Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet
Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (11 October 1733 – 15 September 1781) was a British colonial jurist, who became HM Attorney-General of South Carolina.[1]
The son of Peter Leigh and Elizabeth née Latus, he was educated at Westminster School, London,[2] before emigrating to America where his father was Chief Justice of South Carolina.
Leigh became a lawyer and served as a Member of Council and a Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, before becoming Surveyor-General of South Carolina. He was appointed Attorney-General of South Carolina by King George III in 1765 and, on 15 May 1773, was created a Baronet, styled "of South Carolina, America".[3]
In 1756 he married Martha Bremar (died 1801) and they had 13 children, including: Martha Leigh who married Nathan Garrick (nephew of David Garrick); Elizabeth Leigh who married Lieutenant-Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm, Baron von der Malsburg; Harriet Leigh who married Captain James Burnett, RM (younger brother of Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, 6th Baronet; the Revd Sir Egerton Leigh, 2nd Baronet (born 1762); Sir Samuel Leigh, author of "Munster Abbey, a Romance: Interspersed with Reflections on Virtue and Morality" (completed by his wife, Catherine née Greig in 1797) and father of Sir Samuel Egerton Leigh, 3rd Baronet (born 1796);[4] and, Thomas Leigh a plantation owner in Georgetown County, where he remained settled after the American Revolutionary War.[5]
