LEIGH, Hon. Charles (?1685-1749), of Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

Charles Leigh, who had sat as a Tory under Queen Anne, was again returned on the Wentworth interest for Higham Ferrers in 1715. Described as a Tory who might often vote Whig, he voted against the Government in all recorded divisions of that Parliament. Transferring to Bedfordshire in 1722, he was one of five Tories who voted against the restoration of Bolingbroke’s estates in 1725.Knatchbull Diary, 20 Apr. 1725. He did not stand in 1727, though he had been mentioned earlier as a ‘good Tory’, who might be put up by the young Duke of Bedford.E. F. D. Osborn, Pol. and Social Letters of a Lady of 18th Cent. 39. Returned again at a by-election early in 1733, he voted against the Administration on the excise bill, 1733, and the repeal of the Septennial Act, 1734. Defeated at the general election of 1734, he did not stand again. He died 28 July 1749.