Peter Legh (died 1642)

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Peter Legh (c.1622/23Based on his alleged age of 16 on entry to Oxford University in 1638/9, see Foster's Alumni Oxonienses (cited elsewhere). – 2 February 1642) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1640 and his death in 1642. He died after fighting a duel.

Legh of Lyme Hall, Cheshire, was the grandson of Sir Peter Legh, MP for Wigan in 1586 and 1589. His father, Piers,{{cite book|last=Foster|first=Joseph|title=Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Volume II Labdon-Zouch|year=1892|publisher=Parker & Company, Oxford|page=898}}Entry reference Peter Le(i)gh. died while he was a child and he succeeded to his grandfather's estates on 17 February 1636.[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924030494987#page/n289/mode/2up William Duncombe Pink, Alfred B. Beaven The parliamentary representation of Lancashire, (county and borough), 1258-1885, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, &c. (1889)] He was sent to a grammar school at Amersham, Buckinghamshire under Dr Robert Challenor and then to Oriel College, Oxford,[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/evelyn-caroline-bromley-davenport-legh-newton/the-house-of-lyme-from-its-foundation-to-the-end-of-the-eighteenth-century-twe/page-16-the-house-of-lyme-from-its-foundation-to-the-end-of-the-eighteenth-century-twe.shtml Evelyn Caroline Bromley-Davenport The House of Lyme] which he entered on 25 January 1638/39 aged sixteen.

In November 1640, Legh, aged about seventeen, was elected member of parliament for Newton in the Long Parliament.{{Cite Notitia Parliamentaria|converted=1|part=2|pages=229–239}} On 27 January 1642 he attended a play and after a mistaken piece of horseplay was injured in a duel by Valentine Browne, a student of Gray's Inn and nephew of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and died six days later[https://books.google.com/books?id=Oxw2ZSRWVeUC&dq=%22Peter+Legh%22+duel+play&pg=PA198 Andrew Gurr Playgoing in Shakespeare's London] at a lodging in Acton, Middlesex.Bromley Davenport, The House of Lyme. The writer believed this as the clergyman, Dr Featley, who attended him, was then Vicar of Acton which she held was the parish in which he died. He was buried at Winwick, Cheshire.