Leycester

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Sir Peter Leycester in 1665, as prefixed to the Chetham Society's edition of the ‘Amicia Tracts’.

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;

Links

Related Pages

Online