SLEIGH (SLIGHE), Edmund (c.1551-c.1615), of Derby; later of Little Ireton, Derbys.

Sleigh’s grandfather was a younger son of a family established at Pilsbury for five generations.8 Add. 6674, f. 204v. A wool merchant, Sleigh leased a house in Derby but had moved to Little Ireton by the time he made his will.9 PROB 11/127, f. 163. Returned for the borough in 1604, the first of his family to sit, he left no trace on the records of the first Stuart Parliament. He contributed £13 6s. 8d. to the 1611 Privy Seal loan.10 Harl. 6986, f. 97. On Derby’s re-incorporation in 1612 he was appointed an alderman, but by the time of the next election he was perhaps already in failing health as he does not seem to have stood. He drew up his will on 8 July 1615, in which he left over £60 in the form of charitable bequests, including 20 nobles to ‘preaching ministers’ of Derby, and £3 to the poor of Shrewsbury and Hull. Various relatives and friends received legacies totalling some £95. Apart from bestowing a life interest in his Derby house to his ‘loving wife’ Margaret, everything else went to his son-in-law Collingwood Saunders, who proved the will on 12 Feb. 1616. Sir Samuel Sleigh, descended from the senior branch, sat for Essex in 1654 and Derbyshire in 1656.11 PROB 11/127, f. 163.