Edmund Leigh 1585/6-1641?

Edmund LEIGH 1584/5-1658

Biographical Note

Of Lancashire. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1600, BA 1604, MA and fellow 1611, BD 1619. He held many posts at Brasenose College, including Junior Bursar, Senior Bursar and Vice-Principal. He also took on the post of “Custos jocalium” or “keeper of the treasures” which included the library. He resigned his fellowship of Brasenose in 1641, becoming vicar of South Moreton, Berkshire, where he died in 1658.

Books

Leigh gave books to Brasenose College probably before his death. He bequeaths his ‘study of bookes’ to the son of his executor, one John Taylor and does not mention Brasenose in his will. Examples: many at Brasenose College.

Characteristic Markings

Some of Leigh’s books have a manuscript inscription, while others have a printed book label describing the gift to the College (which STC dates to c.1635).

Sources

• Foster, J. Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford 1500-1714/1715-1886, 8 vols, Oxford, 1891.
• Morgan, P. Oxford libraries outside the Bodleian. 2nd edn, Oxford, 1980.
• Serjeantson, R. The philosophy of Francis Bacon in early Jacobean Oxford, with an edition of an unknown manuscript of the 'Valerius Terminus', The Historical Journal 56, no. 4 (2013), 1087–1106.
• Will of Edmond Leigh, Clerk of South Moreton, Berkshire, The National Archives PROB 11/282/484.