Agnes de Legh

  General Notes:

~The Visitation of Cheshire, 1580, p. 145, son of Hamon de Leigh, and married to daughter and heir of John Oughrinton, nephew to Peter Oughrington. ³¹⁴

  Noted events in her 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.

Agnes was entitled to a moiety of the manor of High Legh, by descent of her father Richard de Legh, and to several other estates, all of which, with the exception of a farm in High Legh, she gave to Thomas, her son by her first marriage, from whom the Leghs of High Legh are descended, as well as those of West Hall.

John de Legh (Venables) and Elena (de Corona), his wife had four sons, John de Legh of Isall in Cumberland, from whom descended Sir William Legh, bart, lord chief justice of England, and the Leghs of Rowcliffe and Eggington; and Peter de Legh of Bechton, jure uxoris. Agnes daughter and heiress of Philip de Bechton. This latter had issue Margaret, who married Thomas Fitton of Gawsworth, and another daughter married to Thomas Davenport of Henbury. They were co-heiresses, and shared between them Bechton and other paternal estates.

~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. ^713,721

From Boyer's, Medieval English Ancestors of John Abell, pp. 152, 153, Agnes was married three times, first to Richard de Lymme [Ormerod Vol. 451, 499]. They had a son named Thomas de Legh who married a woman named Cecily, and he was Lord of the moiety of High-Legh. Her second husband was _________ de Hawarden, and their child was Ralph who was of age before 1286. Agnes's third husband was Sir William de Venables, and their child was named Sir John de Legh, and he married Elena de Coroun.

• Background Information. ⁷⁶³
Agnes is described as the widow of Richard de Limme, her first husband, with whom she had a son named Thomas. Thomas became the ancestor of the faily of Leigh of West Hall. Agnes' second husband was named William de Hawarden, whose son Rauf had a share of the inheritance in High Leigh, which was afterwards acquired by Massey of Tatton. [Ormerod, History of Cheshire, vol. i, pp. 351, 352] Agnes' third husaben was William de Venable, and their son John Leigh took his mother's name, but bore the arms of the Venables.

~Visitation of Lancashire and a Part of Cheshire: Made in the Twenty-Fourth Year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, A.D. 1533, Part II, p.

Agnes married Sir William Venables of Bradwell, son of Sir William de Venables Baron of Kinderton and Margaret de Dutton.

Agnes next married Richard de Lymme, son of Hugh de Lymme and Emma. (Richard de Lymme was born circa 1258 in Lyme, Chreshire, England.)