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 she married William Leadbeater, a descendant of the Huguenot refugee family LeBatre. He was a farmer and landowner, and Mary kept the village post-office. Her first essay in authorship was Extracts and Original Anecdotes for the Improvement of Youth, 1794. In 1798 she experienced the horrors of the insurrection, in the sack of Ballitore by the royal troops, and the murder of many of her neighbours and friends. Her Poems, published in 1808, were but of local and transitory interest. The first Series of her Cottage Dialogues of the Irish Peasantry appeared in 1811; the second in 1813; the third after her death. "In these dialogues, with a felicity of language rarely equalled by any writer previous to her time, she has painted the virtues and the failings, the joys and the sorrows, the feelings and the prejudices, of our impulsive and quick-witted countrymen. This is the work by which Mary Leadbeater is chiefly known; and its utility has been fully proved by the approbation of all who were at that time interested in the welfare of the Irish poor. Besides publications of a kindred character, and Biographical Notices of Irish Friends, she wrote poems, essays, characters, and tales, which found their way into various periodicals. The last work she lived to publish was The Pedlars, a tale, for the Kildare-place Society. Amongst her numerous correspondents were the poet Crabbe and Mrs. Trench, mother of Archbishop Trench. Besides keeping a private journal from her eleventh year, she wrote the Annals of Ballitore, extending from 1766 to 1824. They give a faithful picture of an Irish Quaker village one hundred years ago, tell of the terrible year of the Rebellion, and portray the small but cultivated circle of which she was the ornament. This work was published in 1862 in the Leadbeater Papers — the first volume of which comprised the Annals, the second Richard Shackleton's correspondence with Edmund Burke, and a portion of Mrs. Leadbeater's with Crabbe and Mrs. Trench. Her Annals were continued by her niece Elizabeth Shackleton in Ballitore Seventy Years Ago, published in 1862. Mrs. Leadbeater died 27th June 1826, aged about 68, and was buried at Ballitore. Gerald Griffin's friend, Mrs. Fisher, is her daughter. 

 Leahy, Patrick, Archbishop of Cashel, was born near Thurles about the year 1807. Entering Maynooth, he distinguished himself; and at the end of his course was appointed Professor in St. Patrick's College at Thurles. He soon became President of that institution; and in 1850 occupied the onerous post of Secretary to the Synod of Thurles. Not long afterwards he was appointed Vice-Rector of the Catholic University. On the death of Archbishop Slattery he was in 1857 consecrated Archbishop of Cashel. One of his first acts was the enforcement of the Sunday closing of public houses; and he made strenuous endeavours to put down the barbarous practice of faction-fighting. The fine cathedral in Thurles is an enduring monument of his zeal and energy. "He had special gifts which fitted him to make a great impression as an ecclesiastical orator. Wide and varied learning, a profound mastery of theology, a comprehensive grasp of intellect, an unfailing store of language, a noble voice, an imposing presence, were all his; and to these were added the apostolical zeal and tender piety which distinguished him from youth up." He died 26th January 1875. 

 Ledwich, Edward, Rev., a distinguished antiquary and topographer, son of John Ledwich, merchant, was born in Dublin in 1738, and was educated at Trinity College — entering on the 22nd November 1755, and taking B.A. in 1760; LL.B. in 1763. [In his obituary notice in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1823, ii., 278, he is also styled "LL.D,, F.S.A. of London and Scotland, and member of most of the distinguished literary societies of Europe; secretary to the Committee of Antiquaries of the Royal Irish Academy, and formerly a resident at Old Glas Durrow." LL.D. is also appended to his name on the title of the second edition of his Antiquities.] He was instituted to the vicarage of Aghaboe in 1772, a benefice he must have resigned in 1797, as his successor was then appointed. His article on the "History and Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny" forms No. ix. of Vallancey's Collectanea, published in 1781. The same article is appended to the second edition of his Antiquities of Ireland, 1804. Gough, in his edition of Camden's Britannia, 1789, acknowledges his obligations to "Mr. Ledwich and other curious gentlemen of Ireland, for an excellent comprehensive view of the government of that kingdom from the earliest times to the latest revolution in it." In 1790 he published his Antiquities of Ireland, in 1 vol. 4to. 473 pp., illustrated with numerous engravings, a work of great repute in its day, but now of no authority. Following the lead of Dr. Ryves, he all but denied the existence of St. Patrick, and advanced the theory, effectually set aside by Petrie and later writers, that a large proportion of Irish remains were to be attributed to the 287