Constituency Dates
Wexford 1801 – 1 Feb. 1801
New Ross 9 Feb. 1821 – 9 Feb. 1824
Family and Education
b. ?1757, 1st s. of Robert Leigh of Rosegarland, and bro. of Charles Leigh.1Procs. R. Irish Acad. lix, sec. C, no. 1 (1957), 45; Cornwallis Corresp. iii. 108; PRO 30/9/13, pt. 2. educ. by Rev. Benjamin Hobart, Carlow; Trinity, Dublin 10 Feb. 1775, aged 17. m. Dec. 1788, Grace, da. of Richard Baldwin, 3s. 2da. suc. fa. 1803.
Offices Held

MP [I] 1785 – 97; Feb. – Dec. 1800.

Collector of excise, co. Wexford c. 1791 – 99, co. Dublin 1801–21.

Sovereign, New Ross 1799.

Address
Main residence: Rosegarland, co. Wexford, [I].
biography text

Leigh sat for Wexford on the interest of Lord Loftus until 1797, supporting administration which had bestowed on him the collectorship of Wexford, worth about £800 p.a. In 1800 his former parliamentary patron again returned him, in the place of James Boyd who became collector instead, to improve his Union prospects.

Leigh did not take his seat at Westminster, having been appointed collector of the county Dublin excise, and in February 1801 his patron, now Marquess of Ely, replaced him with another nominee. On his father’s death Leigh became co-patron of the borough of New Ross, for which he returned his brother Charles in 1806 and 1812. When he returned himself in 1821 it was as a supporter of government. He died in 1839.

Author
P.J.J.
Volume
Commons 1790-1820
Notes
  • 1. Procs. R. Irish Acad. lix, sec. C, no. 1 (1957), 45; Cornwallis Corresp. iii. 108; PRO 30/9/13, pt. 2.