Henry Leach

Awarded the compensation for Goshen and Longhill Pen in St Elizabeth Jamaica as trustees with others including John Frederick Leach and Edward Leach as 'Trustees of a marriage settlement for £1500 sterling 20 Oct 1792 being one year arrears of two annuities and for future monies' and as 'surviving mortgagees and also surviving and continuing trustees of a marriage settlement for the accruing interest on and £10,000'.

1. The marriage settlement appears to have been that of Francis George Smyth, who was the original claimant. Francis George Smyth's sister, Catherine (the two were children of John Smyth of Durrant, Devon), had married Abraham Leach (1763-1843) of Pembrokeshire in 1793. Edward, Henry and John Frederick Leach were the sons of Abraham Leach and Catherine Smyth; Abraham Leach was Mayor of Pembroke in 1802.

2. Henry Leach, heir of Corston, born 7 May 1794 and baptized on 9 May. He was educated at Rugby (1808) and Oriel, Oxford (1813). Like his father he was an enthusiast for the Castlemartin yeomanry, and was an officer. Major Leach, a magistrate and deputy lieutenant for the county, served as High Sheriff in 1852. It was he who gave Corston its first reputation as a sporting seat. He died intestate at Orielton on 22 April 1864 aged 69 years and 11 months. He married at Llandygwydd, Cards, on 13 March 1823 Elizabeth, youngest daughter of William Owen Brigstocke of Blaenpant. She predeceased him on 2 July 1861 aged 61.

3. Living at Corston in the censuses of 1851 and 1861, "Lt Army H.P. Land Proprietor", "Proprietor + Farmer 460 acres with 10 men 4 boys".

T71/870 St Elizabeth no. 103.

1. Roland Thorne M.A., 'The Leach Family of Castlemartin', The Pembrokeshire Historian No. 7 1981 pp. 29-51; Familysearch.org batch no. P00574-1.

2. Thorne, p. 49.

3. 1851 and 1861 censuses online.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.