Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/437

Leigh a barque of 50 tons, with forty-six men and boys all told. Touching at Mogador, sighting the Cape Verde Islands and some of the West Indies, they arrived on 11 May in the fresh water of the Amazon. After some traffic with the Indians they left the Amazon; and on 22 May arrived in a river, which Leigh calls the Wiapogo, in latitude 3° 30′ N. The Indians, who lived in terror of the incursions of the Caribs, were friendly, and were anxious that the English should settle there; they gave them their own huts and clearings, supplied them with food, and feigned a desire to learn the Christian religion. One of the Indians had been in England, could speak a little English, and had probably given his countrymen some idea of the power and prowess of the strangers. But after the Caribs had been driven off, the attentions of the Indians relaxed. Leigh went on an exploring expedition ninety miles up the river Aracawa, trading with the Indians and making vain inquiries for gold. When he returned almost every one in the little colony was sick. On 2 July 1604 Leigh wrote to his brother giving an account of his proceedings, and desiring him to send out further supplies. The letter is dated from Principium or Mount Howard. At the same time he wrote to the council, begging for the king's protection for emigrants to the colony, and that able preachers might be sent out for the Indians (Cal. State Papers, Dom., 2 July 1604). The supplies sent out by Sir Oliph Leigh arrived in January; they found everybody ill. Leigh himself was very weak and much changed. He resolved to go home, promising the men that he would come back to them as soon as possible. He was in readiness to go, when 'he sickened of the flux and died aboard his ship.' He was buried on shore 20 March 1604-5.

A son, Oliph, was baptised at Addington 16 Jan. 1597-8 (Coll. Topogr. et Geneal. vii, 290); but nothing more is known about him.

[The detailed history of the voyage to Ramea is in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, iii. 195; see also Add. MS. 12505, f. 477. The story of the Guiana settlement is in Purchas his Pilgrimes, iv. 1250-62. See also Manning and Bray's Surrey, i. 76 n., ii. 138, 425, 543, 560; Mr. Thompson Cooper in Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. iv. 514.]  LEIGH, CHARLES (1662–1701?), physician and naturalist, son of William Leigh of Singleton-in-the-Fylde, Lancashire, and great-grandson of William Leigh [q. v.], B.D., rector of Standish, was born at Singleton Grange in 1662. On 7 July 1679 he became a commoner of Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 24 May 1683. Wood records that he left Oxford in debt and went to Cambridge, to Jesus College, as is believed. He graduated M.A. and M.D. (1689) at Cambridge. He was on 13 May 1685 elected F.R.S. When Wood wrote his 'Athenæ Oxonienses,' Leigh was practising in London; but he lived at Manchester at a later date, and had an extensive practice throughout Lancashire.

Some of his papers read before the Royal Society are printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' and he published the following separate works: 1. 'Phthisologia Lancastriensis, cui accessit Tentamen Philosophicum de Mineralibus Aquis in eodem comitatu observatis,' 1694, 8vo; reprinted at Geneva, 1736. 2. 'Exercitationes quinque, de Aquis Mineralibus; Thermis Calidis; Morbis Acutis; Morbis Intermittentib.; Hydrope,' 1697, 8vo. 3. 'The Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak in Derbyshire; with an account of the British, Phoenic, Armenian, Gr. and Rom. Antiquities found in those parts,' Oxford, 1700, fol. This contains a good portrait after Faithorne as frontispiece. He also wrote three pamphlets in 1698 in answer to R. Bolton on the 'Heat of the Blood,' and one in reply to John Colebatch on curing the bite of a viper. His writings are of little value, and there is reason for the remark of Dr. T. D. Whitaker that 'his vanity and petulance' were 'at least equal to his want of literature.' His 'Natural History' is little more than a translation of his earlier Latin treatises.

He married Dorothy, daughter of Edward Shuttleworth of Larbrick, Lancashire, with whom he received a moiety of the manor of Larbrick, afterwards surrendered in payment of a debt owing by Leigh to Serjeant Bretland. He left no issue. His widow died before 1717.

He is said to have died in 1701, but there is some doubt on this point, as Hearne, writing on 30 Oct. 1705 (MS. Diary, iv. 222), says : 'I am told Dr. Leigh, who writ the "Natural History of Lancashire," has divers things fit for the press, but that he will not let them see the light because his History has not taken well.' 