Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (11 October 1733 – 15 September 1781) was a
British
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** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
colonial
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jurist, who became
HM Attorney-General of South Carolina. He was a Loyalist who permanently fled South Carolina in 1774 for England.
Biography
The son of Peter Leigh and Elizabeth ''née'' Latus, he was educated at
Westminster School
(God Gives the Increase)
, established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560
, type = Public school Independent day and boarding school
, religion = Church of England
, head_label = Hea ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, before emigrating to
America where his father was
Chief Justice of South Carolina.
Leigh became a lawyer and served as a
Member of Council and a Judge of the
Vice-Admiralty Court, before becoming
Surveyor-General of South Carolina.
He was appointed Attorney-General of South Carolina by
King George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
in 1765 and, on 15 May 1773, was created a
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
,
style
Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to:
* Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable
* Design, the process of creating something
* Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
d "of South Carolina, America".
In addition to his enterprises and legal positions, Leigh was a
Freemason of the Moderns Lodges, and was elected and then re-elected as Provincial Grand Master of South Carolina in 1772, with a rather large celebration in Charleston for his election. Following his adultery scandal and his continued loyalty to the Crown, his credibility was ruined and no Masonic meetings were held, and by default Leigh remained Provincial Grand Master for nine years until he was finally seceded by John Deas in 1781.
In 1756 he married Martha Bremar (died 1801) and they had 13 children, including: Martha Leigh who married Nathan Garrick; Elizabeth Leigh who married Lieutenant-Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm,
Baron von der Malsburg; Harriet Leigh who married Captain James Burnett, RM ; the Revd Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet (born 1762); Sir Samuel Leigh, author of "''Munster Abbey, a Romance: Interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality''" and father of Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh, 3rd Baronet (born 1796);
www.burkespeerage.com
/ref> and, Thomas Leigh a plantation owner in Georgetown County, where he remained settled after the American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
See also
* Leigh baronets
References
Further reading
* Robert M. Calhoon and Robert M. Weir, "The Scandalous History of Sir Egerton Leigh", ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (1969) 26#1 pp. 47–7
in JSTOR
** reprinted in Robert M. Calhoon and Robert M. Weir, "The Scandalous History of Sir Edgerton Leigh" in
External links
''Cracroft's Peerage'' online. Accessed 9 December 2022.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leigh, Sir Egerton, 1st Baronet
1733 births
1781 deaths
People from Cheshire
People educated at Westminster School, London
British lawyers
South Carolina Attorneys General
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain