Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (11 October 1733 – 15 September 1781), was a British colonial jurist, who served as HM Attorney-General of South Carolina.[1] A Loyalist, Sir Egerton fled South Carolina permanently for England in 1774.
Biography
editA scion of the ancient Leighs of West Hall, High Legh, Cheshire, he was the eldest son of Peter Leigh, High Bailiff of Westminster, and Elizabeth née Latus. Educated at Westminster School in London,[2] he emigrated to America after his father became Chief Justice of South Carolina.
Leigh qualified as a barrister 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 in 1765 and, on 15 May 1773, was created a Baronet, styled "of South Carolina, America".[3]
In addition to his judicial appointments, Leigh bought tobacco plantations and was a Freemason of the Moderns Lodges. Elected and then re-elected as Provincial Grand Master of South Carolina in 1772, he hosted a rather large celebration in Charleston for his election.[4] Following an adultery scandal and pledging his continued loyalty to the Crown, his credibility was ruined so no masonic meetings were held, but by default Leigh remained Provincial Grand Master for nine years[5] until he was finally succeeded 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, nephew of David Garrick; Elizabeth Leigh who married Brigadier Count Friedrich Wilhelm von der Malsburg; Harriet Leigh who married Captain James Burnett, RM, younger brother of Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, 6th Baronet; the Revd Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet (1762–1818); Sir Samuel Leigh, KJ (1770–1796), author of "Munster Abbey, a Romance: Interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality" and father of Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh, 3rd Baronet (born 1796);[6] and, Thomas Leigh a plantation owner in Georgetown County, where he remained settled after the American Revolutionary War.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
- ^ Burke's Peerage & Baronetage (1832 edn)
- ^ Tracts of the American Revolution 1763-1776, ed. Merrill Jensen
- ^ Albert G. Mackey. History of Freemasonry in South Carolina. Columbia, SC: South Carolinian Steam Press. 1861. Pp. 43-4.
- ^ James Laurens to Henry Laurens. 29 December 1773, in The Papers of Henry Laurens, Vol. 9. Pp. 211-3.
- ^ www.burkespeerage.com
Further reading
edit- Robert M. Calhoon and Robert M. Weir, "The Scandalous History of Sir Egerton Leigh", William and Mary Quarterly (1969) 26#1 pp. 47–74 in JSTOR
- reprinted in Robert M. Calhoon and Robert M. Weir, "The Scandalous History of Sir Edgerton Leigh" in Robert M. Calhoon and Timothy M. Barnes, ed. (2012). Tory Insurgents: The Loyalist Perception and Other Essays. University of South Carolina Press. pp. 53–69. ISBN 9781611172287.
External links
edit- Profile, Cracroft's Peerage online. Accessed 9 December 2022.