Leycester
Life
Peter Leycester (3 March 1614 – 11 October 1678) was born at Nether Tabley, near Knutsford, Cheshire, England, the eldest son of Peter Leycester (1588–1647) and Elizabeth Mainwaring, a daughter of Sir Randle Mainwaring of Over Peover, Cheshire. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford in 1629 as a gentleman commoner but did not take a degree. In 1632 he was admitted to Gray's Inn. When the Civil War started he was appointed as one of the king's commissioners of array for Cheshire. He was in Oxford in June 1646 when the city surrendered to Thomas Fairfax. Consequently, he was excluded from other responsibilities and had time to develop his interest in antiquarian research.
In 1649 he purchased a transcript of the section of the Domesday book relating to Cheshire. In 1655 he had a period of imprisonment, but following the Restoration he was released and returned to the bench as a justice of the peace. In this capacity, according to a modern historian, he harangued grand juries with warnings on the constant dangers of sedition and revolution, and the need to maintain a vigilant watch on all Roman Catholics, especially Jesuits, as well as republicans, Puritans and anyone else who threatened the existing social order. He was created a baronet in 1660 as a reward for his loyalty to the royalist cause.
Works
His major historical work appeared in 1673, its full title being 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; it is usually referred to with the shorter title of Historical antiquities.
In the book, Leycester presented a discussion relating to the legitimacy of Amicia, the wife of Ralph Mainwaring, as to whether or not she was the lawful daughter of Earl Hugh de Kevelioc. He gets the attributed coats of arms of the earls correct, not swapped around as on the Suspension Bridge.
The book also contains some supposed facts which have since been found to be untrue, or indeed Leycester should have known to be at least questionable in some cases. However he does cite his sources and the vast majority of what he writes is accurate. One difficulty for the modern reader is that Leycester assumes his readers have a grasp of Latin, and therefore does not include translations. In many cases he draws attention to mistakes made by previous writers. The "errors" (which are largely copied from earlier authors) include:
- That Werburgh died at Chester;
- That "Mercia failed in 875". However he does then mention that it was governed by Æthelflæd independently;
- He makes Lucy of Bolingbroke the daughter of Ælfgar (he would have believed that the Crowland Chronicle was genuine);
- His list of Justices of Chester differs significantly from lists given elsewhere;
Leycester on early Cheshire
- "TO pass by those former Earls of Chester, namely Edol, or Edolfe, who lived in the time of King Vortiger the Briton, about the Year of Christ 471. stiled Earl of Caer∣legion, or Chester, by Fabian in his Chronicle, Part 5. cap. 89. and also Curfale, or, as by some he is written, Sursalem Earl of Chester, in the time of King Arthur, Anno Domini 616. as Geffrey Monmouth affirms, one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table; I shall now speak of those Earls, who are more certainly recorded in our Histories of credit, but not yet Earls of particular Places. I find in Florentius, sub Anno Domini 800. that Ethelmundus Dux Merciorum, coming out of Mercia, and passing Kimeresford with an Army, was met with by Weolhstan Dax Wiltoniensium, and had a cruel Battel, Amboque Duces* 1.3 occisi; but the Victory fell to the Wiltshiremen: by which words, I conceive, the Author means no more than a Ge∣neral, expressed by the word Dux. The two Generals of the Armies met and Fought, and were both slain. I now proceed to the chief Governors of Mercia from the time of King Alfred. The first I meet with (who under Alfred Governed Mercia) is stiled Ethered, or Ethelred, who Married Elflede, Daughter to King Alfred. His Title I find variously delivered: by Higden, the Monk of Chester, he is stiled Ethelredus Dux & Subregulus Merciorum. So likewise by Matthew of Westminster. Also by Hoveden and Huntington, sometimes Dux, sometimes Subregulus, sometimes Dominus Merciorum. Malmesbury, De Gestis Re∣gum, lib. 2. cap. 4. calls him Comes Merciorum. The most usual Title in all those ancient Authors is Dux; which in those Times seems to be all one with an Earl, or Comes. By all it is apparent, that he was then the chief Governor of Mercia under the King; and he lived in the Reigns of King Alfred and Edward the Elder. I desire I may have liberty to render these Titles by the Name of Earl. Ethelred and his Countess restored Caerleon, that is, Legecestria, now called Chester, after it was destroyed by the Danes, and enclosed it with new Walls, and made it nigh such two as it was before; so that the Castle that was sometime by the Water with∣out the Walls, is now in the Town within the Walls. So Trevisa in his Translation of Polychronicon, lib. 6. cap. 4. whereunto agreeth Florentius and Matthew of Westminster. But Hoveden placeth it in Anno 905. Which Town of Chester remained in possession of the Britons or Welshmen, till it was taken by Egbert, the Saxon Monarch of England, about the Year 824."
Links
Related Pages
Online
- Historical antiquities (full text);