Edward Leigh (writer)
Sir Edward Leigh (24 March 1602 – 2 June 1671) was an English lay writer, known particularly for his works on religious topics, and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1645 to 1648. Leigh served as a colonel in the Parliamentary Army during the English Civil War. Life. Born at Shawell, Leicestershire, he was the son and heir of Sir Henry Leigh, Sheriff of Staffordshire, who died in 1630. Having matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 24 October 1617, he graduated as B.A. in 1620, before proceeding M.A. in 1623. After Oxford, Leigh entered  the Middle Temple and became a painstaking student of divinity, law, and history. During the plague of 1625 he spent six months in France, and busied himself in making a collection of French proverbs. He subsequently moved to Banbury, Oxfordshire, to be near William Whately, whose preaching he admired. Knighted in 1632 being of Staffordshire landed gentry, he was later noted for his anti-Catholicism. At the outbreak of civil war, Leigh upon being appointed colonel in the Parliamentary Army preferred not to be styled "Sir". On 30 September 1644 he presented to parliament a petition from Staffordshire Parliamentarians complaining  of Cavalier oppression, and made a speech which was printed. In 1645 he was elected Member of Parliament for Stafford in the Long Parliament to replace those MPs who had been declared 'disabled to sit'. His theological attainments procured him a seat at the Westminster Assembly. His signature is affixed to the letter written in the name of the Parliamentary Committee which granted powers to the Visitors of the University of Oxford in 1647. Having in December 1648 voted that the King's concessions were satisfactory, Sir Edward was expelled from the House under "Pride's Purge". From then he  appears to have avoided public life. Leigh died at Rushall Hall, Staffordshire, at the age of 69, where he was lord of the manor, being buried in the church of which he was patron. Works. Leigh's writings are mostly compilations, his major works being: Both parts were published together as a third edition in 1650, (4th edit., 1662). These compilations were used by later lexicographers of the Old and New Testaments, and won Leigh the friendship of James Ussher. A Latin translation by Henricus à Middoch, accompanied with observations on all the Chaldee words of the Old Testament by  J. Hesser, was issued at Amsterdam, 3rd edit., 1696; 5th edit, with appendix by J. C. Kesler, Gotha, 1706. There are also supplements by P. Stokkemark (1713) and M. C. Wolfburg (1717). The work was reconstructed by M. Tempestini for J. P. Migne's "Encyclopédie Théologique" (vol. vii. pt. ii.), 1846, &c. Leigh also wrote: With Henry Scudder, Leigh edited William Whately's "Prototypes . . . with Mr. Whatelye's Life and Death", 1640. He also published Christopher Cartwright's "The Magistrate's Authority in matters of Religion", 1647, to which he prefixed a preface in defence of his conduct for sitting  in the Westminster Assembly of Divines and other clerical meetings. He assisted William Hinde in bringing out John Rainolds's "The Prophesie of Haggai interpreted and applyed", 1649; and edited by himself Lancelot Andrewes's "Discourse of Ceremonies", 1653. External links. ""