Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh was a British landowner and minor poet.
Background
Leigh was the son of James Henry Leigh, of Adlestrop, Gloucestershire, the son of James Leigh by Lady Caroline Brydges, daughter of Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos. He was a descendant of Sir Thomas Leigh, Lord Mayor of London in 1558. His mother was the Honourable Julia Judith Twisleton, daughter of Major-General Thomas Twisleton, 7th Baron Saye and Sele.
Education
He was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford.
Career
Leigh was Lord Byron"s schoolmate at Harrow and is said to have "inherited some of his master"s poetical talent". He gained a reputation as an author and minor poet. He dined together with Byron on the evening before Byron left England for Europe in April 1816.
He was also a cousin of Jane Austen, who visited Stoneleigh Abbey in 1806.
Leigh was appointed High Sheriff of Warwickshire for 1825. In 1839 the barony of Leigh was revived in his favour when he was made Baron Leigh, of Stoneleigh in the County of Warwick.
Lord Leigh married Margarette Willes, daughter of Reverend William Shippen Willes, of Astrop House, Northamptonshire, in 1819. Their second son the Honourable Sir Edward Chandos Leigh was a cricketer and barrister.
Lady Leigh died in February 1860.