Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/416

Legge happy re-establishment (ib. p. 282). The Prince of Orange had already sent Dartmouth orders to come to the Nore with the mater part of the fleet. Accordingly after James's second flight he brought the fleet into the river, and on 10 Jan. 1688-9 was relieved from the command.

It may well be that Dartmouth was wanting in energy and force of character; but he had been true to James as long as James was true to himself; when, on James's flight, he was left without orders, he accepted the constitutional rule of the lords spiritual and temporal. Though on 2 March he took the oath of allegiance, it was to the king de facto, with—we may fairly believe—a reservation in favour of the king de jure, should he return. That he conspired to bring about that return is, of course, possible, that he conspired to hand the defences of the country over to the French is in the highest degree improbable. This accusation was brought against him in 1691; he was arrested and committed to the Tower, but the charge is unsupported by any evidence worthy of the name. That he, the lifelong friend and adherent of James, should be suspected was a matter of course, and his imprisonment was continued on the chance of obtaining some evidence against him. He died in the Tower of a fit of apoplexy, 25 Oct. 1691. He married, apparently about 1668–70 (ib. p. 16), Barbara, daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Archbold of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire; and by her — who survived him (d. 1718) — had issue one son, William [see Legge, William, first Earl of Dartmouth], and seven daughters. His portrait, by Sir Peter Lely, is in the possession of the present Earl of Dartmouth; another, anonymous, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.

 LEGGE, GEORGE, third (1755–1810), statesman, born 3 Oct. 1765, son of William, the second earl [q. v.], by Frances Catherine, only daughter and heiress of Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl, K.B., was edncated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 22 Oct. 1771, and was created M.A. 3 July 1775, and D.C.L. 28 Oct. 1778. He entered the House of Commons 5 June 1778 as member for Plymouth, and in the succeeding parliament represented the county of Stafford, his courtesy title being Lord Lewisham. He made his maiden speech 17 March 1779 against the bill for the relief of protestant dissenters, and afterwards (25 Nov.) moved an address to the throne. He supported the government on the rupture with Holland in January 1781; in 1782 he was appointed lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, in 1783 lord warden of the stannaries, retiring from office upon the dismissal of Fox and Lord North in the same year. On 19 May 1801 he was made president of the board of control, having been sworn of the privy council the preceding 17 March, and 15 June following e was summoned to the House of Lords, in his father's lifetime, as Baron Dartmouth, but never sat as such. He took his seat as Earl of Dartmouth 29 Oct. 1801. In 1802 (15 Aug.) he was made lord steward of the household, and in 1804 (14 May) lord chamberlain. He was an official trustee of the British Museum (1802–10), K.G. (1805), and colonel of the loyal Birmingham regiment of volunteers. He died in Cornwall on 1 Nov. 1810, and was buried on the 24th in the family vault in Trinity Church, Minories, London.

He married, 24 Sept. 1782, Lady Frances Finch, daughter of Heneage, third earl of Aylesford, by whom he had five sons and nine daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, William.

 LEGGE, HENEAGE (1704–1759), judge, second son of William, first earl of Dartmouth [q. v.], by Lady Anne Finch, third daughter of Heneage Finch, first earl of Aylesford [q. v.], born in March 1703–4, was admitted a member of the Inner Temple in 1723, and called to the bar in 1728. On 12 Dec. 1734 he was appointed steward of Lichfield, in February 1739–40 he took silk, and the same year was elected a bencher of his inn; in 1743 he was appointed counsel to the admiralty and auditor of Greenwich Hospital. In June 1747 Legge was raised to the exchequer bench, in succession to Sir James Reynolds [q. v.] At the Oxford assizes in March 1752 he tried the case of the parricide, Mary Blandy [q. v.] Legge's charge to the jury and 