Born at Shawell, Leicestershire, he was the son and heir of Sir Henry Leigh, Sheriff of Staffordshire, who died in 1630. Having matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 24 October 1617, he graduated as B.A. in 1620, before proceeding M.A. in 1623. After Oxford, Leigh entered the Middle Temple and became a painstaking student of divinity, law, and history. During the plague of 1625 he spent six months in France, and busied himself in making a collection of French proverbs. He subsequently moved to Banbury, Oxfordshire, to be near William Whately, whose preaching he admired. Knighted in 1632 being of Staffordshirelanded gentry, he was later noted for his anti-Catholicism. At the outbreak of civil war, Leigh upon being appointed colonel in the Parliamentary Army preferred not to be styled Sir. On 30 September 1644 he presented to parliament a petition from Staffordshire Parliamentarians complaining of Cavalier oppression, and made a speech which was printed. In 1645 he was elected Member of Parliament for Stafford in the Long Parliament to replace those MPs who had been declared 'disabled to sit'. His theological attainments procured him a seat at the Westminster Assembly. His signature is affixed to the letter written in the name of the Parliamentary Committee which granted powers to the Visitors of the University of Oxford in 1647. Having in December 1648 voted that the King's concessions were satisfactory, Sir Edward was expelled from the House under Pride's Purge. From then he appears to have avoided public life. Leigh died at Rushall Hall, Staffordshire, at the age of 69, where he was lord of the manor, being buried in the church of which he was patron.
Works
Leigh's writings are mostly compilations, his major works being:
Critica Sacra, or Philologicall and Theologicall Observations upon all the Greek Words of the New Testament in order alphabeticall, &c., London, 1639; 2nd edit, 1646.
Critica Sacra. Observations on all the Radices or Primitive Hebrew Words of the Old Testament in order alphabeticall, wherein both they are fully opened, London, 1642, with a commendatory epistle by William Gouge.
Both parts were published together as a third edition in 1650,. These compilations were used by later lexicographers of the Old and New Testaments, and won Leigh the friendship of James Ussher. A Latin translation by Henricus à Middoch, accompanied with observations on all the Chaldee words of the Old Testament by J. Hesser, was issued at Amsterdam, 3rd edit., 1696; 5th edit, with appendix by J. C. Kesler, Gotha, 1706. There are also supplements by P. Stokkemark and M. C. Wolfburg. The work was reconstructed by M. Tempestini for J. P. Migne's Encyclopédie Théologique, 1846, &c. Leigh also wrote:
A Treatise of the Divine Promises. In Five Bookes, London, 1633, the model of Samuel Clarke's Scripture Promises.
Selected and Choice Observations concerning the Twelve First Caesars, Emperours of Rome, Oxford, 1635. The second edition, published as Analecta de xii. primis Caesaribus, London, 1647, has an appendix of Certaine choice French Proverbs. An enlarged edition, "containing all the Romane Emperours. The first eighteen by E. Leigh. The others added by his son, Henry Leigh", appeared in 1657, 1663, and 1670.
A Treatise of Divinity, consisting of Three Bookes, 3 pts., London, 1647.
The Saint's Encouragement in Evil Times, or Observations concerning the Martyrs in general, with some Memorable Collections about them out of Mr. Foxes three volumes, London, 1648; 2nd edit. 1651.
Annotations upon all the New Testament, Philologicall and Theologicall, London, 1650; translated into Latin by Arnold, and published at Leipzig in 1732.
A Philologicall Commentary, or an Illustration of the most obvious and useful Words in the Law... By E. L., London, 1652; 2nd edit. 1658.
A Systeme or Body of Divinity... wherein the fundamentals of Religion are opened, the contrary Errours refuted, London, 1654; 2nd edit. 1662.
A Treatise of Religion and Learning, and of Religious and Learned Men, London, 1656, which fell flat and was reissued as Felix Consortium, or a fit Conjuncture of Religion and Learning, in 1663. To this treatise William Crowe was indebted in his Elenchus Scriptorum, 1672.
Annotations on five poetical Books of the Old Testament, London, 1657.
Three Diatribes or Discourses. First, of Travel, or a Guide for Travellers into Foreign Parts. Secondly, of Money... Thirdly, of Measuring of the Distance betwixt Place and Place, London, 1671, reprinted in vol. x. of the Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park.
With Henry Scudder, Leigh edited William Whately's Prototypes... with Mr. Whatelye's Life and Death, 1640. He also published Christopher Cartwright's The Magistrate's Authority in matters of Religion, 1647, to which he prefixed a preface in defence of his conduct for sitting in the Westminster Assembly of Divines and other clerical meetings. He assisted William Hinde in bringing out John Rainolds's The Prophesie of Haggai interpreted and applyed, 1649; and edited by himself Lancelot Andrewes's Discourse of Ceremonies, 1653.
Related articles
Lindblad, Stefan T. "Of the Nature of God: The Inter-Relation of Essence and Trinity in Edward Leigh's A Systeme or Body of Divinity ", Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies1 : 95–124.
Dolezal, James E. "A Practical Scholasticism? Edward Leigh's Theological Method", Westminster Theological Journal'' 71 : 337–354.
