Earliest Known Leigh in England

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Our Earliest Known Leigh in England

  1. RICHARD LEIGH (estimated birth 1540 - died ?before 1597)
md ANN GALAND [GALANT?/GARLAND?] (est 1545 - ?bef 1597)

2. RAFFE LEIGH, gent
3. James LEIGH (living 1597) of Lyndon = Rutlandshire?, England
4. Elsbeth LEIGH (living 1597)
md William KYTSSON of Staffordshire, England before 1597

For  the first four generations we followed two contemporary pedigrees. The earliest, which appears here, is from Lewys Dwnn’s Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches, based upon information given to Lewys by Ralph Leigh, who also signed Dwnn’s pedigree dated in Queen Elizabeth’s reign R.R. Elsbeth 39. 1597. Lewys gave the family name as Lee, but Ralph signed Raffe Leighe. Dwnn also listed RALPH’S four children in 1608, and they are given in the second generation. As a contemporary record, the pedigree is very valuable, though Dwnn’s manuscript (published only in 1826) presented difficulties in legibility, so it must be used carefully. The second contemporary pedigree was recorded by David Edwardes ninety years later, and we used it for the second and later generations of the LEIGH family.

RICHARD's wife ANN’s surname is uncertain, but possibly she belonged to the Garlands of Devon, England who moved to Wales, though we found no connection in the few available records of the Garland family. More likely she and RICHARD remained in England when RALPH left. We have found nothing more of the other two children, James and Elsbeth/Elizabeth in England. A Kyttson family of this period appears in the ancestry of George Washington and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, so a thorough search might be rewarding. So far, our attempts to find RICHARD and ANN in Staffordshire records have been fruitless, and we do not know if it is significant that Dwnn gives no occupation for either RICHARD or RALPH (though the second pedigree does), and Dwnn adds gent to RALPH’s name.

Sources: Lewys Dwnn I,201. The later Herald David Edwardes in about 1686 lists RICHARD only as "... Leigh of ... in Staffordshire, a cloathier" and gives no wife. Edwardes names only one of the children, Ralph, but identifies him as a mercer or merchant (like his father-in-law, RICHARD NASH). Edwardes does not add gent to RALPH’s name.