Sir Thomas Leigh (c. 1504 – 15 or 17 November 1571) was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London in 1558–59. He served as a City Alderman from 1552 until 1571.
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Life
Leigh was born about 1504 at Wellington, Shropshire, to Roger Leigh of Rushall (Willington, County Durham, 1483-1506) and Anne or Alice née Trafford (Leigh, Lancashire, 1487-1551).
He was the great-great-grandson of Piers Leigh whose son Sir Piers Leigh, was wounded at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, whose family was a cadet branch of the ancient Leighs, of West Hall, High Legh, Cheshire.
Leigh was raised by Sir Rowland Hill, a City mercer and wool merchant, and later joined Sir Rowland's business, and before 1530, he married his maternal niece and heiress, Alice Barker, born in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire, in 1509, daughter of John Barker (Coleshurst, Market Drayton, Shropshire, ca. 1478-4 May 1572) and Elizabeth née Hill (Hodnet, Shropshire, 1479-1539).
The following year of 1536 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Shropshire.
Leigh, who was a merchant of the Staple (a restrictive trade group dealing in wool) and served three times as Master of the Mercers' Company, also served as Alderman of London (1552-53) and Sheriff of London (1555–56), and in 1558 became Lord Mayor of London.
He was also a merchant of the Staple and a member of the Merchant Adventurers' Company.
In 1558, after the death of Mary I of England, Leigh led the coronation procession of Elizabeth I of England.
In 1558 or 1559, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
Residence
In 1561, Sir Rowland Hill purchased Stoneleigh Abbey, in Warwickshire, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries for his ward Sir Thomas Leigh, and a mansion was built on the site of the former monastic buildings. Leigh's family and descendants were seated on the estate from 1561 to 1993. He died there on 15 November 1571 and was buried at Mercers' Chapel, London, on 17. His wife also died there in 1603 and was buried at St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, Middlesex.
Family
Sir Thomas Leigh's descendants include Jane Austen through her mother Cassandra Leigh, the Leigh Baronets and the Barons Leigh of Stoneleigh, the Earls of Chichester and the Duchess of Dudley.
One of his daughters, Winifred Leigh, married a later Lord Mayor of London, George Bond.
Another, Katherine Leigh, married Edward Baber MP, Serjeant-at-law and Recorder of Bath.