Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/162



Admitted 26 January, 1785.

Second son of Richard Leach, a coppersmith of Bedford, where he was born on 28 Aug. 1760. He was originally intended for an architect, but was called to the Bar 12 Feb. 1790. In 1795 he was made Recorder of Seaford, and in 1807 a King's Counsel. In 1806 he entered Parliament and, supporting the policy of the Prince Regent, was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall in 1816. Through the same influence he was soon after advanced to the position of Vice-Chancellor, and knighted; and in 1827 made Master of the Rolls, which office he held till his death in 1834. He tilled the office of Reader at the Inn in 1810, and of Treasurer in 1818. He took a prominent part in advising the Prince Regent and King George IV. in his proceedings against Queen Caroline. One of his speeches in the House of Commons was published in 1811.

Admitted 8 July, 1778.

Eldest son of Stephen Leach, of Rochdale. He was called to the Bar 25 June, 1784. In 1790 he was appointed a Police Magistrate at Hatton Garden, an office which he resigned in 1818 from failing health. He died 31 Dec. of the same year.

He was an able lawyer, and has left a treatise on The Law of Libel (1791). He also edited Modern Reports, 5th ed., 1793—6; Shower's Reports, 2nd ed., 1794; Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown, 7th ed., 1795; and published Cases in Crown Law in 1789.

Admitted 22 October, 1723.

Only son of Stephen Martin, of Mile End. He was born in 1702. He assumed the name of Leake in 1721. He was educated at Westminster in the private school of the celebrated scholar, Michael Maittaire. He devoted himself to the study of Heraldry, and in 1727 was appointed Lancaster Herald, Norroy in 1729, Clarencieux in 1741, and Garter King in 1754. In 1726 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Society. He died 24 March, 1773.

He left behind him an account of English money from the Conquest to the present time, entitled Nummi Britannici Historia (1726), and The Life of Admiral Sir John Leake (1750).

Admitted 21 January, 1766.

Second son of Thomas Le Blanc of Charterhouse Square, City of London. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1771, was called to the Bar in 1773, and in 1787 became Serjeant-at-Law. He was engaged in many important cases, and acquired a great reputation as a lawyer. In 1799 he was made a puisne judge of the King's Bench, and knighted. In this capacity he presided in many celebrated causes, and was one of the commission for the trial of the Luddites in 1813. He died 15 April, 1816. "Illo nemo neque integrior erat in civitate neque sanctior," was the testimony borne to his character at the time.