Peter Leycester 1614-1678
From Book Owners Online
Sir Peter LEYCESTER or LEICESTER 1st bart 1614-78
Biographical Note
Of Tabley Hall, Cheshire, the eldest son of Peter Leycester. Attended Brasenose College, Oxford 1629 but did not graduate; admitted to Gray’s Inn in 1632. Loyal to the Royalist cause during the Civil War, Leycester was rewarded with a barontcy in 1660. An antiquarian and historian, he authored the Historical antiquities in two books (1673) and was involved in a pamphlet war regarding the legitimacy of Earl Hugh Cyveliok’s relationship as father to Amicia, wife of Ralph Mainwaring.
Books
A library catalogue of ca.1670, “shewing how my books stand placed in my study”, lists ca.1300 titles.The collection is strong in material that covers astronomy, history, topography, theology and mathematics.
Sources
- Broadway, Jan. "Leycester, Sir Peter, first baronet (1614–1678), antiquary." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Cliffe, J. The world of the country house in 17th-century England, 1999, 164.
- Halcrow, E. (ed), Charges to the grand jury ... 1660-1677 by Sir Peter Leycester, 1953, appx 4 (Catalogue of books).
- Webb, S. & P. Reid, Sir Francis Leicester’s ‘good library’ at Nether Tabley, Library & Information History 34 (2018), 1-22.