Peter Leycester

Sir Peter Leycester, 1st Baronet (also Leicester , born March 3, 1614 in Tabley Inferior (Nether Tabley) near Knutsford in Cheshire , England ; † October 1, 1678 in Tabley House , Cheshire, England) was an English "antiquarian" ( Antiquarian ) and historian of the 17th century.

Sir Peter Leycester, 1st Baronet

Life

Leycester was the eldest son of Peter Leycester (1588-1647) and Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Randle Mainwaring from Peover Superior (Over Peover), Cheshire. In 1629 he began his studies at Brasenose College , Oxford , but did not graduate. In 1632 he was admitted to the bar at Gray's Inn , one of the four Inns of Court .

When the English Civil War began, Leycester was appointed by the King as a Commissioner of Array for Cheshire in charge of the defense of its district. In 1646 he was in Oxford when the city surrendered to Republican troop leader Thomas Fairfax . He then used his forced retirement to pursue his interests in ancient things and history.

One of the subjects of Leycester's studies was the Mainwaring family tree. In 1649 he acquired the part of the Domesday Book that referred to Cheshire. In 1655 he was imprisoned. After the Stuart Restoration , however, he was reinstated as a justice of the peace and arbitrator. On August 10, 1660 he was given the hereditary title of baronet , of Tabley in the County of Chester .

Leycester set up a large library of books and manuscripts in Tabley House. The catalog from 1672 contains 1332 books. In 1642 he married Elizabeth Gerard, the third daughter of Lord Gilbert Gerard of Gerards Bromley, Dutton , Cheshire. The couple had three sons and three daughters. Leycester died in his home in 1678 and was buried in the north chapel of St Mary and All Saints Church in Great Budworth . His eldest son, Robert Leycester (1642–1684), succeeded him as a baronet.

Works

• 1673: Historical antiquities in two books: the first treating in general of Great Britain and Ireland; the second containing particular remarks concerning Cheshire, and chiefly of the Bucklow hundred . Whereunto is annexed a transcript of Domesday-Book, so far as it concerneth Cheshire . The short title in science is: Historical antiquities.
• Prolegomina historica de musica PL Treatise on music.
• On the soul of man , a theological treatise.
• Booke of Lessons for the Lyro-Viole to play alone in several tunings , a textbook for playing the Lyro-Viole.
• Edited by Elizabeth M. Halcrow: Charges to the Grand Jury at Quarter Sessions, 1660–1677 . Printed for the Chetham Society, Manchester, England 1953.

literature

• Jan Broadway: Keyword Leycester, Sir Peter, first baronet (1614–1678) , in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, 2004
• George Ormerod , Thomas Helsby (Ed.): The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester. 2nd edition, George Routledge and Sons, London 1882
• Sir Peter Leycester, Daniel King, William Smith, Samuel Lee, Thomas Pennant, Francis Grose, William Webb: The History of Cheshire: Containing King's Vale-royal Entire Together With Considerable Extracts from Sir Peter Leycester's Antiquities of Cheshire. Volume 2, pp. 659ff., Chester 1778 digitized in the Internet Archive