kay of Salford, buried at Collegiate Church in Manchester on 15 May 1806 aged 72. This couple had four sons, Thomas and James died in childhood, John who lived to be 24 and Thomas who left issue. There was also a daughter Lydia who married and left issue.
      • 4. Peter Leigh, born 12 February 1733, died aged 20 and buried at the Collegiate Church in Manchester.
      • 4. Egerton Leigh, born 1 August 1738, buried aged 2 at the Collegiate Church Manchester on 22 August 1740.
    • 3. Hester Leigh, baptised Rostherne, 16 July 1699, buried there on 30 April 1700.
    • 3. Elizabeth Leigh, baptised Rostherne, 6 February 1704, buried there on 10 February 1704.
    • 3. Jane Leigh, baptised Rostherne 20 July 1708.
    • 3. Hester Leigh, baptised Whitchurch, 3 August 1710.
    • 3. Mary Leigh, baptised at Whitchurch, 1713, wife of Sir John Head, Bart., archdeacon of Canterbury.
  • 2. William Leigh, died 1741, married first Mary Whalley, died without issue, then Sarah the daughter of Roger Hanmer.

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