LEIGH (LEE), Anthony.

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

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.