Richard de Legh Lord High Legh and West Hall

  General Notes:

~The Visitation of Cheshire, 1580, p. 145, given as father of Agnes de Legh, wife of William Venables, and son of William de Leigh.⁵²⁷

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁶⁸⁵
The Leghs derive their descent from Eudo, or Eules, the second of that name, earl of Blois, Byre and Charttes, who was slain in 1037 by Gozeled, duke of Lorraine, whose territory he had invaded. He left issue Theobald, eldest son, Gilbert of le Galliard, the younger son, and Alexia, a dauther.

Theobald succeeded to the honours and possessions of his father, but, losing Tours to Geoffrey Martell, he died of grieg in 1047. His son, Stephen, subsequently recovered Tours; and his grandson, Stephen was king of England.

Gilbert, the younger son, assumed the name Venables, (venator abilis), and was the common ancestor of the Leghs. He engaged with William duke of Normandy in his expedition against England, and was knighted by the Conqueror on the battlefield of Hastings. For his serviced there, and for many others afterwards against the forces of Edgar Atheling, and against the Welsh, he had large possessions bestowed on him in Cheshire and elsewhere. In 20 William I, he appears to have been one of the eight barons of Chester, under Hugh Lupus, the earl.

Gilbert was married before coming to England and had a son who succeed to his lands in Tourrainse; but his first wife dying, he married again after coming into England, Margery, daughter of Waltheof, son of Wolfric, lord of Hatton, by whome he had issue William de Venables, who succeeded to the barony of Kinderton, and Amabilla, who married Richard de Davenport.

To William de Venables, Gilbert succeeded, and to Gilbert Sir William. To Sir William, Sir Hugh suceeded; and to Sir Hugh, Sir Roger. To Sir Roger, Sir William succeeded. He had two sons, Sir Hugh de Venables, who suceeded him in the barony of Kinderton, and William to whom his father gave Bradwell, near Sanbach, and with whom the present pedigree of Legh is directly concerned.

William de Venables of Bradwell married, for his first wife, Catherine daughter of Piers Thorton, knight, by whom he had issue one son, William de Venables, afterwards of Bradwell. He next married Agnes, daughter and heiress of Richard de Legh of the West Hall, (then widow of Richard de Lymme) by whome he had issue John, who became John de Legh, and became the first of Norbury Booths.

~Contributions Towards a History of the Ancient Parish of Prestbury in Cheshire,Remains, Historical and Literary, Adlington, and Legh of Adlington, pp. 81-82

• Background Information. ⁷⁷⁶
The ancestors of the Leigh family assumed their name for the town of High-Leigh in Cheshire, where they were seated before the Norman invasion. Hamon was the Lord of the mediety of High-Leigh during the reign of Henry II. He was the father of William de Leigh of West-Hall in High-Leigh, whose son was named Richard. Richard had a daughter named Agnes, his heir, who married as her first husband, Hugo de Lymme of Lymme, married as her second husband, William Venables, of Bradwell, and married as her third husband, William de Hawardyn. Agnes, by her first husband, had a son named Thomas, who had half of the moeity of High-Leigh, and took the surname of Leigh. He left a son also named Thomas, who was patriarch of the Leighs, of West-Hall in High-Leigh. Agnes had a son, by her second husband, named John who also took the name of Leigh, after his mother, but bore his father's arms, and died in 1322.

Collin's Peerage of England, Vol. VII, p. 110

• Background Information. ⁷¹³
In or about the time of Henry II, the manor of High Legh had been granted out in moieties to two families who assumed the local name. The progenitor of the West Hall family was Hamon de Legh. Hamon Legh was followed by his son William Legh, and William by Richard Legh. Richard de Legh had issue of Richard, Madoc and Margery who married Aytrop, son of Aytrop of Millinton. Richard's son Richard had a daughter named Agnes.

~George Ormerod's The History of County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol. I, pp. 450, 452-452