The Leghs of Lyme were a gentry family seated at Lyme Park in Cheshire, England, from 1398 until 1946, when the stately home and its surrounding parkland were donated by the 3rd Lord Newton to The National Trust. Since the Middle Ages various spellings of this ancient surname have been used : Legh, a Lee, Leghe, Leigh and Leyghe; there were also variations on Peter, eg. Piers and Peers, the family's most oft-used given name. The first Sir Piers Legh, of Lyme, was knighted in 1397 and assumed as a coat of arms those of his mother, Matilda de Norley, in lieu of his ancient patrilineal Leigh arms. For ease of distinguishing between the earlier generations, it became customary to append a Roman numeral to the various Leghs' names; in this case the numbering system is as used in The National Trust Handbook for Lyme Park.
Sir Piers Legh I was the second son of Robert Legh of Adlington by his second wife, Matilda, daughter and heiress of Sir Thurstan de Norley of Norley in Lancashire. In 1388, Piers married Margaret d'Anyers, the granddaughter of Sir Thomas d'Anyers, who fought with the Black Prince at the Battle of Crécy. Sir Thomas's son died in 1353, a year before his father, so his young daughter, Margaret d'Anyers, became sole heiress of the Cheadle Hulmemanor; as an orphan heiress she was married first to Sir John Radclyffe, then to Sir John Savage of Clifton with whom she had a son, John, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Blanche. After being widowed in 1386 for a second time, she married Piers de Legh on 4 January 1388; he was 28 years of age whilst his bride Dame Margaret Savage was almost 40 as she was said to be 80 at her death in 1428. Dame Margaret Legh and her husband eventually claimed her grandfather's reward from Richard II in 1398 receiving about 1,400 acres at Lyme Handley near Disley in Cheshire; Sir Piers Legh, having been knighted in 1397 by Richard II, was executed at Chester in 1399 after Henry Bolingbroke's coup, later being buried at St Michael's Church, Macclesfield.
Sir Piers Legh IX, MP for Wigan, knighted at Greenwich in 1598 and was buried at Winwick.
Peter Legh X, lived at Bradley Hall in Lancashire. He married in 1620 Anne Savile, 2nd daughter of Sir John Savile and died before his father.
Peter Legh XI, elected MP for Newton 1640 and was killed in a duel in 1642.
Francis Legh, married in 1630 Anne Fenner before succeeding his nephew to Lyme Park in 1642, but died without issue the following year and was buried at Winwick.
Peter Legh XIII was a nephew of the above. He was born at Bank Hall, Bretherton and married Martha Bennet of Salthrop House, Wiltshire. They lived at Lyme. They had two sons and two daughters, who were unable to inherit the Lyme estates. Peter and Martha are both buried at St Mary's Church, Disley.
ColonelThomas Peter Legh, MP for Newton 1780, Colonel of the Lancashire Light Dragoons 1794, succeeded his uncle as lord of the manors of Newton-in-Makerfield, Haydock, Dalton and Bradley in Lancashire and of Cheadle and Lyme Handley in Cheshire. Colonel Legh, who was appointed a KJ just before his death at Leith Fort near Edinburgh, died unmarried 1797, leaving three sons and four daughters by seven different ladies, and was buried at St Oswald's Church, Winwick.
William Legh was a Member of Parliament before being elevated as the 1st Baron Newton for political services in 1892. He created the sunken Dutch garden and added stables and other buildings to the estate.
