Richard Leigh (martyr)

Leigh coat of arms

Blessed Richard Leigh (c. 1557 – 1588) was an English Roman Catholic martyr born in Cambridge, the scion of Cheshire gentry, squires of West Hall, High Legh since the 11th century.

Life

His father, Richard Leigh, who had attended Cambridge University, married Clemence Holcroft, daughter of Sir John Holcroft.[1]

Richard Leigh was the subject of a childhood arranged marriage at Middleton, 22 September 1562 with Anne Belfield (married in 1574 William Assheton, steward of the manor of Rochdale), daughter of Ralph Belfield, of Clegg Hall, who had died without a male heir in 1552. Her sister, Elizabeth, was married on the same day to Alexander Barlow (later Sir Alexander Barlow) and both marriages were subsequently annulled on the grounds of being so young that "doth not remember that he ever was marryed."[2]

Leigh attended Shrewsbury School before studying divinity at Reims and was ordained at Rome in 1586. His father having died in 1582, he returned to England but before reaching Cheshire he was arrested in London and banished. He returned to England again and was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1588. He was condemned for being a priest and executed at Tyburn on 30 August 1588, with five others who have been declared Venerable: Richard Martin, John Roche, Edward Shelley, Richard Lloyd (alias Flower) and Margaret Ward.[3]

Leigh was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry 1952, LEIGH formerly of West Hall, High Legh
  2. ↑ The History of the Parish of Rochdale in the County of Lancaster (1889) p. 340, Lt-Col. Henry Fishwick FSA, later Pres. Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society
  3. ↑ Wainewright, John. "Ven. Richard Leigh." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 3 Feb. 2014
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